The Forestwalker
by Sarah Wheeler
Table of Contents
Chapter 10
Gareth fell asleep sitting there between his young master and mistress, and when he woke up with the rising sun, his back was painfully stiff. As he stretched and yawned, he looked over at Shanna, who suddenly opened her eyes. She looked up at him, then sat up, rubbed her eyes hard, and stared around the clearing before looking at him again, her eyes shining.
“You're here?” she asked as if she didn't quite believe him. “Last night was real?”
Gareth nodded, and suddenly he was on the ground. Shanna had launched herself at him and was now clinging to his neck, laughing and crying at the same time. “I knew you were there! I knew you would save us!”
“I'm sorry it took me so long, miss,” Gareth said as he hugged her. Then, he sat up and set her back down on her blankets. “I have something for you,” he told her as he reached for the blanketroll sitting at his feet. He couldn't stop from smiling as he pulled out her doll and handed it to her.
“Dolly!” she cried. “You saved her too? Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you!” She clung to the doll, completely transformed.
Gareth sat back, stilling smiling contentedly, but his smile faded when he saw that Kastor was awake, sitting up, and staring at him in suspicion and disbelief.
“Where did you come from? How are you here? You ran away!”
Gareth hung his head, waiting for permission to answer Kastor's questions, but permission was not forthcoming. After a moment of awkward silence, Shanna explained instead.
“Kas, he didn't run away. Not really. I... I let him go. I'm sorry, but I knew you were never going to let him help us, and I was tired of watching you hurt him. He's been following us, looking out for us, and helping us survive out here.”
Kastor stared at his sister, then at Gareth, at a loss for words. Gareth knew exactly how to break the tension – he had seen this coming – but he was still reluctant. Had Kastor really changed, or would everything go back to the way it had been? Not that it mattered. He was back with them now, he couldn't run away again, and he needed Kastor to trust him. So he took the chains and their key out of the blanket bundle, then got to his knees, turned to Kastor, and laid the chains in front of him. He bowed his head and held out his wrists, waiting willingly to be shackled again.
But Kastor didn't move. “You were there the whole time?” he asked hoarsely. Gareth nodded, his eyes still on his knees. “Why didn't you warn us about the bandits? What took you so long? You... you coward!” Gareth didn't flinch as Kastor slapped him across the face. It wasn't a hard slap anyway; Kastor's heart wasn't in it, and Gareth could tell he was trying hard not to cry. Gareth wanted to apologize, to explain everything in his own words, but he couldn't bring himself to even try to speak to Kastor without permission. He really was a slave, after all, not like them, and that sort of conditioning was difficult to break.
“Don't, Kas, please?” Gareth glanced up to see that Shanna had put her hand on Kastor's arm, which was raised to strike him again. “He saved us. I'm sure he did it as quickly as he could, and he didn't mean for us to get caught. Shouldn't we be thinking about other things now? Where are we going to go? What if the bandits come after us?”
That made Kastor go pale. “Do you think they will?” he asked, his voice tinged with panic. “I don't even know where we are any more! We've been traveling for weeks in the wrong direction, we have no way of finding Father now, and I don't know where to go!”
Shanna got up and went over to her brother, who was crying now, though he was trying hard to hide it. She sat down next to him and hugged him, pulling his arms around her as she did so. “Let's go home to Mama, Kas,” she said as she laid her head against his chest. “She'll know what to do. She'll know how to find Papa. And if she can't... at least we'll be home with her.”
“But she's all the way on the other side of the world,” Kastor said despairingly. “We have no food, no money, no way of getting there... It's hopeless!”
“Maybe not,” Shanna said simply, turning to look at Gareth.
“What, him?” Kastor said with incredulous disgust. “What could a slave do to help us? I mean, we could sell him, but aside from that...”
ow it was Gareth's turn to go pale, and his stomach twisted angrily at those words. Shanna gasped and pulled away from her brother, her eyes flashing. “Kas! How can you say that, after what almost happened to us? After he saved us, and everything else he's done? Why don't you just ask him, for once? He's got a brain too, and he's seen a lot more of the world than you. Give him a chance, please?”
