Kaitlyn whirled to see the most unlikely person imaginable. Lydia. Looking fragile and wistful, her blue-black hair a liquidy mass under the streetlight's soft illumination.
"You!" Kaitlyn said. "Where have you been? Why did you leave the room?"
Lydia hesitated, then shrugged. "I saw Gabriel leave. I wondered where he was going in the middle of the night, so I followed him to the wharf. And then I saw you come - "
"You spied on us!" It must have been Lydia she'd heard going out the door, Kaitlyn realized. Gabriel had already left.
"Yes," Lydia said, half miserably, half defiantly. "I spied on you. But it's a good thing I did!" She looked at Rob. "Kaitlyn kept saying she wanted to tell you. And she was only doing it because otherwise Gabriel would hurt people, maybe kill them. I don't understand exactly what it's all about, but I know she wasn't messing around with him."
Rob's whole body had relaxed - uncrumpling, Kaitlyn thought. And her own heartbeat was easing.
Some of the nightmare feeling of unreality was fading away.
She looked at Rob and he looked at her. For a moment even communication in the web was unnecessary. Kait could see his love, and his longing.
Then, without quite knowing how she'd gotten there, she was in his arms.
"I'm sorry," Rob whispered. And then: I'm so sorry, Kait. I thought... But I could understand why you might want to be with him. You're the only one he cares about...
It's my fault, Kaitlyn thought back, clinging to him as if she could make them into one body, fuse them together permanently. I should have told you before, and I'm sorry. But -
But we won't talk about it any more, Rob said, holding her more tightly. We'll forget it ever happened.
Yes. In that moment it seemed to Kaitlyn that she could forget. "But we have to make sure Gabriel's all right," she said aloud. "I left him by the wharf..."
Slowly and reluctantly Rob let go of her. "We'll go now," he said. His face still bore the marks of recent emotion; there were shadows under his eyes and his mouth was not quite steady. But Kaitlyn could feel the quiet purpose in him. He wanted to help. "I'll explain to him that I didn't understand. All that talk about psychic vampires - I didn't know."
"I'll go, too," Lydia said. She had been watching them with open curiosity. For once, Kaitlyn didn't mind, and she gave Lydia a look of gratitude as they started walking. The girl might be nosy, she might be sneaky, and she might have a father who belonged in a horror movie - but she'd done Kaitlyn a good turn tonight. Kaitlyn wouldn't forget that.
Gabriel wasn't at the wharf.
"Hunting?" Rob said, looking at Kait with concern.
"I don't think so. He took enough from me - " Kaitlyn broke off as Rob's arm around her tightened. Rob was shaking his head.
"He can't do that anymore," he muttered. "It could hurt you. We'll have to figure something out..."He shook his head again, preoccupied.
Kaitlyn said nothing. Her happiness was dimming a bit. She was all right with Rob again - but Gabriel was in bad trouble, worse even than Rob knew. She couldn't tell Rob what she'd seen in Gabriel's mind.
But she was dead certain Gabriel wasn't going to accept help from Rob - or from her, ever again.
The next morning Gabriel was back. Kaitlyn was surprised. She and Rob had returned to the hotel the night before to find Anna and Lewis still sitting up. Rob had awakened them both when he found Kait, Gabriel, and Lydia missing.
At Rob's insistence Kait had explained as best she could about Gabriel's condition. Anna and Lewis had been shocked and sorry - and had promised to do anything they could to help.
But Gabriel didn't want help. The next morning he wouldn't talk to anyone and would barely glance at Kait. There was a strange, glittering look in his eyes, and all Kait could sense from him was determination.
He's hoping that the people in the white house can help him, she guessed. And other than that, he doesn't care about anything.
"We're in deep trouble financially," Anna was saying. "There's enough for gas and breakfast, maybe lunch, and then..."
"We'll just have to find the place today," Rob said, with typical Rob-ish optimism. But Kaitlyn knew what he left unspoken. They found the place today or they had to quit, resort to robbery, or use Lydia's credit cards and risk being traced.
"Let's go over what we're looking for," she said. What she really meant was that it was time to tell Lydia. I think we can trust her, she added, and Rob nodded. Lewis, of course, agreed wholeheartedly.
Kaitlyn was getting a little worried about him - it was clear that he was more than infatuated with Lydia, but Lydia seemed to be the type to play the field.
Gabriel was the only one who might have objected, and he was sitting by the window, ignoring them all.
"A little peninsula thing with rocks on it," Lewis said promptly with a grin at Lydia.
