"Thieves respect property. They merely wish the property to become their property that they may more perfectly respect it."
--G. K. Chesterton
"What do you mean he's gone?" Matt asked his brother irritably. He had a headache and felt like he might vomit. Tom looked at him and shrugged.
"He's gone," he said again. "He got up and moved off on the other side of camp. And he never came back."
"That ain't the half of it." Aiden said looking for tracks. "He made off with my pack." Jess shot his brother a worried look. "That bastard took my stuff."
"Insulin too?" Jess asked him.
"In my kit at the bottom of my pack."
"How long can you go without insulin?" Cruz wondered.
"Couple of days, maybe a week. Maybe longer, but I'll be real sick if it comes to that." They all remembered Aiden being sick before he had been diagnosed as a diabetic. It had not been a pretty sight. He was still recovering from it.
"Why would he take your stuff? Where would he go?" Matt asked rhetorically.
"He was jealous," said Cruz, glancing down at the lake's edge where Annie was washing up. "He was pissed because Annie was all over Aiden."
"So he stole my pack to spite me?" Aiden growled. "He better have run far because if I catch up to him I'm going to kill him."
"Where does he think he's going to go? We're all headed in the same direction," Jess said. He looked accusingly at Cruz. "We should never have let him come with us."
"Don't look at me like it's my fault," Cruz scowled. "He invited himself. I don't know why he keeps coming over to my house."
"Regardless, he took off with my pack," Aiden sighed. Annie rejoined them near the cold remains of the fire. Tom stirred the ashes irritably with a stick and Aiden sighed again.
"He can't be more than a few hours ahead of us," Matt said. "If we start now and go fast we might catch up." He poured the rest of the apple brandy into the ashes and handed the jug to Tom. "Fill this—we're going to need water." Tom nodded mutely and wandered off toward the lake. "Let's hope he stuck to the road."
"Why do you think he left?" Annie asked suddenly. They all looked at one another.
"Scared," Aiden said finally. "Panicked at being here so he set off on his own." The answer seemed to pacify the girl as she nodded. "Took my stuff for supplies." He smiled at her. "We better get after him."
They set off at a quick pace, Aiden leading the way. He was visibly angry, striding ahead with tight fists swinging at his side. Of course, he was worried about his insulin—and the others worried as well. He was dependent on insulin to survive—without it there was a strong possibility he would die. They were all angry too—in effect, by stealing Aiden's means of life, Jason was effectively committing murder. They hoped it would not come to that, but the possibility was there.
Around midday they came to a fork in the road. Both forks were well traveled and a small sign had been erected at the split. There was an arrow pointing left that read "Tarquin" and an arrow pointing right that read "Berelain." They had lost Jason's tracks hours ago and they contemplated the split grimly.
"Which way?" Tom asked Aiden, who shook his head.
"I've never heard of either place," Matt said staring first down one road, then the other. "How will we know which one he went down?"
"We split up," Aiden growled. "Go either way and look for signs—footprints or whatever. Two hours in, we look for a trail. Whoever finds it, keep on it—send a runner back here to wait till the others come back, and tell them which way."
"But that puts some of us six hours behind," Jess said.
"The important thing is finding Jason," Aiden told him. "We can all catch up once he's found."
"Who goes where?" Cruz asked. Aiden looked at the sign and sighed.
"I'll head for Tarquin," he said finally. "Whoever's coming with me, try and keep up." He started taking the left route. "Two hours," he called after them. Annie watched him go for a moment, then started after him, running to catch up. Jess watched them go, torn between following his brother and searching the other the path. Finally, he turned to Matt.
"I'll take Cruz and Tom towards this Berelain. You go after Aiden—make sure he doesn't pass out or something," he told him.
"Why me?"
"You're next oldest. Who's going to run back if you find his trail?" Matt grimaced and sighed resignedly.
"Why don't you go after him? He's your brother."
"Because I think I can find Jason's trail better than you can," he told him simply. "I need to go the other way."
