The Forestwalker

by Sarah Wheeler

Table of Contents

Chapter 20

The next morning, Gareth woke up to sunlight streaming through his bedroom window right into his eyes, a better wake-up-call than the chiming of any clock. Gavin and Kastor were still sound asleep, but Gareth was too excited to begin his first day back at home to try and get any more rest, so he got up from his hammock - quietly, so as not to wake the others, - briefly washed his face and hands in his washbasin, and left his room to head downstairs. What a wonderful word that was: his! His home, his family, his life all his own again. He practically tumbled down the ladder to the main room of the house in his joy and excitement and was not the least bit surprised to see his parents sitting around the table, eating breakfast, just as they had been the last time he had woken up in this house. They both turned to look up at him with smiles that were as wide and happy as his own as he dropped down into the room and joined them.

“Morning, Mum. Morning, Da,” he said, hugging his father and giving his mother a kiss on the cheek, then taking the plate of food his mother handed him and sitting down at the table.

“Morning, son,” his father said. “Sleep well?”

“Better than ever,” Gareth said as he began to eat. Then, recognizing an absence in the room, he looked around and asked, “Where's Ma... Mister Crane?”

“The rest of the captives we rescued arrived here early this morning,” his father explained. “We're setting a temporary camp up for them in a nearby clearing, but there are a lot of them, so we have a lot of work ahead of us taking care of them until we can find ways to get them safely back to their homes. Mister Crane volunteered to be the main organizer of that undertaking and our go-between, so he's out there right now helping them set up the camp.”

“Can we go help them?” Gareth asked.

“In good time, dear,” his mother promised as she rose from the table. “We have some other things to take care of around here first, I think.”

Such as getting Cesra to the doctor, Gareth remembered as his mother climbed the ladder to the second floor, and dealing with Devon too. He hoped he would get a chance to see Holly this morning; he wanted her to come with him when he saw her brother again. Preoccupied with thoughts of all the other people he still needed to help, he finished his breakfast and helped himself to seconds in silence, not looking up until an unexpected voice filtering down from upstairs surprised him out of his introspection.

“Who's the girl in my room, mummy? Where did she come from?”

“That's Tara, dear, don't you remember? You met her last week. And she came back here last night with someone very special, someone who really wants to see you.”

Gareth looked up in surprise to see his mother descending the ladder again with a tiny dark-haired girl clinging to her neck: his little sister, Gwen. She looked down at him with big green eyes just like his own, then buried her head in her mother's shoulder shyly. Gareth got a further shock when he saw what his little sister was holding tightly in one of her hands. It was a handmade rag doll with black yarn hair and green button eyes, wearing a dark green shirt and black pants. It was his doll, the one Shanna had given him what seemed like so very long ago. But how had his sister come to have it? Shanna, he guessed, and he was glad for it. He had no need for a doll, and from the way Gwen clutched it to her chest when her mother set her down, she had obviously become very attached to it.

Gareth smiled gently at his sister as she stood hesitantly back from the table and blinked owlishly at him. “Hi, Gwen. My name's Gareth.”

Gwen cocked her head curiously, then looked at her doll. “That's my dolly's name,” she said, which caused both their parents to look at her in surprise, “but Shan said I wasn't to tell that. It's my brother's name, too.” Then, she looked up at him again. “You look like me.”

“That's because I am your brother, Gwen. I know I've been away, but I've come home now, and I'm very glad to finally meet you.” He slipped off of his cushion and onto his knees on the floor so that he was at her eye level, still smiling as he looked at her. He could see his parents, and, by extension, himself, in every inch of her, and he suddenly wanted nothing more in the world than to take care of her and protect her and make sure nothing bad ever happened to her.

“You shouldn't a gone away,” Gwen said as she inched closer to him. “You made mummy an' daddy sad.”

“I know, Gwen. I'm sorry. Don't worry, though. I'm home now, and I won't be leaving any of you again. I promise.” He held his arms out, and she ran to him and hugged him. He looked up to see his mother crying again, which almost made him cry too. He was glad that Gwen, when she got older, would never remember a time when her brother had not been here, looking after her and taking care of her. He could not erase the time he had been away from home from his memory, or from his parents', but time would erase it from Gwen's, and for that he was profoundly grateful.

“You dress funny,” Gwen said once she was sitting next to him at the table and eating her own breakfast.

“Gwen, don't talk with your mouth full, please,” her mother said, then she turned to Gareth. “I'll be going straight over to Mable Springdancer's once you're done with breakfast and see if she has some old clothes of Joseph's that will fit you. I'll make you some new ones presently – the ones up in your room won't fit you any more, obviously – but it will take some time to get them ready.”

“It's alright, mum,” Gareth told her, about to say that what he had was fine for now, but then he remembered that the only clothes he had were the brown burlap rags he was wearing. Master Ara had burned his other clothes. So he amended what he was going to say. “Whatever you can find for me will be fine. I'm not exactly picky.”

“Of course not, dear.” His mother smiled sadly and ruffled his hair, then, surprisingly, frowned down at him. “We should do something about... those, first. On you and Cesra both, preferably before we take him to the doctor.” She glanced significantly over at her husband as Gareth blushed red, realizing that she was talking about the iron collar and shackles that he still wore. Nothing had ever made him more self-conscious about them than having his parents see him still wearing them.

“I'll go see the blacksmith about it as soon as the others are up and eating breakfast,” Gareth's father promised.

“Da, wait,” Gareth broke in. “Cesra and I aren't the only ones who have sh...shackles that need to be removed.” He stumbled over the word and looked down at his hands as he explained to his mother. “There were four other children who were slaves that escaped with us, two of them forest-dwellers. I think we should all get them removed at the same time, since we're all free now.”

“I think that's a fine idea, son,” his father said, sharing a knowing look with Gareth.

“Absolutely,” his mother agreed, “but Cesra has to go to the doctor as soon as possible, and I'm guessing that she will want them removed before she conducts her examination. Mal, if you could go and ask the blacksmith to meet us at the clinic as soon as I leave to take him there, he could help Cesra, then come back here for Gareth and the other children.”