"With inuk shuk," Anna said. "Lining both sides. And the shore behind it is rocky, and behind that is a bank with trees. Spruce and fir, I think. And maybe some scotch broom."
"And the ocean is cold and clean and the waves only come from the right," Kaitlyn put in.
"And it's called something like Griffin's Pit," Rob finished and smiled at her. There was still something of apology, of regret, about his slow smile this morning. Kait felt a twinge in her chest.
"Or Whiff and Spit or Wyvern's Bit," she said lightly, smiling back. Then she said, turning back toward Lydia, "And across from it is a cliff - although heaven knows how that can be, unless it's another little island. And on the cliff is a white house, and that's where we're going."
Lydia nodded. She wasn't stupid; she'd taken all of this in. Her eyes said "thank you" to Kait. "So where do we search today?"
"Flip a coin again," Lewis began, but Rob said, "Let Kaitlyn decide." When Kait looked at him, he added seriously, "Sometimes you have intuitions. And I trust... your instinct."
Kaitlyn's eyes stung. She understood; he trusted her.
"Let's go the other way today, west. The water didn't feel quite right yesterday. Not... enclosed...
enough." She herself wasn't sure what she meant by that, but everyone else nodded, accepting it.
They skipped breakfast and started driving northwest.
The weather was lovely for a change, and Kaitlyn found herself pathetically grateful for sunshine. Huge puffy white clouds drifted overhead. The coastal road quickly narrowed to one lane and trees crowded around them.
"It's the rain forest," Anna said. To Kaitlyn it was an almost frightening display of plant life. The road seemed to cut through a solid swath of vegetation. It was like a puzzle shaped like a wall on either side of the road - the pieces were different colors for different plants, but they interlocked solidly to fill all the space between the ground and the sky.
"We can't even see the ocean," Lewis said. "How're we supposed to tell if we're near the place?"
He was right. Kaitlyn groaned inwardly; maybe west had been a bad idea after all. Rob just said, "We'll have to go down side roads every so often and check. And we'll ask people again."
The problem was that there were few side roads and fewer people to ask. The road simply went on and on, winding through the forest, allowing them only occasional glimpses of the coast.
Kaitlyn tried not to feel discouraged, but as they drove farther and farther, her head began to buzz and the emptiness in her middle to expand. She felt as if they'd been driving forever, through three states and a foreign country. And they were never going to find the white house - in fact, the white house probably didn't exist...
"Hey," Lewis said. "Food."
It was another of the kiosks, like the ones that had old daffodils in Oregon. But this sign said BREAD
DAYS: FRIDAY, SATURDAY, SUNDAY.
"It's Sunday," Lewis said. "And I'm starving."
They took two loaves of multigrain bread - and hid for them, because Rob insisted. Kaitlyn hadn't realized how hungry she was until she took the first bite. The bread was dense and moist, cool from the cold air outside. It had a nutty, nourishing flavor, and Kait felt strength and optimism flowing back through.
"Let's stop there," she said as they passed a small building. A sign proclaimed it to be the SOOKE
MUSEUM. She didn't have much hope, first of all because the big museum in Victoria hadn't helped them, and second because this place looked closed, but she was in the mood to try anything.
It was closed, but a woman finally answered Rob's persistent knocking. There were piles of books on the floor inside, and a man with a pencil behind his ear, taking inventory.
"I'm sorry," the woman began, but Rob was already talking.
"We don't want to bother you, ma'am," he said, turning the southern charm on full force. "We just have one question - we're looking for a place that might be around here, and we thought you could maybe help us find it."
"What place?" the woman said with a harassed glance behind her, obviously impatient to get back to her work.
"Well, we don't exactly know the name. But it's like a little peninsula, and it's got these rock towers all up and down it."
Kaitlyn held up her drawing of the inuk shuk. Please, she was thinking. Oh, please...
The woman shook her head. Her look said she thought Kaitlyn and Rob were crazy. "No, I don't know where you'd find anything like that."
Kaitlyn's shoulders sagged. She and Rob glanced at each other in defeat. "Thank you," Rob said dully.
They both turned away and were actually leaving when the man inside the museum spoke up.
"Aren't there some of those things out at Whiffen Spit?"
Every cell in Kaitlyn's body turned into ice.
Whiffen Spit. Whiffen Spit, Whiffenspit, Whiffenspit ... It was as if the whispering chorus of voices was once again in her mind.
Rob, fortunately, seemed able to move. He spun and got a foot in the door the woman was closing.
"What did you say?"
