Read Down a Lost Road for Free Online Page B

my pillow.
    “ Well, whatever it was, I’m
sure you’ll remember if it’s that important. You know what they say
– don’t chase it. It’ll come to you.”
    I shuddered.
    Damian left me, and I closed my eyes. Time
wavered. And the strangest feeling crept over me, as if I were
somewhere else, but at the same time not…
    Darkness first. After a moment I
distinguished a camp, flickering torches. Then the memories came
rushing back, and I sobbed with terror or relief or sadness – or
all three. Yatol and another guard stood in front of the tent that
had been mine. The guard seemed terrified, shifting his weight,
eyes darting back and forth. Yatol, jaw set, eyes like steel. Then
suddenly a low sound wreathed through the night, long and terrible.
I covered my ears and bowed my head, but still I saw them. The men
in the camp scattered, vanishing so quickly that I couldn’t see
where they had gone. The guard fled too. Only Yatol stayed, rooted
outside my tent, braced for battle. Something in his hand flashed
in the firelight, a small curved knife. That was it. That was the
only weapon he had.
    “ Yatol!” I screamed, but
my voice was lost before it left my lips. In my mind I cried, “Yatol, go! I’m not there! Go!”
    The shadows loomed over the camp. Yatol
lifted his arms and cried something into the night. Blinding light
fractured the shadows, then nothing.
    I sat up, shaking and sweating and gasping
for breath, my hands locked onto the blanket with whitened fingers.
I steadied myself, caught my breath and tried to focus. Couldn’t.
And before I could stop myself, I slipped unnoticed out of the
house and headed for Mr. Dansy’s shop. Again.
    He stood behind the counter, motionless,
watching the door like he was expecting me. As I ran up to him, I
barely swept a glance over the store to make sure no one else was
there.
    “ What happened to him?” I
cried. “They were attacked!”
    “ So, you’ve
chosen.”
    His words brought me up short.
    “ I couldn’t stop them,” he
whispered. “They forced on through at the last moment. Too many…”
His eyes widened, and he stared off into the distance, muttering to
himself, “He had to get her away. Couldn’t wait. Too dangerous. It
was right.”
    “ But what happened to him?”
I closed my eyes, realization sinking in. “He sent me back, didn’t
he? I thought I came back because I was griping, but he sent me
away.”
    Mr. Dansy turned away. “You should go,
before they come looking for you.”
    “ No.” I backed away from
the counter. “They won’t be coming back. They’re waiting for
me.”
    “ Merelin…”
    “ Don’t worry,” I said
thinly. “I want to go back.”
    I want to go back . I left the shop
fighting the strange dizziness, the world swarming with grey. My
heart pounded, joy tinged with terror. Too late to back out now –
Mr. Dansy was right. I had chosen. I stumbled to the dark magnolia
and leaned against the trunk. My vision blanked.
    Someone, or something, caught me, a
feather-light touch in a golden haze. And then we were moving,
moving incredibly fast in a place without direction. No turns, no
ups, no downs, just on and on. Suddenly I realized I had stopped
moving, that everything had gone dark only because my eyes were
closed.
    I rolled onto my back and stared up at the
strange sky, relieved, terrified, and somewhere behind it all,
strangely disappointed. No one had come to meet me this time. I
couldn’t even tell if I had been left in the same place. I pushed
myself up and glanced around, but nothing seemed familiar. Or it
looked all too familiar because it was just as bare and nondescript
as the first place I had arrived. The sand swept away to every
horizon, flat and unchanging except to my left, where great white
dunes rolled in vast drifts. The sky overhead shone crystalline
blue, and oppressive heat weighed down on me. Where was I? If I
shouted, maybe someone would hear me, but no voice came to my lips.
I sat in silence staring