The White City Read Online Free PDF

flecking her jaws and blood speckling her distended nostrils. She wove back and forth to descend until they came to a rippling creek.
    Ray leaped from the saddle and pulled Jolie off into hisarms. “You’ll be all right. You’ll be fine. We’re here,” he soothed over and over. Ray stumbled on the rocks at the shore but continued walking out into the slow-moving waters.
    He lowered her down until her hair spilled out over the water’s surface. Still holding her securely, Ray let her sink beneath the water. After a moment, she came up on her own, her bleary eyes searching for him.
    “Ray …,” she said weakly.
    He gave a heavy exhale of relief. “You … you were nearly …”
    Holding onto his shoulders while she floated, Jolie dipped her cheek so that only part of her face was above the water. “His voice,” she murmured. “I hear him … He is calling …”
    “Who?” Ray asked.
    Jolie seemed only half aware of what she was saying, her eyes dim and her voice thin. “He calls my sisters.…”
    Ray held her for a while longer as she seemed to sleep, watching her anxiously.
    With the sun glowing through the trees overhanging the creek, Jolie at last opened her eyes. Ray saw clarity in her gaze and knew she was finally alert, even if she wasn’t quite recovered. He gave deep shudder.
    “What is it?” Jolie asked.
    “I thought … I was going to lose you.”
    “I am still here.”
    Ray gave a pained smile. “When we lost each other, after the train, the explosion …” He was not sure what he was trying to say, but he felt the words bubble up heedlessly. “All those times, once I started my new life at Shuckstack, I would go outinto the wild. To be alone. I was learning to be a Rambler. I thought I did not mind being alone. But I did, Jolie. I kept thinking that I wished you could be there with me. And … I guess I thought I’d never see you again.” He knew he wasn’t making any sense.
    Jolie simply stared at him, her fingers laced behind his neck.
    Ray sighed. “I’m just glad you’re here. Once we get through all this, we can go back to Shuckstack. You can see the mountains there. You’ll love it—”
    Jolie abruptly slid her fingers from his shoulders. “I should sleep. You need to also.”
    Ray was not sure if he had said something wrong, and his cheeks felt a little hot with embarrassment. But Jolie was right—the heavy weight of exhaustion was coming over him. “Right. I’ll just be up on the bank.”
    Jolie nodded and gave a grateful smile before she slipped beneath the water.
    Ray woke in the night, hungry and momentarily uncertain where he was. He looked around. Patches of shadow and moonlight crisscrossed the forest. He heard a whinny and found Élodie walking along the bank, her head bent down to the soft grass growing at the edge. Ray walked over and took her nose in his hands. “You’re a good girl. You saved her.”
    The horse beat her head side to side and turned again to eating. No longer sleepy, Ray walked among the trees, prodding his knife here and there to dig up roots and collect mushroomsgrowing in the damp. He built up a cookfire and made a meal. Lifting his hand at one point, he again felt the pull and knew the Hoarhound was out there. Behind them and distant, yet still following.
    When he had finished eating, Ray found B’hoy resting in the branches of a cottonwood.
    The bird was awake and peering down at Ray with inky eyes. Ray could sense his exhaustion and his suppressed annoyance. “You tried to tell me something,” Ray said. “When we were riding. I’m sorry I was short with you, but—”
    The crow spoke in low, raspy croaks. Ray’s eyes widened as he listened.
    As B’hoy had been searching ahead for water, he had found a girl and a wolf. They were at the start of a pass going up into the mountains.
    “How far away are they?” Ray asked.
    B’hoy croaked: less than a day ahead.
    Ray ran down to the riverbank and splashed into the water.