“Will do, dear,” Gareth's father said as he stood up from the table and carried his dishes over to the wash basin. “You go take care of Cesra. I'll go wake up our other visitors and get them breakfast, then I'll be right behind you.” He kissed his wife tenderly, then climbed the ladder to the upper level.

“Who's Cesa?” Gwen asked. She had been very quiet while eating, in obedience to her mother's request, but she was obviously bursting with questions now that her plate was clean.

“Ces-ra, dear,” her mother said as she began to clear the dishes from the table. Gareth jumped up to help her, since they needed to be washed and the serving bowls and plates refilled before Gavin, Tara, Kastor, and Shanna came down. “He's a friend of Gareth's and he's going to be your brother too. He's hurt, though, and has to go see the doctor. You'll get to meet him once he's all better.”

“I got two brothers now?” Gwen sounded excited but confused. “But you said I only had one?”

“We're adopting Cesra, dear,” her mother explained to her. “He's not your brother like Gareth is, but he doesn't have a family, so we're going to become his family and take care of him as if he were our son.”

Gareth could tell Gwen didn't understand, but she didn't really have to. As with everything else, it would become a normal part of her life just like Gareth's presence would, and when she was as old as him she would not even remember a time when Cesra hadn't been her brother.

“How's Cesra doing, mum?” he asked as he began to wash the dishes.

“He slept well all night,” she said, “and I fed him breakfast and gave him some more pain medicine just before you came down. He's sleeping again now, and probably will stay that way until we get him to Doctor Cedarnight's clinic.” She stepped up next to him and gently took the plate he was washing out of his hands. “You don't have to do that, dear. I'll take care of the dishes.”

Gareth relinquished the dish and his place in front of the washtub to his mother, but stepped aside only to pick up a towel and begin to dry the plates and bowls as she washed them. “Can I come with you? I want to be there when... when he gets his shackles removed for good.”

“I think he'd appreciate that, dear,” his mother said, giving him a sad smile. He expected her to protest his help again, but she did not, and he was happy to help her finish cleaning the breakfast dishes and setting the table for their four visitors.

A moment later, Gareth's father came back down the ladder and reported that the other children were all awake and getting ready. “Have Tara look after the others when you go to get the blacksmith, alright,” Gareth's mother told him. “Gareth and I are going to take Cesra to the doctor.” Her husband agreed, then followed her into their bedroom to get the younger boy. They returned a moment later, carrying the sleeping boy in his hammock stretcher from the day before, and Gareth's father handed his end of the stretcher over to Gareth.

They were about to leave the house when Gareth was stopped by something grabbing him around the legs. He looked down to see Gwen clutching at his knees. “It's alright, Gwen,” he said as he smiled down at her. “We'll be back before you know it. You stay here and play with Shanna while I'm gone, okay?”

“'Kay,” she said, reluctantly releasing him. “Come back soon!”

It was still early enough that they didn't see many people moving around the village, and they didn't directly come into contact with anyone on their way to the clinic, which Gareth was grateful for. He wouldn't be able to avoid them forever, but he didn't really want to be stopped and asked to explain anything while trying to get Cesra the medical attention he so badly needed. It was a relief to see the doctor and to finally get Cesra a bed in her clinic. Doctor Cedarnight remembered Gareth well and was as surprised as he knew everyone would be to see him, but she was also quite professional and turned her full attention to Cesra immediately.

A few minutes later, as she was removing Cesra's rags and bandages and preparing to bathe him and examine his injuries, the blacksmith showed up to remove Cesra's collar and shackles. Cesra was awake and relaxed because of Gareth's presence, but when Gareth explained what the blacksmith was here to do, he got very frightened. “No, you can't,” he protested weakly, trying to sit up and get away. “I'm a good slave. I don't wanna get in trouble.” It took Gareth almost ten minutes to calm Cesra down enough to get him to allow the blacksmith near him, and the little boy's terrified sobs as the man took a file to the welded seams in his shackles and collar and began to remove them broke Gareth's heart. He couldn't understand why Cesra couldn't seem to remember that he was free, and why the bursts of hope and happiness that his promises seemed to instill in Cesra drained away like water as soon as he left the poor boy alone. In his helplessness to comfort his little brother, he found himself crying softly too.

“I don't know what to do to help him,” he explained to his mother after she took him out into the hallway so he wouldn't upset Cesra even more. “I've tried to tell him he's free, I've tried to explain that he's not a slave any more, that no one's going to ask him to serve, or hurt or punish him for anything, that he has a family and is safe from those horrible men now, and he seems to be happy and understand, but then it's like he forgets and I have to start over from the beginning again. I was afraid... before we escaped, when the other slave kids and I were making our own plans, he was always insisting that we leave him behind. I couldn't do it – I'd never leave anyone as a slave if I had the chance to set them free – but I worry all the time that I did the wrong thing, that maybe he won't ever be able to live a normal life as a free person after being trained as a slave since he was born. Did I do the right thing? What am I doing wrong?”

“You're not doing anything wrong, dear,” his mother told him in a fierce, tearful voice as she hugged him tightly, “and you absolutely did the right thing. It's just going to take time for Cesra to get used to how different things are for free people like us. You already know – you're coming back to something familiar – but Cesra doesn't, and there are a lot of things that he's just going to have to experience for himself before he's going to feel safe and happy and loved in his new home. Just be patient with him, dear, and don't second-guess yourself, okay? No matter how hard it is for him to adjust, Cesra is better off being free than being a slave, and no one can ever say otherwise.”

“Thanks, mum. I guess I knew that, it's just... I want him to be happy that he's here and free, not scared.”

“I know, dear.” She stepped away from him and put her hands on his shoulders. “Let your da and me worry about Cesra for now, alright? You've done so much for so many others for so long... it's time for you to concentrate on helping yourself get used to being home, alright?”

“Alright,” Gareth said with only a little reluctance. He didn't need any help; he really did almost feel as if he had never left. But Cesra wasn't the only person he still had obligations to anyway, and having one less person to worry about would make it easier to help all the others. He composed himself, dried his eyes with his mother's handkerchief, then returned to Cesra's room, where the blacksmith had just finished.

