Exile: The Book of Ever

24: Bags Packed And Bargains Made

The glade seemed to catch the midday sunlight and intensify it; the grass, clinging to its summer verdure, waved slightly in the breeze. The place was at once familiar and alien: birds sang in the treetops and wildflowers grew in the verge, but she didn't recognize the birds and the flowers were pretty but strange, little three-pointed stars in purple and blue that seemed to pop up everywhere.

She had asked to be alone. Sephine had pointed out the trailhead to her and told her it led to this place. A good spot for contemplation, she had explained. That was over an hour ago. She had thought to come here and sort through everything logically, but her mind kept drifting: to the brilliant colors of the autumn foliage around her, to the ever-present rush of upland streams, and more than anything else to the mountain before her. Its tripartite peak loomed above the glade, and even in the open space she felt hemmed in by it. It seemed to fill her vision and her mind, reminding her of the dream she had before leaving Bountiful.

Is this that mountain? Somehow, she didn't think that it was; it didn't seem right. The mountain from her dream had seemed farther away, in both place and time—that peak was still in her future. This was something unexpected, something her vision—if that's what it was—hadn't prepared her for.

When she forced herself to think through the problem that lay before her, reasons to be suspicious accumulated quickly. She didn't know these people, not really. She had no idea whether they spoke the truth, or if they had some ulterior motive they hadn't yet shared. More importantly, none of this was why she was out here. The mission she, Acel, Rolan—poor Chy—and now Jared had set out to accomplish was simple: find a new home for their people.

The fact that Azariah Thayne and his minions, human and inhuman alike, had driven them off course didn't change the fact that Ever had no business wasting time in a strange valley, not to mention sticking around long enough to fulfill some questionable prophecy.

She didn't even know what had happened to her family, to the people of Bountiful. Jared had brought news that they likely escaped the Marmack attack, but almost anything could have happened in the weeks since. They should already have been inside the Maine by now, well on their way to search for the abandoned facilities that Elder Haglund believed still existed there.

It didn't make any sense that she was even considering doing this, but she was. The voice inside of her, the one she'd listened to since she was a child, the one she associated with the Spirit, was talking again. Despite the various reasons not to walk into something she didn't fully understand, Ever was tempted to do just that. And if Greta was telling the truth, if this mountain did indeed offer some ancient salvation prepared by the Old People, then didn't she have an obligation to seek it out? Their mandate was to find a new home for the Blessed at all costs, even if it turned out to be somewhere unexpected.

She turned back toward the trail leading out of the woods and found herself face to face with Jared.

"You have a habit of sneaking up on me," said Ever.

"I'm sneaky," said Jared. Joking aside, he was making the squinting face that he and every other man Ever knew tended to make when they were worried about something.

"You're the making the concerned face," she said.

"You're making decisive face," he countered. "You've decided to go through with it." She nodded once, face serious, and he sighed.

"You don't have to do this, you know," he said.

"I know."

"It's probably a really bad idea."