"Fine," Matt said quietly. "Good luck."
"You too." With that, Matt turned and ran after Aiden and the girl, hollering for them to wait up. They watched them go before turning to regard their own path. "Let's do this," Jess said.
"Why'd you follow me?" he asked her as he strode along, studying the ground. There were wagon tracks and horse tracks, but no tennis shoe treads. Annie walked beside him, careful not to obscure any track. Matt walked behind them in case they overlooked anything.
"Because you're the leader," she replied, looking at him. He arched an eyebrow.
"I'm not the leader," he told her. "Matt's the leader. Or Jess. Not me." She shook her head.
"They listen to you." She shrugged her shoulders. "I'm just going by what I see. Maybe Matt or Jess act like the leader sometimes, but you're the one who looks like they know what they're doing. I followed you because you were leading."
"That's some heavy responsibility."
"That's just how I see it."
"Well, if it seems like I'm leading it's just because I'm worried."
"Because Jason took your insulin?" His eyes narrowed as he looked at her. "Martha told me you were diabetic. She saw you at the hospital." He didn't look satisfied at her answer. "Plus I asked around. You used to look… I don't know… healthier, I guess."
"I got real sick," he said with a sigh. "It's going to happen again if we don't get that insulin back."
"Did Jason know you were diabetic?"
"Yes," he replied. "He did."
"Then why did he take it?" At his look she put a hand over her mouth. "No—you mean he wants to—why? Why would he want to—to—to hurt you?" He shook his head and she touched his arm. He glanced back at Matt and took a deep breath.
"Don't take this the wrong way," he began, "but you're a very pretty girl. And you spent most of yesterday fussing over me instead of paying attention to him."
"But I don't—I mean I—I—I can't believe he'd do this because he was… was jealous."
"Believe it," Matt said behind them. "Jason is twisted, man."
"But I wasn't…" She scowled at him. "I wasn't fussing over you. I was concerned."
"Because you very nearly cracked my skull. I'm not accusing you of anything. And I appreciate your concern, believe me. But that's only part of it—the straw that broke the camel's back, I guess. He's driven by jealousy. He's not a friend of ours, you know."
"Then why—why is he with you guys?"
"He goes over to Cruz's house sometimes. He lives close by. He just happened to show up as we were setting off to, er, play medieval warfare. He invited himself along. He's with us because he wouldn't leave."
"But if he's jealous, why did he go along? What is he jealous of?"
"We're smarter than he is," Matt chimed in, laughing. Aiden nodded.
"He's a grade ahead of me and claims it's because he's a genius," Aiden explained. "He also claims he's crazy. He's not on both counts. Matt and I take all the advanced level courses and," he grinned sheepishly, "I've already proven that I'm much crazier than he is."
Surprisingly, she laughed. "When I first met you I asked if you were on drugs." Matt couldn't hold back a bray of laughter and he scowled at him.
"I remember," he said.
"You said you weren't. I thought you were pretty weird. I remember at that German guy's party when you met my parents you were wearing a lawn chair." Matt laughed harder and Aiden shot him a murderous glare, which made him laugh some more. Annie looked at him, grinning.
"Well, normal is not something I'm usually accused of being," he finally admitted.
"Amen to that, brother," Matt snickered.
"Well, it turns out Jason is the weird one—willing to kill you over a little jealousy. I never liked him. I always thought he was a creep." She shivered. "God. Because I'd rather talk to you than him."
"When we find him, one of you might try and stop me. I might kill him. Or at least give him a pounding he will never forget."
"Get in line," Matt growled.
"Let's just hope we find him," Annie reminded them. They nodded and focused on the road, looking for familiar tracks.
Jess pointed at a track and the drag mark that obscured half of it. Cruz and Tom bent to look. "Looks like he's covering his tracks. Maybe he's dragging something?"
"There's another part of a footprint here," Tom said continuing on down the road. He stopped and looked back. "You think he came this way?"