“Is he alright?” Gareth asked as he looked at Cesra, who was lying motionless in his bed, staring up at the ceiling with blank, glassy eyes. “What's wrong with him?”

“I'm sorry, Gareth, but I had to give him a sedative to stop him from struggling,” the doctor said, “or else the blacksmith would have hurt him while removing those irons. He'll be alright once it wears off, and it will help me get him cleaned up and his injuries taken care of properly.” She turned back to Cesra's bed, preparing to remove the rest of his bandages and the casts on his arm and legs. “You two should go, now. He's in good hands, I promise, and you can come back and see him later.”

But Gareth didn't want to leave. He could tell that Cesra was still aware of what was going on, and he was still terrified. His mother was guiding him to the door; he broke away from her hand on his shoulder and turned back. “Just let me tell him he's...”

He stopped and stared, a lump rising in his throat and a furious rage sparking in his mind as he looked at Cesra. The doctor had removed his blanket and his clothes, and Gareth could barely believe what he was seeing. He knew that the little boy had been badly hurt, and he knew that, as a slave, he had been beaten and mistreated and abused for years, possibly for the entirety of his short life, but he had not quite realized exactly what effect such treatment would have had on Cesra. Gareth thought that Kastor had treated him almost as badly as it was possible for a master to treat his slave, but he had obviously been very wrong, because Kastor's treatment of him had left him with a minimum of physical reminders. Cesra had not been a slave for much longer than Gareth had, but he would carry the reminders of his short time as a slave on his skin for the rest of his life. His entire body was crisscrossed with scars; not a square inch appeared to have been spared. There were cuts, whiplash marks, burns, and contusions. He was so thin you could see the outline of his bones underneath his skin, and most of them appeared to have been broken at least once. This hadn't been slavery; this had been the systematic torture of a child simply because he had been less than human in the eyes of the people who had been tasked with taking care of him. Gareth couldn't believe he had ever once thought Master Ara was a kind man; even if he had not been involved directly in treating Cesra with such cruelty, he had been the boy's master and could have protected him from such brutality if he'd wanted to. The fact that he hadn't made him the worst kind of monster as far as Gareth was concerned.

Gareth ran to Cesra and hugged him, ignoring the protests from his mother and the doctor. “I'm sorry, Cesra,” he whispered in the younger boy's ear. “I didn't know... I know you have no reason to believe me, but I promise that no one will ever hurt you like this again. You'll see. And I'm going to find some way to make those bastards pay for doing this to you. You'll see.” He looked down at his little brother, their eyes met, and they finally understood one another. Gareth finally knew why Cesra would not feel safe just by being freed, and Cesra finally trusted that Gareth understood all the things he had been unable to explain with his limited vocabulary. “I'm sorry,” Gareth whispered again, and to his relief Cesra's face relaxed – he had been fighting the effects of the sedative as fiercely as he could in his weakened condition – and he closed his eyes. Gareth allowed his mother to lead him away after that, casting only one more look backwards. “Take care of him, please?” he asked with a desperate look at the doctor after one last glance at Cesra, who finally appeared to be asleep again. “He's gonna be my little brother.”

“Don't worry, Gareth,” Doctor Cedarnight promised him with an understanding smile. “He's in good hands, and his physical injuries will be healed before you know it.” Unspoken in that was the fact that his mental and emotional injuries would be much longer-lasting, but Gareth knew that already. He held his mother's hand tightly as they headed back home, feeling like his world had been rocked to its core. Slavery was more evil than he could have possibly imagined, even having lived it. In that instant, he knew he had to do everything he could to find a way to end slavery in the outside world so that what had happened to him, and Holly and Nora and Mischa and Adela, and Tara's father and sister, but mostly to Cesra never happened to anyone else ever again. There was just one problem, though, he realized as he looked up at his mother, standing tall and proud now that her son was home again. How was he to end slavery from here in the forest?

On the way back to their house, Gareth and his mother ran into Holly, who had obviously been looking for him. She hastily introduced herself to Gareth's mother, then turned to him. “I was just at your house and they said I would find you out here. Have you seen Devon? Where is he? I asked the others, and they said to ask you.”

Gareth was relieved to have something else to preoccupy him. “We can go see him now, together,” he told Holly. “I was waiting for you, but...” He suddenly realized he didn't know where Devon was either. He turned to his mother. “Mum, do you know who is keeping Devon Lightsong under house arrest?”

“Yes, dear, he's staying with the Moonshadows. You remember them; they live on the lowest northern edge of the village. They had a spare room since their youngest got married last year.”

“Thanks, mum,” Gareth said as he took Holly's hand. “We're gonna go see him now. I'll meet you back at home when we're done.”

“What are you gonna do to him?” Holly asked as she followed Gareth down the nearest ladder to the lowest walkway.

“Uh... just talk to him,” Gareth said. “I'm not gonna hurt him, don't worry.”

“You're gonna give him a good telling-off, aren't you,” Holly said, giving him a knowing look.

“Sort of,” Gareth admitted.

“You can still hit him if you want,” Holly said. “He does deserve it, from you especially.”

“We'll see,” Gareth said, though he had no intention of hurting Devon. He really did want just to talk to him.

The Moonshadows were surprised and delighted to see Gareth, though he kept his explanation of how he had come home brief. He introduced Holly to them and they set her down and got her some breakfast while Gareth slipped off to their back bedroom to see Devon. When Gareth entered the room, Devon was lying morosely in a hammock, sporting an impressive black eye and looking as if he hadn't moved or eaten or even slept for days. He barely moved when he heard the door open, but when he recognized Gareth, he sat up so fast that he fell out of the hammock in shock.

“Y...y...you? But... but... what are you doing here?” he stammered as he scrambled back into the corner on his hands and knees, looking absolutely terrified.