Kastor looked down at the chains lying in a pile in front of him, then up at Gareth. Then he looked around the clearing, taking in the neat bundles of supplies that Gareth had rescued from the forest, the food and water that Gareth had collected for them, the beds Gareth had made, then back at Gareth. Then, he looked down at himself, at the ragged brown burlap shirt and pants he was wearing, and ran his hand over the stubble on his head. His cheeks reddened as he looked back at Gareth, his eyes taking in the host of similarities between himself and his slave that the bandits had forced upon him. There was a long, drawn-out silence, but he finally said, “Alright, slave, what do you think we should do?”
Gareth swallowed hard and didn't dare look up as he answered. “I think we should return to the road, sir. It isn't far from here, and just beyond that is the stream. If we travel north towards Devrost between the road and the stream, we will have plenty of food and water, and we will be safe from any bandits or other people who may be watching or traveling the road. Once we reach the city, sir, we find the shortest route from there to the northern forest. We can travel through the forest to the western islands and your mother, sir.” He had thought of this plan on the very first day, when Shanna had asked him almost the very same question, and his resolve that it was the safest and best way to get his young master and mistress home to their mother had only strengthened over time.
Kastor's reaction to his idea was predictable, though. “The northern forest? Are you crazy? There's no way we could survive in there, much less find our way all the way across the continent through it. Not to mention there are savages that live there. What gave you a crazy idea like that, slave?”
Gareth answered him, not caring whether or not the question was supposed to be rhetorical. “Because I was born and raised in the northern forest, sir. I know how to survive there, and I know how to travel safely through it, and I promise you, sir, that you and Miss Shanna will reach your mother safely.”
“You... grew up there? But I thought... but... you're a slave!”
Kastor's remark was very similar to the one Master Teskar had made to the cook a few months ago, and Gareth had the perfect response. He raised his head, looked Kastor in the eye, and said in a soft voice, “Not every slave is born a slave, sir.”
Kastor looked as if he had been slapped, but all he said was “Oh” as Gareth dropped his eyes again. Another long, drawn-out silence fell, but Kastor finally said, “Fine, we'll do it your way... for now. We'd better get going, in case those bandits come looking for us.” He reached down, picked up the key to Gareth's chains, and placed it around his neck. “Put those away, for now,” he said, indicating the chains. “I won't keep you in chains as long as I can trust you, but if you disappear again...” His implication didn't need vocalizing. Gareth nodded, then bowed and picked up the chains as he got to his feet.
He went first to the knapsack and the reed basket, pulled out the two largest packets of food and the two full canteens of water, and returned to give them to Kastor and Shanna. They ate and drank ravenously as Gareth repacked the knapsack, rolled up the blankets, and slung everything onto his back and over his shoulders. Shanna was watching him and looked ready to protest, but he shook his head as he smiled at her. It was his duty to take care of them again; they had been through a terrible ordeal which was mostly his fault, so he would take up all his old duties without complaint in an effort to help everything return to normal. Though, as he watched Kastor talking to his sister, he knew that nothing would ever be completely the same again. Though he was trying his hardest to act like nothing was different, captivity had changed Kastor. He seemed much kinder and more considerate, and Gareth hoped that he now realized what Gareth's life had been like at his hands. It was the last way Gareth would have wanted his young master to gain a little perspective, but he was determined to make the best of the situation while it lasted.
And the first step towards making sure Kastor didn't revert to his old ways was to act like nothing had changed. He stood silent at the edge of the clearing until Kastor and Shanna decided they were ready to go, and he waited for Kastor to say, reluctantly, “Lead the way, slave,” before taking the lead on their way west into the forest. Kastor's resentment at letting a slave lead was obvious, so Gareth made sure to be as silent and subservient as it was possible to be, and Shanna, seeming to read his mind, walked beside her brother and did not talk to or take any interest in Gareth during their walk to the road. Once they reached the road, Gareth made absolutely certain that everything was safe, they all crossed quickly, then Kastor called for them to stop and rest briefly before heading to the stream. They found a secluded spot behind some bushes and saplings not far from the road, and Gareth pulled out the last of the packets of food and gave them to Kastor and Shanna. He felt his stomach rumble as they began to eat and turned away, trying not to think about the last meal he had eaten some time early yesterday afternoon.
