Pete Begler - The Fearless Travelers Guide to Wicked Places

For Shannon, Trixie, and Piper

Motto of the Fearless Travelers

You will get lost.

You will be afraid.

You will fail.

You will fight.

You will remember.

You will rise.

And without doubt:

You will find your way home.

N ight was falling. Time to trumpet her call home, but the pure white swan racing across the darkening sky was silent as the bones of the dead.

Bones.

The thought would not leave her now. She had seen them tumble from the dark cloud like bits of snow. Heard them plunk into the silent sea and sink beneath the cold water, leaving no trace. Four of her brothers and three of her sisters had already been eaten by the dense cloud the color of a rotten plum. There was no song for it. No way to understand it. Never had there been a cloud that brought not shade from the sun, not whispering snow or gentle rain, but death.

The clouds had become wolves, unrelenting beasts, chasing the swans through the sky with silent white paws and cunning noses from which they could not escape.

But I will escape the cloud, the swan thought as she pushed on alone toward home through the vast night.

I must. Two of her babies were awaiting her return.

A long hiss filled the air around her. A trumpet of fear escaped from the swans long white throat. Now she knew the sound of the vaporous beast that had swallowed her brothers and sisters. It was right behind her!

Faster, she told herself. Faster.

She pushed harder, beating her wings until they burned with pain, but it was too late. The sky became muddled with mist. In a few seconds she could see no sky before her and no earth below, only wisps of purple vapor. The smell of the world and all it contained disappeared just as quickly, replaced by the throat-stinging char of woodsmoke. Cold enveloped her and snow began to fall, coating her feathers. The flakes, fat and damp, quickly turned to ice and with a CRACK they tightened like a chain around her body.

Unable to fly, she began to fall.

I will drop through the cloud and crash into the sea below, she thought, and that would be her end. She would sink into the cold water and see her children no more.

A sharp pain clanged through her breast as she hit. A pained honk escaped her beak, taking her wind. The dark water did not drag her down. It was not the sea, but a stretch of ground. As she thrashed on the hard-packed snow, trying to break free of the chains of ice that bound her, the mist began to clear, and the swan saw the gossamer wisps of white where the sky should be. Her body trembled at the strange magic of it all. She was still within the cloud, yet it was like no cloud she had ever traveled through, for nestled inside was a small snow-dusted forest. And gathered in this small forest was a group of humans. All were female. They wore long dresses and stood before a crackling fire of purple flame as the snow fell around them. Their skin was pale as her own feathers and their hair raven black or golden as a finch.

The swan was ignored for a moment, but then a tall woman with raven-black hair and piercing green eyes came to inspect. Beside her was a child with dirty feet and a snarling smile. The child plucked the swan carelessly from the ground. She wrapped her nail-bitten hands around the swans belly and squeezed tight.

Kitchen or the cage? she said to the tall woman.

The woman studied the swan for a moment and grabbed her beak roughly. Finally she nodded.

Put her in the cage.

The child put the swan under her arm and walked toward a tall tree with a large hollow.

Youre lucky, the little girl sneered as she entered the hollow of the great tree. I was hungry for swan. For a moment all was darkness, then the swan found herself in a long narrow hallway, lit with electric lights and lined with cages. Locked behind the thick bars were animals. Bears, a lynx, coyotes, foxes. All paced in their cages and let out screams of horror as the little girl passed with the swan under her arm.

Quiet! she snarled and marched with authority toward the biggest cage of all.

It was vast and filled with birds. Thousands and thousands. All shapes, all sizes, of every type. All frozen in flight. Just floating in the air, wings outstretched. Alive and silent. Among them were some of her brothers and her sisters.

Here you go, the girl snarled, opening the door and stepping inside. Standing among the birds and just as frozen were a half-dozen young women with looks of terror on their faces. With a rough toss, the girl threw the swan into the air. The ice melted! Her wings suddenly worked!

As she opened her wings to fly she let out a long TRUMPET, but instantly she froze again. This time completely. She hung in midair with all the others as the door slammed and the sound vanished into nothing.

I n the week since the bruise-colored cloud had appeared over the tiny coastal town of Mist Falls, three mothers had disappeared. The first while riding her bicycle down a leaf-swept street, the second while sitting in a parked car drinking a cup of coffee, and the last from her bedroom while her new baby napped beside her. Not a single person had witnessed the cloud take the women, but Nell Perkins knew it was true.

Even now, as she piloted her bike along the damp streets, she felt the grim cloud watching everyone from above. One had only to glance up to see that this cloud was different. It didnt float along aimlessly like other clouds, but moved with slow scheming purpose, and while it had first appeared over the trees wispy thin, it had grown fatter with each passing day, like a bloated tick filling with blood.

Nell rode carefully, keeping a watchful eye on the leafy shadows on the cracked sidewalk, making sure to stay within their protection. She tried to tell herself that it was silly. Its just a cloud. But another voice inside her whispered for her to stay hidden from its dark wisps, which reminded her of a ball of cotton candy lying burnt and alone in an abandoned fairground.

The truth was this wasnt the first time people had disappeared from their small town. Over the years almost a dozen people had simply vanished. Most were young women, though one was a boy Nells age named Max. They had just started to become friends when he vanished four weeks ago. He was funny and daring and liked to play the trumpet. They had the kind of friendship built on nothing more than a love of weird jokes and an obsession with chocolate. He didnt vanish in the same way, though it felt the same to Nell. One night he went to sleep and he didnt wake up. He had fallen into a coma. They took him to the hospital, where he was still asleep.

As Nell pulled her bike into the schoolyard, she had the strangest thought. Maybe the cloud was behind it. Maybe it had drifted over his house while he slept and kidnapped a part of him. The thought sent a shiver up her spine and she quickly locked up her bike. The normally busy yard was empty. A few teachers were hustling the late students inside.

Attention, students and staff! Principal Greens voice crackled over the loudspeaker as Nell entered. All students and faculty are not to go to their classrooms. Report directly to the school auditorium for a special assembly.