“You mean, how did I escape?” Gareth asked, injecting only slightly feigned disgust into his voice. “I didn't have to, Devon. Kastor rescued me. If you had seen more to us than just a master and his broken slave, you would have been able to predict that as a possibility and maybe you would have asked for our help to rescue your sister rather than trying to trade us for her.” At that, Devon went even paler and he opened his mouth to say something, but Gareth pressed on. He wasn't going to let Devon get a word in edgewise until he'd had his say. “But I'm not here to make you feel worse about what you did – your conscience seems to be punishing you enough as it is. I'm here to thank you.” Devon's mouth fell open and he stared up at Gareth in disbelief. Gareth's stern expression melted slightly, but he didn't smile – not yet. “If you hadn't turned me over to those slavers, I would have never found Kastor and Shanna's father. We rescued him from the slavers too, and to show his gratitude, he set me free. So, thanks to you, I am no longer a slave. I'm now free and home with my family, and Kastor and Shanna have their father back.”

He waited for a moment for Devon to say something, but Devon was still stunned into silence, so Gareth decided to go for the grand finale, just as he'd rehearsed in his mind during their long walk to the village the day before. “Come to think of it, though, I'm not sure why I'm thanking you. You should be the one thanking me – or maybe thanking Shanna, Kastor, and Tara for knowing me better than you thought they did. Those slavers weren't going to give you your sister and her friend just because you brought them replacements. For future reference, slavers are untrustworthy bandits; they were just going to take you captive and sell you as a slave too. You're damn lucky that you weren't able to get us all to them at the same time, and that Shanna knows me so well, and that Kastor is a braver and better person than you gave him credit for, otherwise we'd all still be out there in chains. That was all I wanted to say, really.” He shrugged his shoulders and turned to go while Devon continued to sit frozen in the corner. “Oh, and one more thing,” he tossed casually over his shoulder as he opened the door. “There's someone else here who has a few things to say to you.” Holly was standing in the hallway, waiting for her chance to talk to her brother. Her timing couldn't have been better if they had planned this together. Gareth stepped to one side so Devon could clearly see his sister waiting for him, and he did smile this time as Devon sagged with relief and tears sprang to his eyes as he looked at Holly. “Thanks for everything, Devon. I'll see you around.” He grinned and winked at Holly, whose eyes were also brimming with tears as she exchanged a grateful look with him then ran into the room to greet her brother. He could hear Devon's stammered apologies as he closed the door, but he was willing to bet that Holly would brush them away as completely as he had – or would have, if Devon had actually managed to say anything to him.

“As soon as Devon and his sister are done talking, you can let him go,” he told the Moonshadows as he said his goodbyes. “He'll be alright now. Thanks for looking after him.”

“It was our pleasure, lad,” David Moonshadow said. “We're glad to see you home and safe, too. Take care of yourself, alright?”

“I will sir. And I'll see you around. I won't be going anywhere for a while.”

When he got home, everyone was gone except for his mother and sister, who were sitting in the main room waiting for him. “Where is everyone?” he asked his mother as he picked up Gwen, who had run to him and grabbed him around the legs as soon as he had walked in the door.

“They're all down in the clearing, helping Mister Crane get all the others organized,” his mother said. “You wanna join them?”

“Yes, please,” Gareth said, assuming that was where the blacksmith had gone also. As soon as all his friends were released from their irons, he could not wait to get his off too. Then he could walk tall through his home village again, and see all his old friends again, and never feel ashamed of what had happened to him ever again.

Gwen was reluctant to let go of him, though, and even more reluctant to have her mother put on her safety harness, which she had to wear outside until she was at least four, so Gareth distracted his little sister for his mother while she got ready to go out. “Did Shanna give you that doll?” he asked, nodding at the toy she still clutched in her hands.

Gwen nodded. “She said it was you. Said it was secret, though, so I didn't tell.”

“She made it for me, did she tell you that?” he asked. Gwen shook her head, considered this for a minute, then tried to hand the doll to Gareth. “No, that's alright,” he said as he pushed it gently back to her chest. “I'm too old for dolls. It's yours now, and I'm glad that you have it. Think of it as my way of looking out for you, even when I'm not around... not that I'm going anywhere,” he said with a soothing laugh as her eyes went wide and she clutched at him again. “Come on, let's go see what everyone else is doing.” He took the other end of her harness from his mother and followed Gwen out of the house and down to the clearing on the forest floor, helping her on the ladders and watching her carefully as she toddled along the walkways, just as a big brother should. He wasn't going to miss a second of the time he had to spend with his little sister from now until... well, he'd figure that out when the time came. It was too early in his new present to be thinking about the distant future just yet.

When they arrived on the forest floor, everything was a bustle of activity. In a small open area just beyond the edge of the village clearing proper, villagers and escaped captives alike were setting up tents and passing out food and clothing to those who needed it. Gareth saw Teskar sitting on a stump with a pen in one hand and a stack of loose paper in the other, asking questions of a young escaped captive standing in front of him and writing notes down the paper as he did so. A long line of escapees stretched out behind the man he was talking to; he was obviously the one responsible for compiling information on where all the people had come from so that they could all be returned to their homes and their families as quickly as possible. Gareth was about to go over and offer his assistance, but before he could, his arm was grabbed by Kastor, who wordlessly began to drag him off in the opposite direction.

“Morning, Kastor,” Gareth said as he managed to wrest his arm from his former master's grip. “What's up?”

“You have an appointment with the blacksmith,” Kastor said shortly, looking embarrassed, “and then one with a bath and a new set of clothes, before everyone in this village starts hating me too.”

He looked so self-conscious for Gareth's sake that it was all Gareth could do to keep from laughing. “Sorry,” he said flippantly. “I've been a bit busy this morning. Getting new clothes has kinda been the least of my worries.” Not true exactly, but Kastor didn't need to know that. “But if you insist...”

“I... I don't insist,” Kastor said, turning even redder. “I... I just... I thought you'd want...”

“Relax, Kastor,” Gareth said with a laugh, giving his friend a comforting pat on the shoulder. “I was giving you a hard time. If friends can't hassle one another every once in a while, how would we have any fun?”

The relief in Kastor's face was immediate. “Bastard,” he muttered jokingly, then returned to dragging Gareth over towards a small knot of familiar figures clustered around someone on the far side of the clearing. “Making fun of a guy at a time like this.” Gareth was glad to see him happy, though, and glad that they could rib one another so easily.