A moment later, he felt a hand on his shoulder. “Here, you should eat too.” Gareth turned around in surprise to see Kastor holding out a packet full of food. He had taken what Gareth had given him and Shanna and divided it equally into thirds. “From now on, you eat what we eat when we eat unless I say otherwise, understand? If you're going to be leading us, you need to keep up your strength.” Gareth nodded gratefully as he took the food from Kastor. He didn't say anything, but he risked a glance in Shanna's direction as Kastor got up to return to where she was sitting. She was looking at her brother with a proud smile, and when she saw Gareth looking at her, she gave him a very knowing nod.
Once they were on their way to the stream again, Shanna came up to walk next to Gareth, slipping her hand in his as she did so. “Do you think the bandits will come after us?” she asked when he looked down at her, sounding frightened.
“I hope not, miss,” Gareth told her reassuringly. “I did my best to make it difficult for them.”
“What did you do to them?” she asked, and he could tell she had been wanting to ask this question for hours. “They had guards every night – I know that's why you couldn't rescue us sooner – but last night, they were all asleep.”
“I drugged them, miss,” Gareth explained with a smile. “Three days ago, in the woods, I found a plant that makes a powerful sleeping drug. I had heard them talking the night before about their supply cache, so I went ahead of them and drugged the barrel of spirits they drank from every night.” He could tell Kastor was listening, so he raised his voice a little as he continued to explain. “They drank a lot of it last night, so I would bet that they are still asleep, and that they'll stay asleep for a long time. I also hope that they don't realize the spirits are drugged right away and keep drinking it, which will slow them down for a while, because whether they come after us or not, they will be traveling to Devrost just like we are. That was why I left the cages intact and removed all the evidence that I set you free. If we're lucky, maybe they'll think some other bandits drugged the food and took you and go looking for them instead.”
“How did you come up with all of that?” Kastor broke in, disbelieving. “Well, slave?” he said when Gareth hesitated before answering him.
“I just... watched and listened to them, sir,” Gareth said modestly, “and I had a lot of time to think about how to exploit their weaknesses – their routines and their rivalries with the other groups of bandits that work this road. That's all, sir.”
“So you saw and heard... everything, then?”
“Not everything, sir,” Gareth said honestly.
“But you saw enough.” Kastor's voice shrank to a whisper. Gareth didn't know what to say to that, and he wouldn't have said a word even if Kastor had ordered him to. Shanna let go of Gareth's hand and went to walk beside her brother again. She tried to hold Kastor's hand, but Kastor ignored her. His eyes were haunted and introspective, and he almost walked into several trees during the rest of their walk to the stream.
The stream was further from the road than it had been a week ago, and it was wider and deeper than it had been. Gareth found a good-sized pool for them to stop nearby, and Kastor and Shanna needed little coaxing to strip to their smallclothes and bathe in the stream, especially after Gareth showed them the clean, mended clothes he had saved for them. As they bathed, Gareth refilled the canteens and gathered more food. He also found a plant growing by the stream that, when turned into a paste, relieved pain and helped heal cuts and scrapes. He ground some up to put on the cuts on Kastor's back, but when he returned to the pool, Kastor was bathing in the middle of it, and he didn't look the least bit interested in coming out of the water. Gareth went to Shanna instead. She was sitting on the bank, dressed in a clean dress, her bare feet dangling in the water. At first, he thought she was looking at her reflection, but when he came to sit down next to her, he saw that her eyes were closed and she was crying.
“What's wrong, miss?” he asked softly. “Are you hurt?”
She shook her head, but didn't open her eyes. “They cut off all my hair,” she whispered as another tear escaped her tightly-closed eyes. “Now it's ugly.”
“It will grow back, miss,” Gareth said, but that didn't seem to comfort her. Then, Gareth remembered something. He got up and went to the knapsack that he had left under a nearby tree, rummaged through it until he found the sewing box, then took it back to the stream. He sat down behind Shanna, opened the sewing box, and took out the scissors. “Hold still, miss,” he said as he combed her hair with his fingers. “I'll make it look pretty again.”
