Free Black Bead: Book One of the Black Bead Chronicles by J.D. Lakey

wishing calm upon the ambient.
    “What is fear?” she breathed. “Fear is nothing. Fear is illusion. Pass through its fire. Truth lies at its core. What is truth?” She stood up, feeling calmer and glared up at the sinking sun. “I am Truth,” she whispered fiercely.  
    She checked the ambient of the mountain once more, breathing it in, letting it fill her before releasing it back to its place in the world. Things were not getting any better out there, beyond the limits of the grove but they still had a chance.
    She tried to think of a complete course of action but she could not see her way clear to the end. Too much uncertainty lay between this moment and the act of walking up to the gate and handing over their red tag. There were things out there that she could not control. Too many threads wanted to unravel. Too many obstacles needed to be overcome. Each plan fell apart in her mind long before the end.
    But there were certainties. Places that beckoned like lights in the dark. Goals. Reach one at the right time and the next one became possible. Their path would not be a straight line from here to there but a zigzag trail that might add another click in distance to a journey that was already too far for five sick children with very little time left to them. If she thought they could survive the night in this grove she would stay and try going home in the morning but the grove shivered in the ambient with catastrophic changes.
    She found her Pack standing where she had left them, angry looks on their faces, color bright in their cheeks. They had been arguing. Connor had his boots on, at least.
    She slid her pack off one arm and opened it, pulling out a ration tin. She squatted down on the moss between Tam and Connor and looked over at Alain and Megan. Their circle was complete.
    Breaking the seal on the tin, Cheobawn removed the lid and examined the contents. She took her time picking out the right morsel, but eventually she popped a nutpaste bit into her mouth and chewed it slowly, taking a moment to appreciate its sweet saltiness. She looked up. All eyes were on her. Good. She had their attention. Without thinking, she let the words fall out of her mouth as needed.
    “We have not eaten anything but berries since breakfast and here it is, nearly supper time,” she said calmly. “Eat something. Not much. We must run home and you will not run well on a full stomach. Put some of the bits in your pockets to eat as you run.”
    She waited, holding her breath. Connor squatted, hesitantly following her lead. Alain and Megan did not need any more of an invitation to sit, both still wobbly on their feet. Tam was the last. Cheobawn did not have to look into his face to know he was angry. The emotion bled off him like a wind, whipping around her, eroding her calm.
    “We have a problem. More than a few, to be truthful,” Cheobawn said evenly, nibbling on a piece of smoked dried meat. She looked into Megan’s face. The older girl’s eyes were two dark holes in a pale and frozen mask. It was taking everything in their Alpha Ear’s power to maintain control. “Megan knows. The ambient is telling her things. She knows that we will die if we stay here much longer. She knows that we will die if we try to take the same route back up the ridge line to the North Fork Trail. She also knows that what I am about to suggest leads to almost certain death. But she also knows something else. She knows that I am her only hope. Is that not right, Little Mother?”
    “You are the only light in the darkness,” Megan said, her voice a strangled whisper.
    Cheobawn smiled at her reassuringly and then she turned to Tam.
    “I shall not tell you what waits for us out there. You would not follow me if I did. But Megan knows. She only sees it as a shadow where I see it clearly. She will not go lightly into the jaws of the mountain. It is a terrible thing that I am asking her to do. She needs your help. I need your help. I need you to keep her