It made him even happier to see, when he reached the small knot of people standing around the village blacksmith, that Mischa and Adela had already had their irons removed, and that the blacksmith was working on Nora's. Mischa and Adela both ran to him and helped Kastor drag him over to be next in line, heaping thanks and praises on him that he deflected with laughter and hugs for Adela and a hearty handshake for Mischa. They bubbled over with excitement and amazement, asking a million questions about his village and his family and the forest he had brought them to. He was making a valiant attempt to tell them everything they wanted to know when Holly arrived in the clearing, dragging a very sheepish-looking Devon behind her. When Nora, who had just had the last of her irons removed, saw her friend, she leaped at her with a shout of joy and tackled her, laughing and crying at the same time. Holly was almost knocked off her feet, and she began to cry too when she saw that her friend was no longer wearing a collar and shackles. Gareth gladly conceded his place in line to Holly as Nora dragged her over to the blacksmith and watched with a smile on his face as Holly was finally freed.

As soon as Holly was free of her shackles, she ran straight over to Gareth and hugged him, then, to everyone's surprise, she hugged Kastor and kissed him on the cheek, which made his face turn red as fire. “Thank you, Kastor,” she said, laughing at the shocked look on his face. “Thank you, both of you, for giving me my life back.” She looked back over her shoulder at her brother, who was standing back from the rest of the happy group, looking sheepish and ashamed of himself. Gareth smiled at Devon and twitched his head in an effort to get the older boy to come over and join them, but Devon just shook his head and backed off some more, though he looked grateful that Gareth had attempted to include him. “Devon thanks you too,” Holly said, looking exasperated at her brother's reluctance. “I hope we'll get a chance to see you all again some day.”

“You're leaving already?” Kastor asked, sounding disappointed.

“Yeah,” Holly said. “We're going home. Today. Our parents are going to be over the treetops to see us again. We've been gone too long, and the sooner we get back to our village, the happier we'll all be... Devon especially.”

Gareth nodded understandingly. “I'm sure you'll see us again some day,” he told Holly as he hugged both her and Nora goodbye. “Stay safe and have a good trip home.”

As soon as Holly, Nora, and Devon were gone, it was Gareth's turn to see the blacksmith. He found that he was oddly apprehensive as Kastor nudged him gently in the man's direction. He remembered the day the blacksmith at the slave market in Devrost had given him these shackles as if it were yesterday, and he remembered just as acutely the sense of resigned despair that had come over him when he had accepted that he would wear them and be a slave forever. If they came off now, that meant that all this had been real. If they came off now, and he didn't wake up to find himself back in his tiny, stifling room in Kastor's closet the way all his other dreams about returning home to his family had ended, then it really was the start of a whole new life for him. He closed his eyes tightly as the blacksmith carefully took the file to the shackles on his ankles, then the ones on his wrists, then to the collar around his neck.

When he felt that last one come loose, Gareth reached up and removed it from his neck with his own two hands. He opened his eyes, stared down at the hated grey strip of metal that had labeled him as a subhuman piece of property for so long, and began to cry. There was no need for dreams any more: freedom was his reality now, and his tears were ones of pure joy and relief, not sorrow. Fortunately, everyone who was standing around him now – his mother and father and Gwen, and Kastor and Shanna and Teskar, and Tara and Gavin and Mischa and Adela – all recognized this, and did not try to comfort him as they surged forward to surround him and shower him with hugs and kisses and handshakes and congratulatory slaps on the back. He noticed as he smiled up at all of them through his tears that none of their eyes were dry either. He also noticed, though he was sure they were all unaware of it, that they were all looking at him differently now, as if seeing him for the very first time. It might all be in his head, he realized as his father picked him up and swung him around, both of them laughing through their tears, but he knew that the collar and shackles had made people look at him differently. They had labeled him as something less than human, and in doing so had made him less than human in the eyes of others, even in the eyes of people who knew better.

It also occurred to him, as Shanna came running up and flung herself into his arms, that this was the first time most of these people were seeing him without his shackles. This was the first time he had been truly free in their eyes. How easily they made the transition, though, Gareth marveled as Teskar came over and picked him up in a hug almost as fierce and emotional as his father's had been. He saw affection in his former master's eyes as he looked up at Teskar, affection that had always been there, underneath the surface, constrained by their relationship as master and slave. Removing that collar had removed all restraints on his relationships now, Gareth realized as he hugged the man back. Now he was finally allowed to be a son, a brother, and a friend again. And once he had found his way back into those roles, what else lay in store for him down the road? He could be anything, just like he had told Cesra, but, more importantly, he could be someone. Who did he want to be? What mark would he leave on the world, now that he had the choice?

He couldn't help but be preoccupied with thoughts of all his possible futures, though he did his best to hide that preoccupation as he threw himself eagerly into helping serve lunch to all the hungry escaped captives and the curious villagers who were coming down from the trees to greet this massive crowd of new arrivals to their normally quiet home. He was distracted, though; so much so that he completely forgot that he was now back home not just with his family but with all his old friends and neighbors. He was pulled rather sharply back to that reality when he was tackled from behind and a familiar voice shouted in his ear. “Gareth? Gareth, is that really you? Where did you come from, man? Where the hell have you been? What the hell are you wearing? God, you look awful! Spill it, man; what are you doing here?”

Gareth extracted himself from the arms that were squeezing the breath out of his lungs and turned around, only to be grabbed again by the shoulders and held two inches off the ground at arm's length by his best friend, Eric Winterwillow, who was almost a foot taller than Gareth now and had arms the size of small tree trunks. Eric was surrounded by all of Gareth's old gang of friends, who had come running when they heard him shouting, and they were all staring at him in disbelief as he grinned sheepishly at all of them. “Hey guys, long time no see. What's up?”

“That's all you have to say?” Eric said in – hopefully – mock frustration as he set Gareth back down on his feet. “You disappear without a trace, go missing for five years, then show up back here dressed like some sort of crazy hermit from the wilds and act like nothing's wrong? What the hell, man?”

“It's... a long story,” Gareth said, his grin fading under their silent, disbelieving stares. He was wracking his brains to find some way to explain everything to his friends when a voice from behind him broke their awkward silence.

“Hey, Gareth, your mother found you some clothes, so you can get out of those... oh, hey Eric.” Kastor had come running up to him with his arms full of clothes. “Glad to see you guys made it back alright.”

