Part 4 — The Copper Cloth

As we walked, the forest came alive again.

Turns out, it really had emptied out.

When the Gert traps went up, everything near them had vacated—partially to avoid capture but mostly to alert the rebels in the area. 

By the way, when I say everything, I mean every kind of thing. Animals, people, sentient plants—all of them took a hike towards the nearest rebel camp. Lucky for us, I guess. By the time we were caught, the rebels were already on their way to deal with it. 

On the other hand, we weren’t exactly free.

And once Brigdale’s denizens found out the coast was clear, they returned in droves. Suddenly, the night was a lot less peaceful, and I was way too tired for that. But it also felt less strange. And I definitely needed less strange. 

We walked in a large group down the path, Fi, Greg, Luther, and me, with the rebels surrounding us on all sides. Their leader stuck to the front, chatting with a couple of buddies who stayed close to him up there. 

The rebels—I’ll just stop here and backtrack. The people wearing blingy masks who’d decided to “escort” us to Crestmeer? They turned out to be rebels. I should’ve started with that. I’d suspected it when they showed up in rebel territory, but eventually, I’d had to ask Fi if we’d been taken by some kind of merry thieves brigade or something.

She laughed at that. Like a lot. And then she told me, but she also seemed a little weird about the question, so I kind of let it go.

So, the rebels—they were friendly enough. They mostly ignored us, but so far, they’d been kind. A woman in a blue sequined mask even leapt over and caught me when I tripped on a branch near the start. Afterwards, she asked me how my hands were feeling and if my ropes were too tight. I’m not sure what she’d have done if I’d said they were. Like, isn’t that the point? But I appreciated the question. 

And speaking of questions, I had several.

Like, why were we tied up next to Greg and Luther when I was pretty sure Fi had said she was part of the rebellion?

Also, how long was this walk going to take? We’d been going strong for several hours.

But mostly, I needed to know when we might get something to eat because I was so, so hungry.

I cleared my throat next to Fi, and she looked over. “You got any food on you?” I whispered. 

Before she could speak, an apple dropped from the sky and onto the ground a few feet in front of us. “Thanks!” Fi called up, and I heard the fluttering of wings above us as she scrambled towards the apple.

But then Luther spotted it as well, and they both managed to get almost on top of the thing before they realized they couldn’t pick it up with their hands stuck behind their backs. 

A rebel with a pink bejeweled mask chuckled as he passed them, but another actually stopped and picked it up. “This yours?” he asked, and Fi and Luther both nodded. The rebel snorted. “You sharing it?”

“You get your own owl apple!” Fi snapped as she hip checked Luther. He stumbled, and the rebel laughed. He reached into his bag. 

“Hold on, now, hold on. I have some, too.” He came out with another apple and held both out. Fi and Luther stared at him, and then he laughed again. “Ooooh. Right.” He grabbed a knife and turned to the front. “Okay if I untie them?” he called. 

The entire party came to a halt. A clearing opened up between the rebel and his leader.

The leader turned. “Why?” 

The rebel gestured to Fi, Luther, and the apples. “You want me to feed them?” 

The leader sighed, then eyed the four of us. “You gonna try to run?” We shook our heads. “Or fight?” We continued to shake. He nodded to the rebel with the apples. “Go ahead.” 

So, that was the first thing I ate in Turningtree. A big, red apple. Honestly, if I’d thought about it for like a second, I might’ve thought, “Wow, is that bad symbolism? Maybe I should hold out for something else,” but my blood sugar was pretty low, and it didn’t even occur to me.

And it turned out, it didn’t matter, so I guess hooray for me.

I was munching on the apple, feeling great, when Greg started edging closer to me. He had his own apple, and someone had handed him some sort of roll, so he was chewing as he spoke. “So . . . Ian, is it?” 

I nodded.

“We got off to a bad start, Ian. I want to make amends.” He took a bite of his roll.

I smiled, and he smiled back, sweeping a bit of hair from his eyes with his apple hand. I was pretty sure I didn’t like him, but maybe he could change my mind.

At that point, Fi spotted our fraternizing, and she did not like it. She’d been walking ahead staring up at the sky, maybe trying to will an owl down for a message? But when she saw Greg, she backtracked towards us.

Greg smiled again, this time more cautious. “I was just telling your friend—”

“Don’t care. You offered me up to get shot,” Fi snipped, and Greg raised his hands. 

“So I did,” he admitted. “A moment of weakness. But I also thought you were one of them, so—”

“So, what? We’re friends now?” Fi hissed, lowering her voice. “Not being with them doesn’t make us with you.” She pulled on my arm, moving us away. “Come on.”  