"Out at Whiffen Spit. I've got a map here somewhere. I don't know what the rocks are for, but they've been there as long as I can remember..."
He went on talking, but Kait couldn't hear him over the roaring in her own ears. She wanted to scream, to run around crazily, to turn cartwheels. Anna and Lewis were clutching each other, laughing and gasping, trying to maintain their composure in front of the museum people. The whole web was vibrating with pure joy.
We found it! We found it! Kaitlyn told them. She had to tell someone.
Yeah, and it's Whiffenspit, Lewis said, running it together into one word as Kaitlyn had. Not Griffin's Pit or Whippin' Bit -
Rob was closest, Anna said. Whiff and Spit was actually pretty good.
Kaitlyn looked toward the car, where Lydia and Gabriel were standing as if declaring themselves both outsiders. Lydia was wide-eyed, watching with interest. Gabriel -
Gabriel, aren't you happy? Kaitlyn asked.
I'll be happy when I see it.
"Well, you're going to see it, ol' buddy," Rob said, turning and calling with a reckless disregard for the museum people. "I've got a map here!" He waved it triumphantly, his grin nearly splitting his face.
"Well, don't just stand around talking!" Kait said. "Let's go!"
They left the museum people staring after them.
"I can't believe it's real," Kaitlyn kept whispering as they drove.
"Look at this," Lewis was saying excitedly over her. "This map shows why there are only waves coming from the right. It's in the mouth of a little bay, and on the right side is the ocean. The other side is Sooke Basin, and there wouldn't be any waves there."
Rob turned on a narrow side road, nearly invisible between the trees. When he parked at the end, Kaitlyn was almost afraid to get out.
"Come on," Rob said, extending his hand. "We'll see it together."
Slowly, as if under a spell, Kaitlyn walked with him to the edge of the trees and looked down.
Then her throat swelled and she just stared.
It was the place. It looked exactly as it had in her dreams, a little spit of land pointing like a crooked finger into the water. It was lined with the same boulders, many with inuk shuk piled on top of them.
They walked down the rocky beach and onto Whiffen Spit.
Gravel crunched under Kaitlyn's feet. Gulls wheeled in the air, crying. It was all so familiar...
"Don't," Rob whispered. "Oh, Kait." It was then that she realized she was crying.
"I'm just happy," she said. "Look." She pointed across the water. Far away, on a distant cliff covered with trees so green they were black, was a single white house.
"It's real," Rob said, and Kait knew he was feeling what she was. "It's really there."
Anna was kneeling by the edge of the spit, moving rocks. "Lewis, get that big one."
Lewis was showing Lydia around. "What are you doing?"
"Building an inuk shuk. I don't know why, but I think we should."
"Let's make it a good one," Rob said. He took hold of a large, flat rock, tried to lift it. "Kait - "
He didn't finish. Gabriel had taken hold of the other side.
The two of them looked at each other for a moment. Then Gabriel smiled, a thin smile touched with bitterness, but not with hatred.
Rob returned it with his own smile. Not as bright as usual, with something like apology behind it, and hope for the future.
Together, they lifted the stone and hauled it to Anna.
Everyone helped build the inuk shuk. It was a good big one, and sturdy. When they were done, Kait wiped wet dirt off her hands.
"Now it's time to find the white house," she said.
From the map they could see why there was land across the water. It was the other side of the mouth of Sooke Basin. They would have to drive back the way they'd come, and then all the way around the basin - or as far as the side roads would take them.
They drove for well over an hour, and then the road ran out.
"We'll have to walk from here," Rob said, looking into the dense mass of rain forest ahead.
"Let's just hope we don't get lost," Kait muttered.
It was cool and icy fresh in the forest. It smelled like Christmas trees and cedar and wetness. With every step Kaitlyn could hear her own feet squishing in the undergrowth and feel herself sinking - as if she were walking on cushions.
"It's sort of primeval, isn't it?" Lydia gasped, picking her way around a fallen log. "Makes you think of dinosaurs."
Kaitlyn knew what she meant. It was a place where people didn't belong, where the plant kingdom ruled. All around her things were growing on other things: ferns on trees, little seedlings on stumps, moss on everything.
"Did anybody ever see the movie Babes in Toyland?" Lewis asked in a muted voice. "Remember the Forest of No Return?"
They walked for several hours before they were certain they were lost.
"The problem is that we can't see the sun!" Rob said in exasperation. The sky had gone gray again, and between the clouds and the canopy of green above them, they had no way to get their bearings.