“Hey Kastor,” Eric said, and now it was Gareth's turn to stare openmouthed at his friends. “How do you know each other?” he asked as he looked back and forth between Kastor and Eric.

“I met him when we came here to recruit people to help rescue you and Holly and all the other captives,” Kastor said, looking sheepishly first at Gareth, then at Eric. “Sorry I couldn't tell you he was coming home, but we wanted it to be a surprise for his parents.”

“You know Gareth?” Eric asked. “Man, this just keeps getting weirder.”

“I told you it was a long story,” Gareth said sheepishly. Then... “Wait, you helped rescue everyone from the caravan?”

Eric nodded. “We didn't know you were there, obviously,” he said, “but... well... we all kinda knew what happened to you. We joined up with Kastor and Tara in... well, kind of in your honor, ya know?” He scuffed his foot in the dirt, looking self-conscious for a second, then brightened suddenly. “Hey, we were all just about ta sneak off and go swimming, since everything's been put on hold around here on account of all these new arrivals. You guys wanna join us?”

Kastor looked reluctant, but Gareth jumped at the chance to spend some time with his friends and get to know them again. “Absolutely! Come on, Kastor,” he coaxed his friend. “No one's going to miss us, and we'll get plenty of chances to help out down here after today. Whaddya say?”

“You don't have to ask me!” Kastor said, looking alarmed.

“I meant, do you want to come along?” Gareth said, rolling his eyes at Kastor's newfound paranoia at being thought to be giving Gareth orders or controlling him in any way. “It should be fun.” He flagged down Gavin too, who was more than happy to get away from the crowd and go relax by the nearest lake. Not wanting to be left behind, Kastor agreed to join them, and the village's entire contingent of young teenage boys slipped out of the clearing and hightailed it towards the lake before their parents could notice they were gone – just like they had done when they were kids.

Gareth was the center of everyone's attention as they all swam and horsed around and relaxed by the lake. He spent the afternoon regaling all his old friends with stories of the more interesting parts of his journey back to the forest with Kastor, doing his best to avoid mentioning that Kastor had been his master and evading all questions about how he had become a slave or what it had been like. He even swam in his old burlap rags, on the pretense of getting them clean, to hide the scars on his back from his friends so that he wouldn't have to explain anything that would bring down the tone of this first happy afternoon they all spent together. There would be time enough for explanations later, and he did not want to burden his peers, who had never known anything but happiness, peace, and safety here in the forest, with descriptions of the realities of slavery.

Unfortunately, he could not spare others the same burden, and over the next week he eventually told his entire story to his parents. The three of them sat up late at night talking after everyone else in the house was fast asleep because Gareth was having trouble sleeping since getting his shackles removed. His dreams – which had once only ever been about freedom and returning home – were now all disturbing flashbacks to the worst moments of his enslavement or nightmares about being captured and taken away from his family again. Having someone to share those memories and fears with helped, but he hated the way his stories made his mother cry and seemed to bring out new lines in his father's face. He could not alleviate his own pain without causing them pain in return, and despite the fact that every other moment of his life was brimming with happiness, he couldn't find any other way to loose the hold the nightmares had on him, even though burdening his parents like this made him feel worse, not better.

There was someone else who could help him, though, Gareth knew, and it could possibly be good for both of them to talk together about what it had been like to be a slave. Gareth had been going with the rest of his family to the clinic every day to see Cesra, who was resting comfortably there and was slowly recovering from his injuries, but the two of them had not gotten any time alone to talk since that first night in the village. Gareth was respecting his parents' wishes and letting them do their best to acclimate Cesra to freedom and life in the village, but while they seemed to be succeeding at making their new son comfortable around them, Gareth wasn't sure how well they were doing at making him comfortable at being a free person. Their conversations with him were more relaxed now than they had been at first, and Cesra always had a small but genuine smile for his new family when he saw them, but he still remained stubbornly mute or monosyllabic, and his attention was still focused almost exclusively on Gareth, and Gareth knew that Cesra was desperately wanting to talk to him again, but was afraid to ask to do so. So finally, when Gareth himself could no longer take the awkwardness of being around people who could not truly understand what he had been through, he went in secret to see Cesra on his own.

He slipped down the clinic's main hallway while the nurse on duty was distracted and let himself quietly into Cesra's room. The little boy was sleeping, but his eyes snapped open when he heard the door close, and he struggled to sit up, looking worried, until he recognized Gareth. As usual, he relaxed when he saw a familiar face, and his own face broke into a broad, genuine grin when he saw that Gareth was alone. “I was hoping you would come back soon,” he said softly as Gareth pulled a chair up next to his bed.

“Sorry,” Gareth apologized. “Things have been a little crazy out there. I'm trying to get used to being home. I didn't forget about you, though. Mum and Da have been keeping me away on purpose.”

“Why?” Cesra asked, sounding worried. “They still like me, don't they?”

“Of course they do!” Gareth reassured him. “They're just worried about me adjusting, and they wanted me to focus on my own problems. But I think it's high time we started helping each other out. How does that sound to you?”

“How do we do that?” Cesra asked. “I don't think I can help anyone. The lady that comes in here always tells me to rest and not do anything even though I want to help.”

“That's the doctor, and she just doesn't want you to get hurt any more. She's taking good care of you, though, isn't she?” Cesra was still thin and pale, but there was definitely more color in his cheeks, and he had obviously been getting three square meals a day.

Cesra nodded vigorously. “She gives me lots of food, and I get to go and sit out in the sun every day, and she gives me medicine whenever things hurt.”

“Well, that's good. You just do exactly as she says and you'll be better in no time. Then you can come home and I'll teach you everything you need to know about living here in the forest.”

That made Cesra smile again. “I'd like that. I want to learn how to climb the big trees like you do.”

“Well, that's the first thing I'll show you, then,” Gareth promised, “since it's the most important thing to know, after all. You won't get to go many places around here if you can't climb trees.”

“And I... I can really go to school and learn stuff?”