But Greg stuck with us. He jerked his head towards a group of rebels walking nearby and leaned in closer. “Look. I’ve been watching these guys for awhile now. They’re relaxed. Distracted.” He nodded his head towards another crew walking ahead of us. “They don’t even know where Luther is right now.”

And at that, I realized I also didn’t know where Luther was. I looked around, trying to spot him, and I finally noticed him crouched behind a bush a few yards ahead of us, glancing furtively at Greg.  

Fi sighed. “That’s because they know we can’t escape. And they see him. Everyone sees him.” 

“I see him,” a raccoon agreed as he passed by us, walking upright on his hind legs. 

I stifled a laugh. Ahead of us, a rebel nudged her friend, and they both glanced towards the bush. Greg glowered and gestured for Luther to join us. 

Luther stood up, looking sulky—but before he could even take a step in our direction, the moss below him slid him towards us. He nearly jumped out of his skin.

“See,” Fi whispered, “The rebellion isn’t just this group. It’s the entire forest.”

Greg started looking kind of pale. 

He was already pasty, with dark, curly hair that made him look even paler. I suspected he hadn’t spent much time outdoors. The Brigdale post must’ve been new. 

“Well, what do we do, then?” Greg asked. Luther slid up, looking deeply disturbed. He glanced down at the moss.

“We wait and see,” Fi said, and then she stomped ahead, her gaze resting towards the front of the pack. I tried to follow her, but I got snagged on Luther. 

And then we spilled over each other, Luther falling and grabbing at me, me starting to trip, and Greg half trying to help, half trying to keep us from taking him down with us. As he stumbled, Greg bumped one of the rebels walking near us, and that rebel dropped her pack, which spilled open before us.

Inside, on top of all of her other stuff, was a small, copper-colored handkerchief.

It gleamed, even in the dark.

She scooped up her bag and closed it. 

“Sorry about that,” I offered, and the rebel smiled, turning away from us.

I picked myself up, and I was about to try to catch up with Fi again when I noticed the look on Greg’s face. He was stock still, staring ahead at the rebel and her bag.

Something had changed.

He was excited. Like, really excited.

“You see that?” he whispered, and I didn’t know what to say, but Greg didn’t care. It wasn’t really a question.

“You think it’s—” Luther started, but Greg cut in.

“No mistakin’ it. The cloth is the cloth.”

And Luther just stood there with his mouth gaping.

Greg grinned. “I think we’ve found our way out, boys,” he said as he picked up speed, tailing the rebel with the bag. 

“Wait, what? How?” I asked, and Luther turned to me.

“That was the Copper Cloth,” Luther whispered, as if I should know it. “The Copper Cloth,” he repeated, staring harder at me. “The . . . It’s magical? You use it to go from place to place real fast?” 

And I must’ve looked ridiculous because then he laughed. “You don’t get out much, huh, Brigdale boy?” 

I nodded. And then I realized he’d called me “boy,“ and I filed that away in the Luther file in my head.

“Crestmeer up ahead!” a rebel called, glancing our way.

And as he said it, I noticed there was a bit more structure to the path. Where there had been just dirt, there were now bits of stonework, and the trees were beginning to thin. If I squinted, I even thought I could see smoke and . . . maybe light coming from somewhere in front of us.

The sky was more navy than black. We’d walked all night.

The rebel turned, and Luther wrapped an arm around me. “It’s alright. I’ll be your guide,” and I almost groaned, but then I saw Fi heading back our way. She looked tired.

As she neared, Luther grinned.

“We found our ticket outta here, sister,” he announced, as if he’d done something useful. Fi raised an eyebrow. She looked like she might kick him at any moment. 

“Guess what it is?” he crowed. 

“No.” 

He looked a bit hurt at that, but then Greg returned, and suddenly, the four of us were together, and it almost felt comfortable. Like when you’ve been assigned to a random group project in school, and you know it’s a weird mix, but you also know you can make it work.

“Alright, friends. We’ve been offered a sacred opportunity. A chance to free ourselves and bring glory to the kingdom. Both. At. The. Same. Time,” Greg whispered.

“Geez,” Fi sighed.

“We’re gonna get promoted, Luther,” Greg declared. “For sure this time.”

“Okay—” Fi started, but Luther held up a hand dramatically.

“‘We’re gonna take back the Copper Cloth.”

Fi’s face dropped.

“Told ya,” he snickered, and then Fi actually did kick him.

“Ah!” he rasped, and she high-tailed it back to the front of the pack. 

“That’s good. Less suspicious,” Greg whisper-yelled as I ran after Fi and Luther limped behind us. 

And that’s when it occurred to me that I might actually be in a heist story. Like a really quirky one. And I wasn’t loving my odds, but I had to admit, it did sound like fun. 

And I genuinely thought that all the way up to the moment when we tried it. When I realized just how wrong I was.