She opened her eyes and glanced around briefly to see what he was doing, then held very still as he trimmed her hair until it was neat, straight, and curled around her ears. When he was done, he hugged her and told her, “I think you're beautiful, miss, no matter how long or short your hair is.”
She giggled and hugged him back. “Thanks, Gareth. I never gave up on you. I knew you were there, just like you promised.”
“I know, miss.” Then, he sat back and studied the bruise on her face. “Who hurt you, miss?”
“You didn't see?” she asked.
“I had to leave you alone two days ago, miss, in order to get to the bandits' camp ahead of them and drug the spirits. I'm sorry.”
“But you saw Kas try to run away three nights ago?”
Gareth nodded, remembering the horrible scene all too well.
“Yesterday morning, when we were walking through the forest, he tried to run away again. He had been really good the whole day before, so they didn't tie his hands behind his back or watch him like before. When he tried to run yesterday, he grabbed me and took me with him. We didn't get very far. That's how my legs got all scratched, and when they caught us, one of them hit me.”
Gareth gritted his teeth and balled up his fists as a wave of sudden fury washed over him. He suddenly found himself wishing he had done more than just drug those evil bastards. He'd had a knife; why hadn't he just slit their throats while they slept? It was no more than they deserved for being slavers.
“You couldn't have done it.”
Gareth looked up to see Shanna studying his face intently. “Miss?”
“You couldn't have killed them. Not even after what they did to us. You're too nice. And I wouldn't have wanted you to do that to them, no matter how horrible they were to us. You did the right thing, Gareth. Don't blame yourself for what happened.”
“I'll try not to, miss,” Gareth said, but that was a baldfaced lie. He did blame himself, and he didn't think that was going to change any time soon. He gave Shanna some of the food he had gathered, and she retreated to a comfortable hollow under a nearby tree with her doll to eat and take a nap. Gareth saw that Kastor had gotten out of the pond on the far side and was resting on a sunlit patch of grass, apparently sleeping. Gareth picked up the scissors, some of the food, the medicinal paste, and Kastor's clothes and waded across a narrow section of the stream to the other bank. He silently approached Kastor, set down the things he had brought, then took the scissors and sat down at the edge of the water. It had been almost a month since his last haircut; his hair was too long for a slave. Using the scissors and the pocketknife he was still carrying inside his shirt, he trimmed his hair back down to its regulation-length stubble. As he stared at his reflection in the water after he was done, another face resolved in the ripples beside him.
“What are you doing over here?” Kastor asked suspiciously as he sat down next to Gareth on the bank. “Where's my sister?”
Gareth pointed just across the pond, where Shanna was sound asleep under the tree. “She's resting, sir,” he said. “I brought you some food, and this medicine for the cuts on your back.” Gareth held out the medicine for Kastor's inspection. Kastor's back, arms, and legs were covered with welts and shallow cuts from the switch his captors had been using on him for the last few days.
Kastor wrinkled his nose at the green goop. “I don't have to eat it, do I?”
“No, sir,” Gareth said, suppressing a small smile. “It just needs to be spread on your injuries. If you will permit me, sir?”
“Uh, yeah, sure, go ahead,” Kastor said. As Gareth moved to sit behind him and began to spread the salve over his welts, Kastor said softly, “I suppose I should apologize for not listening to Shanna about you before when you were trying to help us, and thank you for not running off and for saving us from those slavers. There's... I guess there's a lot I should apologize for... more than I care to think about right now. Can you accept my apology, slave?”
“Gareth,” Gareth said without thinking.
“What?” Kastor asked, confused.
“My name is Gareth,” Gareth said by way of explanation. “And yes, Master Kastor, I accept your apology.”
“Gareth, huh? What kind of name is that?” Kastor asked, though he sounded curious rather than unkind.”
“It's just my name, sir; that's all I can say about it,” Gareth said with a small smile. He had never really thought about it, but he supposed his name must sound as odd to the people in these foreign lands as theirs sounded to him.