“Absolutely. You'll go to school and learn to read and write, and you'll learn history and geography and science and all sorts of things. And once you've learned all those things, you'll get to go and learn about all the jobs that the grownups in the village do, and some day you'll decide which one of them you want to do and you'll get trained so that when you're all grown up you'll have a job that you love waiting for you.”

Cesra seemed overwhelmed by the idea that he would get to choose what he got to be when he grew up. “I didn't know about school until I met Holly,” he said, “but she always made it sound like fun. Are you going to be in school too? Or are you already grown up?”

That made Gareth laugh. “Not quite. I'll be in school for a little while longer. I missed out on a lot, being gone for five years. All my friends are out deciding what they want to be when they grow up, but I have to go back to school and learn some more before I get the chance to do that.”

“What do you want to do, though?”

“I... I don't know,” Gareth admitted reluctantly. That was part of his problem. He did know what he wanted to do, now and for the rest of his life, but he was slowly coming to the realization that doing it would mean having to leave his home and his family behind again, breaking all the casual promises he had tossed off over the last week about never going away again and setting back out into the harsh, uncaring outside world. That was part of the reason why he was desperate to talk to Cesra. If anyone could understand him and help him work through his dilemma, it was the one person who would be the most understanding about his desire to end slavery and yet the most devastated by losing his newfound older brother to the outside world. “I mean... I do know, sort of, but... it's complicated.”

“Com... pli... cated?” Cesra slowly sounded out the word. “What's that mean?”

“It means... It means I know what I want to do, and how to do it, but it will be hard, and it will hurt people I care about, and it means making a hard choice.”

“Choice is when you... decide for yourself about what to do instead of being told,” Cesra blurted out proudly. “Nora told me that. Over and over, since I didn't know what she meant. She said that's was free was... having choice. Or something like that.” He frowned as he tried to remember, and it was so adorable that Gareth laughed again and hugged him.

“Well, she was right, Cesra. That's exactly what freedom is: having and making your own choices. Unfortunately, it's not always easy. Some choices are hard to make. Sometimes, no matter what you do, you hurt people that you care about, or you have to give up something that you really want in order to do the right thing.” He saw Cesra looking at him and nodding, but there was no understanding in his bright blue eyes. Gareth sighed and ruffled the boy's brown curls, which had been washed and neatly trimmed and were finally growing out. “Cesra, what would you say if I told you that I wanted to find some way to make it so that no one could ever do what was done to us to anyone else ever again?”

“Could you really do that?” Cesra's eyes went wide. “How?”

“I don't know,” Gareth admitted, “but there has to be a way. Unfortunately, in order to do anything about it, I... I'd have to leave the forest. I'd have to go back to the cities, where the slave markets and the people who own slaves are.”

“But you promised...” Cesra said in an uncharacteristically emotional tone of voice, but then he cut himself off. “When would you have to go?” he asked softly, timid resignation filling his voice and his now-downcast face.

“Oh, Cesra, I don't have to go,” Gareth said, grabbing his little brother in another hug to comfort him. “And if I did, it wouldn't be for a while yet. And I know I made you a promise. I made promises to a lot of people, and I'm starting to realize that a lot of those promises conflict with one another. I promised I would never leave you, or Gwen and my folks again, but I promised Gavin and Tara I'd help them find their da and sister, and I promised Tam I'd return to Devrost and help him rescue kids from the slave markets, and I... I promised you that I would find a way to make sure that no one else ever has to suffer the life you had. I can't give you back your childhood, Cesra – I wish I could, you don't know how badly – but maybe I can do something to make the world a place worth growing up in, for our children and all the children out there who are at risk of being stolen from their families or born as slaves like we were.”

“I used to wish I hadn't been born,” Cesra said matter-of-factly after a short silence. “I knew from always that no one 'spected me to live very long. Lots of times I wished they'd kill me 'stead of just hurting me over and over again, but they never did, even though they always stood around bein' amazed that I was still alive after. I never 'spected this to happen,” he looked around indicating not just the room, but the forest beyond and the future that was laid out before him, “I don't think I knew that it even could, but now that it has, I think I'm glad that I'm alive. But then I think about all the other kids like me, who must be thinking the same things I used to but who won't ever have the chance to be rescued like I was, or get a family like I did... they'll live their whole lives and die as slaves, and we can't go out and save all of them like we were... it'd take too long. And then there are all of the kids like you who were taken from their families, and all the orphans like 'Dela, and all the grown-ups like... like my mama...” He trailed off, and Gareth looked up at him worriedly to see that he was crying. Without a second thought, Gareth got up from his chair, slid onto Cesra's bed, and gently picked the little boy up onto his lap. Cesra curled up with his head on Gareth's shoulder and wiped his eyes with his one good hand. “Sorry, I didn't mean to cry. I'm not s'posed to cry”

“You don't have to apologize, Cesra. Cry all you want. I do, sometimes. Do you.. think about your mama a lot? Do you remember her at all?”

Cesra shook his head. “I don't think I ever knew her. But I must've had one, right? And she's still a slave out there somewhere, and maybe that means I have brothers or sisters who are slaves too, and I just can't bear to think about stuff like that sometimes but now I can't seem to stop.” He looked up into Gareth's eyes and his were suddenly fierce and full of a strength and determination Gareth hadn't seen there before. “I think, if you can find a way to make all those people out there stop having slaves and let their slaves go that you should, even if it means you have to leave us behind here. You'll still be my brother even if you're not here, won't you? And you'll still come back to visit maybe?”

“I'll always be your brother, Cesra,” Gareth said, hugging the little boy to him as tightly as he dared, “and of course I'll come back to visit – as often as I can. I still need to be here to help you and Gwen grow up, otherwise I wouldn't be a very good older brother, would I?” Cesra shrugged, which made Gareth laugh again. “Thanks for understanding, though. I don't know what I'll do, or when or how, but it means a lot to know that you'll support me in this. I don't think everyone else will be so understanding.” He sighed, wondering how he was going to explain his desire to leave in order to fight slavery in the outside world to his parents. “Don't mention this to anyone until I sort it all out, okay?”

