Free Silver Dew by Suzi Davis Page B

on his or her own. You can convince your father to help us before the four Others arrive, I know you can,” he insisted.
    “No,” I argued. “Even if he knew and somehow believed the whole story, what could he do to help? Besides, I’m not certain he’d even want to help us, no matter how convincing I was,” I added somewhat sadly.
    “We don’t have to tell him the whole story or even the whole truth. We just have to tell him enough that he’d be willing to help get us out of the country – and fast.”
    I stared at Sebastian incredulously. “Oh, sure. That’ll be easy. Dad, even though I haven’t seen or spoken to you in months now, do you think you can come up with plane tickets, passports, ID and all the correct paperwork so that Sebastian and I can run off overseas together? Oh, not to mention you’re going to have to pay for it all and there will probably be people looking for us, and by the way, we need to leave as soon as possible! Yes, I’m sure he’ll agree to that no problem,” I grumbled sarcastically. To my surprise Sebastian laughed.
    “Well, not if you ask him like that. But if you said it in the right way and if we both wanted him to help us…”
    “It won’t do any good unless he wants to help us,” I pointed out. “And besides, the Others will be sure to want him not to.”
    “Which won’t do any good if he does want to help,” Sebastian retorted, a sparkle of blue to his gray eyes as they caught the sunlight within them.
    This time it was I who scrunched up my eyes, fighting the dull ache that was beginning to pierce my temples. “But why Sebastian? What’s the point? The Others will find out where we fled to easily enough. They’ll follow, they’ll catch us and they’ll win. Why should we involve my father and risk his safety when it won’t make a difference in the long-run anyway?”
    “Because we won’t just be running away from them, we’ll be running to a place with answers. We’ll be running towards our only hope, to my home, to the key to our past and hopefully, the key to fully reawakening your magic.”
    I knew the answer immediately. The green rolling hills and ancient countryside hovering on the edge of my conscious mind. “Ireland,” I whispered, my words swept away on the cool breeze. A silence settled between us as the circling eagle suddenly dove towards the lake’s still surface, its golden talons ready and outstretched, swooping down upon its prey. There was a splash and a flash of silvery scales and then the eagle rose up smoothly, its prize in its claws, triumphant and proud. For a brief moment, I felt empowered.
    “Do you really think we’ll find answers there?” I asked Sebastian quietly as we watched the eagle fly away with its meal.
    His arm tightened around me as he pulled me to his side once more. “We have to.”

Chapter Four – Closing In
    Sebastian was right - we reached the eastern edge of Quetico Provincial Park the following day. We had miraculously made it through the entire length of the park on foot, without getting lost, without seeing any other people – or rangers, and well-ahead of the Others. The distance we’d covered in the past week or so didn’t seem possible. In fact, I was pretty sure that it wasn’t possible. I knew it must have something to do with Sebastian (or even possibly myself) but how was it happening? Had the distance been shortened? Or had time slowed down somehow? Or had the actual landscape been altered by our desires so that we could travel the most direct and easiest route possible? My head spun with all the possibilities - or impossibilities. Sebastian had once said that his influence over events was limited by what was possible, but he’d also later admitted that those limits may have been self imposed. It was all so complicated and confusing.
    The terrain did not change much once we left the park’s border. We were still in a vast and dangerous wilderness crisscrossed by fast-flowing rivers,