“Well, sla... Gareth... thanks. Though...” He suddenly sounded thoughtful. “If Shanna hadn't let you go, you would have been caught along with us and we'd still be headed for the slave market. I know that doesn't excuse what I said or did, but at least some good came out of it, I guess.”
“Yes, sir.” Gareth knew Kastor was just trying to justify the way he had treated his slave and the fact that he had forced Gareth to run away, but he had a point. Kastor's cruelty towards Gareth had, in the end, saved them all from a truly terrible future. Normally, such a realization from his young master would have worried Gareth, but Kastor had been on the receiving end of the same treatment he'd subjected Gareth to for many years and seemed to realize that. Despite the awkwardness between them, Gareth felt safer around Kastor than he ever remembered feeling before. He finished taking care of Kastor's injuries, helped him dress in his clean clothes, and handed over the food he had brought him.
“What are the scissors for?” Kastor asked as he ate.
Gareth looked away self-consciously as he explained. “I fixed Miss Shanna's hair, sir, and my own, so I thought.. if you wanted me to...”
Kastor's face turned red as he ran his hand over the uneven stubble the slavers had left. “Yeah, that would be nice. Thanks.” As Gareth did his best to fix what was left of Kastor's hair without giving him a slave's haircut, Kastor stared moodily across the pond at his sister. “It should have been me,” he said into the silence a minute later. Gareth glanced up briefly, but didn't say anything. Permission to answer Kastor's questions did not extend to casual conversation, and he didn't want to presume too much. “Who saved her, I mean,” Kastor said, explaining himself a moment later. “I tried – I guess you know that – but I failed, and they hurt her, even though she hadn't done anything wrong. I failed her as a brother. If you hadn't shown up, I don't know what I would have done.”
He sounded so depressed that Gareth risked saying, “You would have survived, sir. That's what's important.”
Kastor's shoulders tensed momentarily, but his anger appeared to be purely instinctual, and it was gone in the next instant. “I don't know if I would have,” he admitted reluctantly. “But Shanna... she's stronger than I ever realized, and smarter too. I'm glad she has you as a friend and protector, Gareth. Don't let anything happen to her, okay?”
“I won't, sir,” Gareth promised, even though it was a promise he had already broken. He vowed silently instead to do his best to help Kastor and Shanna begin to recover from the ordeal they had been through.
Kastor decided that he wanted to stay here by the pool for the night; he and Shanna were both tired and still trying to get their feet under them after their sudden rescue. The forest here was peaceful, there was plenty of food and water, and it was secluded and far from the road. So once Gareth was done fixing Kastor's hair, the two of them returned to the other side of the stream and Gareth busied himself with setting up camp for the night while Kastor went and woke up his sister. Gareth watched them fondly as Kastor pulled Shanna into his lap, complimented her new haircut, then talked to her about her doll. Gareth gathered more food for their dinner, then he built a fire. Once it was blazing merrily, Kastor and Shanna came over to sit near it and Gareth gave them each a plate full of food. Then, he picked up the burlap rags Kastor and Shanna had discarded on the bank of the stream and took them back to the fire. He could feel their eyes on him, but he didn't look at them as he knelt down and deliberately tossed the clothes onto the fire, followed by the remains of the ropes he had carried in his shirt from the bandits' camp. He glanced up briefly at both of them and saw tears in Shanna's eyes and indescribable gratitude in Kastor's; he gave them an understanding nod, then took his own plate of food and retreated under the nearest tree, out of the circle of firelight... where he belonged.
He had planned to stay there for the rest of the night and keep watch – he had laid down beds for Kastor and Shanna by the fire already – but as soon as Kastor finished eating, he got up from the fire and came over to the tree. “Come back to the fire,” he said, though it sounded more like a request than an order. “You need your rest too, and I believe that we're safe right now, so the same rules apply for sleep as for food, alright?” Stunned, Gareth nodded, got to his feet, and followed Kastor back to the fire. Kastor sat down again, indicated that Gareth should sit down too, then tossed him one of the spare blankets. Gareth watched his young master and mistress curl up under their blankets on the other side of the fire, then self-consciously lay down and did the same.