“I won't,” Cesra promised, then the two of them sat quietly together for a long time until Cesra fell asleep in Gareth's arms, looking happier and more peaceful and stronger than Gareth had seen him before. Maybe he had underestimated Cesra's ability to adapt. If that was true, then it was time for him to start thinking about his own future in earnest. He knew he still had time yet – it was going to take Teskar several months to get all the escaped captives organized and sent safely along with groups of forest-dwellers to travel through the forest and back to their homes, and Gareth knew the Cranes would not leave until they had seen everyone else off – but he would have to decide before they left so that he could go with them.

With an eye to that possibility, Gareth tracked Kastor down first thing the next morning to get a feel for his family's plans for continuing on their trip west. He didn't think that Kastor had been avoiding him on purpose, but ever since the Cranes had moved down to the forest floor to live in a tent like the other escapees – Teskar was not at all comfortable up in the village, which was not surprising, and he also did not feel comfortable taking advantage of Gareth's family's hospitality, – Gareth had not seen very much of Kastor or Shanna.

So he found Kastor this morning and volunteered to help him clean up the refugee camp's breakfast dishes, which made Kastor extremely grateful. He had been working hard taking care of all these people, doing chores for the first time in his life, and he was obviously not enjoying it. Gareth had far too much experience doing similarly unpleasant tasks, and he had recently found that they were made more bearable if you had someone to share them with. He and Kastor kept their conversation casual to start with, exchanging pleasantries and information about what they had both been up to over the last week or so, and Gareth was gradually able to direct the conversation to their timetable for leaving the forest to go home again.

“Father's not going to leave until all the others are safely on their way back to their own homes,” Kastor said, confirming what Gareth had already suspected. “There's no way of knowing how long that will take, though. It could be a few weeks, or it could be months. It all depends on how many volunteers we get from the nearby villages to lead groups of refugees through the forest to the eastern or western borders and out to the nearest towns. We're asking a lot of your people to put themselves in danger for groups of outsiders and complete strangers.”

“Well, I hope you get a lot of willing volunteers anyway,” Gareth said. He wasn't sure how likely that was, unfortunately. His people's perfectly rational fear of the border was a fairly recent occurrence, but even before they began being stolen by the nomad slavers they had never been the least bit interested in journeying outside their forest into foreign lands. Would a good enough cause – the most important cause, protecting themselves and their friends and family from slavers – be enough to convince all of them, not just the ones who had lost people, to stand up and fight back, or at least do something to advance freedom over slavery? Only time would tell, but Gareth was hopeful. He was still amazed at the number of people, not just from his own village but from those nearby as well, that had risked their lives to venture into the grasslands and rescue all these people from the slave caravan in the first place. It seemed that every time he turned around he found another person who had been part of that daring raid. And what his people were being asked to do now – escort large groups of outsiders out of the forest into the villages closest to the border, found with the help of Kastor's maps – was a lot less dangerous than a caravan raid. He said as much to Kastor, who agreed with him but lamented that they wouldn't know until the first groups of volunteers started arriving from the other villages in a day or so.

“It's been good for Father to have something to do, though, despite the uncertainty,” Kastor continued, glancing over at Teskar as he did so. Teskar was moving among the refugee tents, talking to people and taking notes, smiling and shaking hands and sharing kind and comforting words with all of them. “He's taken it upon himself to organize everything. He's finding out where people are from, and whether they have families waiting for them. He's working with your village leaders to find places for people who have expressed a desire to stay here in the forest, and he's paring orphan children with people who have lost theirs or with families here in the forest who want them. He's not going to let anyone go back to the cities alone. He's doing everything he knows how to do to make sure that they are no longer at risk of being taken by slavers when they return home. He's even arranging to send them off with letters of mark for his former company, asking them to give people jobs and homes.”

“Do you think they will?” Gareth asked. He didn't know much about Teskar's company, but he had thought they had fallen on hard times.

Kastor shrugged. “No way of knowing, but we can hope. His fellow board members – the ones he turned control over to when we left – really respected him and his judgment, and admired his good treatment of his slaves too. If we can convince them to help people who were once almost slaves, then it might be a first step towards convincing them to stop using slaves all together, and once one company does, others might follow suit, and then...” He was babbling, and he suddenly seemed to realize it, breaking off mid-sentence as his face went red. “Anyway... Father says he'll follow up with them as soon as he gets home, and he plans to keep in touch with as many of these people as possible to make sure they get along okay and don't end up back in the hands of slavers again. He's going to find other ways to end slavery too. I told him about Tam, and he's going to find a way for us to go back and see him again, and he's been talking with some of the people here who helped with the rescue, convincing them to continue to spread and enhance Tara and Gavin's idea of a border patrol here around to all the villages. He wants them to take up arms and fight back against the caravans whenever they can, continuing what we started here both in terms of rescuing people and in getting them back safely to their homes and families and finding them new lives that won't be threatened by slavery.”

“He's doing all that?” Gareth was impressed by his former master's drive and initiative, but he had no doubt that Teskar Crane would be as successful at his new endeavors as he had been at the ones that had made him a wealthy and successful farmer-merchant in the first place. He was surprised, though, that Teskar was taking on the task of organizing the forest-dwellers who wanted to protect their own borders. “I'm glad he's helping us, but weren't Gavin and Tara working on that project? Is he helping them?”

Kastor's face suddenly closed up and he wouldn't look at Gareth. “I guess Tara hasn't talked to you yet,” he said after an awkward silence.

“No. Why?” Gareth felt his heart jump nervously when Kastor said Tara's name.

“I hate being the bearer of bad news,” Kastor growled to himself. “She said she was going to talk to you herself, the coward...” He sighed and finally looked up at Gareth again. “Tara and Gavin are coming with us when we go home,” he stated bluntly, his eyes looking everywhere but at Gareth's face. “She weaseled a promise out of my father when she realized you were going to be staying here with your family. He's going to help them find their missing father and sister, if he can.”

This news did not bother Gareth as much as Kastor seemed to have expected it to. In fact, he felt it suddenly make his final decision easier. “Good,” he reassured his friend, as if Kastor's news had been no big surprise. “I was worried she and Gavin were going to give up on that without me to accompany them.” Not that he was planning on breaking that promise, he had almost already decided. “Do you think your da would mind if I interrupted him right now? I'd like to talk to him about some things.”