"The problem is that we shouldn't have just barged in here in the first place," Gabriel snapped back.
"How else are we supposed to get to the white house?"
"I don't know, but this is stupid."
Another argument, shaping up to be a classic.
Kaitlyn turned away, to find Anna staring fixedly at something on a branch. A bird, Kaitlyn saw, blue with a high pointed crest.
"What is it?"
Anna answered without looking at her. "A Steller's jay."
"Oh. Is it rare?"
"No, but it's smart," Anna murmured. "Smart enough to recognize a clearing with a house. And it can get above the trees."
Understanding crashed in on Kaitlyn, and she had to suppress a whoop. She said in a choked voice,
"You mean - "
"Yes. Hush." Anna went on staring at the bird. In the web, power thrummed around her, rose from her like waves of heat. The jay made a harsh noise like shaaaack and fluttered its wings.
Rob and Gabriel stopped arguing and turned to goggle.
"What's she doing?" Lydia hissed. Kait shushed her, but Anna answered.
"Seeing through its eyes," she murmured. "Giving it my vision - a white house." She continued to stare at the bird, her face rapt, her body swaying just slightly. Her fathomless owl's eyes were mystical, her long dark hair moved with her swaying.
She looks like a shaman, Kaitlyn thought. Some ancient priestess communing with nature, becoming part of it. Anna was the only one of them who really seemed to belong in the forest.
"It knows what to look for," Anna said at last. "Now - "
With a rapid-fire burst of noise like shook, shook, shook, the jay took off. It went straight up, into the canopy of branches - and disappeared.
"I know where it is," Anna said, her face still intent and trancelike. "Come on!"
They followed her, scrambling over mossy logs, splashing through shallow streams. It was rough going over steep ground, and Anna always seemed to be just on the verge of vanishing into the trees. They kept following until the light began to dim and Kaitlyn was ready to drop.
"We've got to take a rest," she gasped, stopping by a stream where huge fleshy yellow flowers grew.
"We can't stop now," Anna called back. "We're there."
Kaitlyn jumped up, feeling as if she could run a marathon. "Are you sure? Can you see it?"
"Come here," Anna said, standing with one hand on a moss-bedecked cedar. Kaitlyn looked over her shoulder.
"Oh..." she whispered.
The white house stood on a little knoll in a clearing. This close Kaitlyn could see it was not alone. There were several outbuildings around it, weathered and splintery. The house itself was bigger than Kaitlyn had thought.
"We made it," Rob whispered, behind her. Kaitlyn leaned against him, too full of emotion to speak, even in the web.
When they'd found Whiffen Spit, she'd felt like singing and shouting. They had all been rowdy in celebration. But, here, shouting would have been wrong. This was a deeper happiness, mixed with something like reverence. For a long while they all just stood and looked at the house from their visions.
Then a harsh, drawn-out shaaaak broke into their reverie. The jay was fluttering on a branch, scolding them.
Anna laughed and looked at it, and it swooped away. "I told it thank you," she said. "And that it could leave. So now we'd better go forward, because we'll never find our way back."
Kaitlyn felt awkward and self-conscious as she walked out of the shelter of the trees, down toward the house. What if they don't want us here? she thought helplessly. What if it's all a mistake... ?
"Do you see any people?" Lewis whispered as they came abreast of the first outbuilding.
"No," Kaitlyn began, and then she did.
The building was a barn, and there was a woman inside. She was forking hay and dung, handling the big pitchfork very capably for someone as small and light as she was. When she saw Kaitlyn she stopped and looked without saying a word.
Kaitlyn stared at her, drymouthed. Then Rob spoke up.
"We're here," he said simply.
The woman was still looking at each of them. She was tiny and elegant, and Kait couldn't tell if she were Egyptian or Asian. Her eyes were tilted but blue, her skin was the color of coffee with cream. Her black hair was done in some complicated fashion, with silver ornaments.
Suddenly she smiled.
"Of course!" she said. "We've been expecting you. But I thought there were only five."
"We, uh, sort of picked up Lydia on the way," Rob said. "She's our friend, and we can vouch for her.
But you do know us, ma'am?"
"Of course, of course!" She had an almost indefinable accent - not like the Canadians Kaitlyn had heard. "You're the children we've been calling to. And I'm Mereniang. Meren if that's too long. And you must come inside and meet the others."
Relief sifted through Kaitlyn. Everything was going to be all right. Their search was over.
"Yes, you must all come inside," Mereniang was saying, dusting off her hands. Then she looked at Gabriel. "Except him."