He woke up from a restless dream a few hours later to the sound of Shanna whimpering and crying in her sleep. Getting up from his blankets, he crept over to her and picked her up, blankets and all, to comfort her. As he cradled her in his arms, she opened her eyes, looked up at him, and burst into tears.
“Shh, miss, it's okay. You're safe now, remember?” he said softly as she sat up and buried her face in his shirt. She nodded, but didn't stop sobbing into his shirt. He held her and patted her on the back until she calmed down. “What's wrong, miss? Was it a bad dream?”
She nodded, wiping her eyes on her sleeve as she sat up. “I forgot you rescued us,” she whispered as she wormed her way deeper into his arms.
“Don't worry, miss, it was only a dream,” he said as he picked her doll up from where it had fallen out of her blankets onto the ground and handed it to her.
She shook her head as she clutched her doll to her chest. “Not a dream,” she mumbled, tears springing to her eyes again.
“A memory?” he asked.
She nodded. “Did slavers take you away from your family?” she asked hesitantly, not looking at him.
“Yes, miss, they did.” Gareth had expected these questions, and he was determined to be as honest as possible, no matter how painful it was.
“What did they do to you?”
“The same things they did to you, miss. Tied me up, kept me in a cage, made me work for them, punished me for my mistakes... trained me to be a slave.”
“Did you ever try to run away?”
“No, miss. They would have killed me if I had.”
“Why didn't the bandits kill Kas, then?”
“Well,” Gareth said with a reluctant sigh, “because you were both valuable to them. You were the only captives they had to sell. I was one of many captives in a caravan, so I wasn't as important.”
“Do you ever wish someone had rescued you?”
Every day, Gareth thought, but that wasn't the answer she needed to hear. “Someone did, miss.”
“Really? Who?”
“Your father, miss,” Gareth said with a smile. It was the truth, in a manner of speaking. “When he bought me at the slave market in Devrost, I was about to be sent to the mines because no one else wanted me. Being brought in to your household was the next best thing to being home again with my own family.”
“Really? Even though Kas was always so mean to you?”
“Really, miss. Watching you grow up has made everything worthwhile.” He smiled at her as he tucked her blankets around her again. “You should get some rest, miss. You're safe now, and I promise I won't let anyone hurt you ever again.”
“I know,” she whispered. She sat up again slightly and kissed him on the cheek, then snuggled down into his arms and closed her eyes. Gareth couldn't bear to set her down and go back to his own blankets, so he just held her in his arms there by the fire for the rest of the night.
The next day, all three of them headed north through the forest, sticking close to the stream. The sound of the running water was relaxing, Gareth was able to gather plenty of food and refill their canteens whenever they needed more water, and though they moved slowly – mainly because Kastor and Shanna no longer had shoes and were not used to walking barefoot yet – they didn't see or hear any sign of another person, so the speed at which they moved through the forest wasn't an issue. Gareth let Kastor lead the way whenever possible, he made sure never to leave his young master's sight without permission, and he kept his subservient silence unless given permission to speak, which, surprisingly, Kastor allowed him to do on occasion.
Kastor was also treating Gareth better in other ways. He was slow to anger now, he didn't hit or kick Gareth and rarely ordered him around, and he did his best to help out and carry his own weight despite his broken arm and other injuries. He also continued to take good care of his sister, and Shanna took care of him too. Gareth was glad to see Kastor being so kind to his sister, but he selfishly thought that the best change to come over Kastor since his capture and rescue was the fact that Kastor occasionally talked to him as if they were equals, and allowed Gareth to talk to him.
“Something I've been wondering, Gareth,” Kastor said out of the blue one afternoon. “I'm not really surprised that you were able to hide from me and Shanna out here, but how did you hide from the bandits while staying close enough to see and hear them? I mean, they live and hunt out here, and they were pretty paranoid about running into anyone besides their fellow bandits, which is why they had their own trail and campsites far away from the road, but they never once suspected that anyone was actually following or watching them, I'm sure of it. So how did you do it?”
“Would you like me to show you, sir?” Gareth asked, figuring that a demonstration would have more impact than an explanation. “I won't go far, and I won't try to escape, sir, I promise.”
