Down a Lost Road Read Online Free PDF

spew disgusting water all over the bushes in front of Yatol? I
wanted to curl up in a little ball and disappear, but when I risked
a glance at him from under my hair he didn’t seem to have
moved.
    I took another long gulp and handed the skin
back to him. He took it silently, fit the leather wad stopper back
into the opening, and hooked it to his belt. I leaned my head on my
knees, trying to figure out how to ask him about the stars. But
when I finally spoke an entirely different question spilled
out.
    “ Yatol. This isn’t one of
those…where time, you know, when it…” I scowled at the ground, then
blurted, “Time is the same here as on Earth, isn’t it?”
    He hesitated. “I do not know, but I think it
is so.”
    “ So right now, my family
won’t know where I am, will they? They’ll think I’ve gotten lost,
or kidnapped. They might even send out a…send out a search for
me.”
    “ Aye.”
    I glowered at him in the darkness, knowing
he wasn’t looking at me. “What am I doing here? I want to go home.
I don’t understand it here. I feel like I’m in a dream. Everything
feels like a dream. Why haven’t you told me anything about why I’m
here?”
    “ No one keeps you here
against your will,” was the only answer I got, but I thought he
sighed as he said it.
    “ I don’t know why I asked,”
I muttered.
    Yatol shot me a quick glance, but he didn’t
say anything else. After a moment I crept back into the tent and
curled up on the furs, stifling tears in the warm darkness.
    * * *
    All too soon, it was morning. Daylight
streamed in through my window, and a crowd of grackles in the
magnolia filled the air with raucous whistles and clicks. And Mom
stood beside my bed, an expression somewhere between concern,
relief, and maternal anger clouding her face.
    I stared up at her through sleep-bleared
eyes, too stunned to speak. I didn’t need to. As soon as she saw me
awake she let me have it.
    “ Merelin, what on earth
where you doing, going missing on us like that? We were worried
sick! As if your fath…” Her voice died, and even though I had
turned my head away I heard her sigh. “I’m just glad Damian found
you when he did. What were you doing down there?”
    “ Down where?”
    “ Don’t you remember? He
found you down by the creek, sleeping under a tree. He practically
had to carry you home. You wouldn’t wake up no matter what he
did.”
    “ Oh.”
    “ You don’t
remember.”
    I hesitated. “The creek? No.”
    “ Not even what you were
doing all day yesterday?” She frowned, studying me intently, then
added, “We almost called the police.”
    I thought about making something up, but
clamped my mouth on the lie. At the same time it struck me as odd –
they only almost called the police. Apparently they hadn’t
been that worried. Somehow I wasn’t upset, just strangely
curious.
    “ I’m sorry,” I muttered.
“It won’t happen again.”
    My stomach sank as I said it. I hoped it
wasn’t true.
    “ If it does…” Mom said as
she withdrew from my room.
    She didn’t finish the threat, but I could
guess what she would have said. Well, I was right – it had been a dream. More vivid and surreal than any dream I’d ever had,
but just a dream. Somehow the thought made me heart-achingly sad. I
closed my eyes, wistful, hoping against hope that somehow I could
slip back into it. But, just like a dream, it seemed so hard to
grasp and analyze any one of the images I could still recall. All I
could see clearly were Yatol’s eyes. If only I could look into
those eyes again…
    It was just a dream. He doesn’t exist.
    I swallowed back the raw lump in my throat,
covering my face with my hands.
    It was just a dream. I couldn’t let myself
get upset over it.
    Grow up, Merelin .
    I rolled over and glanced at my bedside
clock. Almost ten already, but I could have slept another three
hours at least. I stretched my arms drowsily and levered myself
upright, and found myself still in yesterday’s