"It's a shoe with tread," Cruz confirmed. "He tried to cover them up." He looked up suddenly. "Aiden and Matt are going the wrong way."
"How long since we left the split?" Tom asked.
"I don't know—more than an hour?" Jess told him. "Not quite two. They couldn't have found anything, so they should be turning back anytime."
"How far ahead do you think Jason is?"
"Can't be too far—we're right behind him." Tom nodded and grinned. He took a long drink from the earthen jug and wiped his lips with the back of his hand.
"Guess I'll start back," he said. "You guys catch him and give him a thump from me."
"We will," Cruz assured him. "Hurry back."
"No worries," he grinned and started back, running. Jess studied the tracks a moment longer and looked back the way they had come.
"He obviously doesn't want us to find him," he said outlining the track with a finger. "It took us this long to find a couple of tracks he missed covering up." Cruz nodded.
"At least he stuck to the road," he said.
"For now. How close can we get before he decides to just hide from us?" He shook his head. "We've got to get Aiden's stuff back. We've got to."
"I know it. I don't know what Jason was thinking. No, I do know. Jealous." He picked up the earthen jug and they started off down the road in the direction the tracks had gone. "I'm glad Annie is safe and everything, but who knew? I didn't think Jason would do this."
"But he did," Jess said angrily. "And when we catch up, what happens next?" He held the sword he had been carrying out in front of him. "Am I going to have to use this? Aiden should be here to deal with this, not me."
"But you will."
"Of course. Part of me is glad Aiden isn't here. Jason is better off if it's us who finds him anyway."
"Yeah. We won't kill him," Cruz laughed.
"But Aiden might." Cruz looked at him, surprise on his face. Jess shook his head. "I don't know for sure. But I do know Jason has pissed off the wrong person. Without realizing it."
"Yeah. I agree. He's opened a real can of worms. He's threatening Aiden's life."
"I can't see why he did it. What does he hope is going to happen?"
"Aiden dies and leaves it wide open for him and Annie."
"But Aiden isn't with Annie. She's only paying attention to him because she knocked him out on accident. And I know she doesn't like Jason." He frowned. "If he's looking to kill Aiden that makes him dangerous. If we find him he's going to have to find his own way out of here."
"We're just going to leave him here?"
"It's obvious he'd do the same thing for us. So, yeah, I'm prepared to leave him here." He looked up and stopped suddenly. Cruz opened his mouth to ask why he had stopped but followed his pointing finger instead. Ahead of them, a girl in a divided riding skirt was pointing a bow and arrow at them. She looked young, no more than fifteen or sixteen, with long black hair pulled back into a ponytail. Further down the road, beyond her, was something that looked like a carriage on its side. Four horses were tied loosely to the front of it, ears alert. There was another girl with a long honey-colored braid and red silken dress standing to the side of the overturned carriage.
The girl with the bow stared at them anxiously for a moment before lowering the weapon. She motioned them closer with a quick movement of her hand. Jess and Cruz looked at one another for a moment before moving quickly up the road to stand before the girl. She looked at them strangely and they supposed it was the clothes they wore—shorts and t-shirts.
"Did you see them?" the girl hissed, looking past them.
"See who?" Cruz asked curiously. The girl at the carriage watched them with a frightened look.
"The creatures," she said firmly. She glanced at the sword in Jess's hand and frowned. Her bow came back up. "Are you highwaymen?"
"No," Jess answered quickly, lowering the sword. "We're looking for… for a thief." The girl relaxed visibly. "Have you seen anyone coming this way?"
"No," the girl replied. "Just the creatures. They took our footman and our guards fled for their lives. We were trapped in the carriage, but they will be back." The girl gave them a curious look. "Who are you and why are you dressed so strange?"
"We're not from around here," Cruz explained. "My name is Cruz, this is Jess. As he said, we're on the trail of a thief."
"My name is Marya," the girl said with a small smile. "And my companion is none other than the Lady Aramelle, the Daughter-heir of Therin, and Princess of Berelain."