Kastor studied him intently, as if unsure whether or not to trust him, but Shanna, who had been listening too, said, “Oh, I wanna see, I wanna see!” so after a moment of thoughtful silence, he nodded.
Gareth made sure that they all stopped under a big tree, then he took off the knapsack and set it at his feet. He smiled enigmatically at Kastor and Shanna and affected the air of a traveling performer he had seen once when he had been allowed to accompany Kastor on a family outing to the local village near their old plantation. “Close your eyes, please, sir and miss, and no peeking. I shouldn't need more than a minute, and then you are free to search for me to your heart's content. I promise that I will not be more than fifty feet from this spot. When you give up, just call out and I will reveal myself.” He was confident that they wouldn't find him, for the same reason that he had known he was safe from the bandits every night: no one here seemed to notice or think much about the trees around here, even though they were standing in the middle of a forest.
As soon as Kastor's and Shanna's eyes were tightly closed, Gareth stepped silently around them – so they wouldn't see him in case they decided to peek – then climbed up the tree. He crept out onto a leafy branch about six feet off the ground just above Kastor's head, trusting to the sound of the wind in the trees to hide any small noises he might have made, and waited. He was only in place for about ten seconds before Kastor decided he'd given Gareth enough time. He opened his eyes, poked Shanna to get her attention, then they both began to scan the forest. After looking in a complete circle, they looked at one another, then separated and began to physically search the bushes. As Gareth had predicted, though, they never looked up, never even thought to search the trees – though he was fairly certain they wouldn't have been able to find him even if they were looking up. As he watched, they moved further and further away, searching every possible hiding place, going much further than fifty feet away from where he was hiding.
Finally, after almost twenty minutes, Kastor gave up. He came stalking back to where Gareth had left the knapsack, then called out, “Alright, I give up. Where the hell did you go?”
Gareth waited for Shanna to come running back, and just as Kastor began to call out for him again, he locked his legs around the branch he was lying on, flipped upside down on it, then let go so he was hanging upside down from the branch, his head on a level with Kastor's, his face appearing right out of the blue.
Kastor yelped and jumped backwards. “What the...! How did you...? You were hiding in the trees?”
Gareth let go of the branch, twisting his legs as he fell, and landed lightly on his feet in front of Kastor. “Yes, sir,” he said as Kastor gaped at him and Shanna burst into applause. “During the day, I followed you on the ground, keeping out of sight and well away from the bandits, but at night I hid in the trees, which is how I was able to get close enough to see and hear everything without them ever knowing I was there.” They were both understandably impressed.
“So, did you live in a tree where you came from?” Shanna asked him when they were on their way again.
Gareth laughed a little at that question. “No, miss. I lived in a house, like you... though the house was in a tree. In the northern forests, the trees are so big that we build our villages in their branches, and use the branches as roads to travel through the forest.”
“Can you teach me to climb trees?” Shanna asked, her eyes shining.
“When we get to the northern forest, miss, I'll show you how to climb the tallest trees in the world,” Gareth promised with a smile.
Kastor was scowling to himself as Gareth and Shanna talked. Suddenly, he broke in. “Will you be taking us to your village when we travel through your forest?”
Gareth had considered this question already. “No, sir,” he said softly. “I don't remember where my home was, and even if I did...” It would be too hard to keep his promise to help Kastor and Shanna return home, not to mention impossible to return with them if he saw his home or family again. He was still a slave, and he couldn't afford to forget that his first responsibility was to his young master and mistress.
He didn't know how to say any of that, but Kastor seemed to understand. “It would be an awkward distraction,” he said, finishing Gareth's sentence and sounding relieved. That didn't surprise Gareth – the only thing worse than having to face his family as a slave would be for Kastor to face them as his master – but Kastor's next words stunned him. “I'm sorry, Gareth. Maybe some day, once this is all over, we can go back there and find your home.”
“Yes, sir,” Gareth said, more grateful than ever at that moment for Kastor's change of heart. He knew he couldn't get his hopes too high, but as he continued to be treated with an unexpected amount of humanity and compassion by Kastor during their trip to Devrost, he began to see a better future for himself, even if he would never be anything more than Kastor's slave.