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Even now, as he wandered along a trail that seened on either side like the entryway to a grand estate, he shivered at the ht The screams of the ht of the Wendigo, half invisible in thetheet at their insides

If he could have considered it just an animal, that would have been easier But he had seen it close up, had watched itof o was soend, born of soh Jack and he paused The breeze still felt warm, but he looked around the woods to find that somehow his trail had led hirew thick overhead He glanced about until he saw a splash of bright sunlight and set off toward it, conscious of the general direction of the cabin

For nearly ten hts fros, and soh there had been no rain since he had first woken in Lesya’s cabin A stand of white birches gleamed in the sun, many of the trees stripped of leaves despite the time of year They were not dead trees, but they did not flourish the way most of the forest did, and they had none of the vibrancy of the few apple and pear trees in the garden behind Lesya’s home

Jack wondered if she could save them Only a fool would have denied the influence she had on things around her, the way the flowers and plants flourished Even Jack had thrived in her care, returning to vigorous health, though he believed his own recovery had ic could keep the wood of her cabin alive

"Get her out of your head," he said aloud

The wind through the leaves seeic had not come easily, especially to someone who still bore an eed in The things she had claiht death and the dead near to hihtened and confused hi voice as she called upon her own spirit guide and invited other, darker things to visit the, the laht shards on the kitchen floor The roses on its shade had been as vivid in color as the flowers in Lesya’s garden Jack had not touched the lamp, yet it had moved, and his mother had blamed him She had punished him

Cursed him

Spiritualism filled hi with it, and the arrogance of those who claiic seemed only a hair’s breadth froed in, defrauding s and distraught daughters of their money, and so he had always dismissed it with the same casual disdain

Until now

Since he had first learned of the orld as a small boy, he had yearned to explore its mysteries, to visit exotic ports and secret chambers, to dare its oceans and peaks Now he had been forced to accept the existence of an even wider world There were forces at work around hiht equally be a part of nature For he could not think of Lesya’s witchery as anything but natural She certainly considered it as such, did not even seeic

With a sainst the trunk of the sturdiest Opening the book, he delved into Duh this sort of melodrama did not usually appeal to hilish several years before He thought he reh of the story that he’d be able to decipher this text, even with the little French he knew

The attees for words he recognized and trying to translate the sentences around them from context and memory, it soon becaht himself French

After twenty minutes or so of this fruitless labor, he lost patience entirely and rose The sun had reached its apex, and Jack relished the warhts were still cold, and he would never wish to be in the Yukon during winter again But he did not lanced once in the direction he had coe onward If the book would not provide distraction, then he would have to explore beyond its pages Perhaps he would coet so on his position Surely they could not be more than five old with his fellow captives?

The thought brought Merritt to ris rowth and in the branches overhead, ani to and fro to escape his path But as he walked, the journey became more difficult Exposed roots and stones jutted froether, so that he found hi hi ed not to fall, but the forest had grown so thick that it seeical to continue--especially since he took the density of the woods as an indication that he had been walking deeper into the forest instead of toward its edges--Jack shifted direction Yet fewer than ten minutes later, he ran into a similar obstruction The way had been clearer, paths easilythe trees, but soon he found hiain

Oncesuspicion accolanced around but saw only the shade thrown by branches and the dappling of golden light where the sun shone through

He had come into the forest alone, but now he had company, and now that he had become aware of it, Jack could not understand how he had ht little of the wolf It had aided him when he was in peril, and these days with Lesya had presented only heart-quickening joy and contentuide, the ani in the winter snow, and had given him a rapport with the wild that he would never otherwise have found Why had he not seen it? If he closed his eyes at night, soht he could hear the lonesome howl of a wolf far, far off But then the fire would lull hiainst his in a soft kiss, and the ould be forgotten

This, though, was not the wolf Nor was it the Wendigo But Jack knew it He had felt the presence before, in the woods that day when Lesya had kissed him for the first time He had sensed the intensity of its attention upon him--its menace--and the small hairs on the back of his neck had bristled He had understood with utter clarity that it did not want him there

He peered into shadows, searched the trees for the source of the threat, but saw nothing Frustrated, he turned north and walked until the woods thinned, picking up his pace, tapping the book against his thigh He still felt its attention upon hihtened off by soain he turned east, and after severalof trees Nodding, frustration growing, he backed away fro at the bases of those trees The roots grew on top of one another, twining like vines or lovers’ hands

"All right If that’s the way it e of a broken branch poking his back Jack spun around to find that the forest had filled in behind him Impossibly, there were trees there that had not been there before, giant old-groood, thick branches blocking his way