Everwild

Joh

Each time Nick arrived at one of her traps, and freed one of her snagged souls, he hoped for that moment of confrontation, where her anger would be undermined by the love he knew she felt for him. But she never came forward to face him. Instead, Mary always left without affording him the dignity of a proper slap in the face.

"She's heading northwest," Charlie said. "D'ya want to follow her again?"

"Where are we?" Nick asked.

Charlie looked at his map. "Somewhere in Virginia. East of Richmond."

This was the farthest south they'd ever been--but there were Afterlights who Nick had come across, who spoke of things even farther south than this. Rumors. Things that could not be believed in the living world, but in Everlost, anything was possible. So Mary would not face him--and now he suspected she never would without a full-out war. There was no question her soul traps were all about gathering up an army. Fine, Mary, thought Nick. If that's what you want, then I'll play.

"Head south."

Charlie shook his head. "Can't. I haven't charted any tracks south of Virginia. Why d'ya wa

Nick grunted in frustration at the mention of it. "That's all I ever hear! Everwild to the north, Everwild to the west, Everwild to the south--"

"Hey, it's not my fault no one knows what's out there!"

"And to the Afterlights there, we're in the Everwild." Perhaps the living world had finally co

"Come on, Charlie--let's tame the Everwild! We'll chart the rails, and mark the deadspots on the way!"

And although Charlie was reluctant to travel to places unknown, Nick knew he was tempted. There was a certain excitement in breaking away from the familiar, and shattering old routines.

"We'll need to look for a finder who can trade us the paper we'll need to make a new map," said Charlie, "but until then I can scratch the map into the engine bulkhead."

Nick slapped him on the back, leaving an accidental chocolate stain. "Let's get started, then. We'll get to the southern Afterlights before Mary can!"

With the furnace blazing on the memory of coal, the steam engine headed south into a vast unknowable wild.

CHAPTER 4 The Outcast

On a warm June afternoon, two finders came to a small-town diner that had burned down many years before. The living world had paved over the spot, and turned it into a parking lot for the bank next door, but in Everlost, the diner remained, its chrome siding shining in the afternoon sun. It was the only building in town that had crossed, and so had become a home to about a dozen Afterlights.

The finders, a boy and a girl, arrived riding a horse. This was unheard of. Well, not entirely unheard of. There were stories about one finder in particular who traveled on the only horse ever known to have crossed into Everlost--and it was said she did travel with a companion, although he never played into the stories much.

As the kids stepped out of the diner, they kept their distance, wanting to, but also afraid to believe that this could be the finder of legend. The cluster of Afterlights were young--and the oldest girl from the diner (who, not surprisingly called herself "Dinah") was their leader. She was ten when she had died, and the thing she remembered about herself more than anything else was that she had long, luxurious hair--so now it trailed behind her like a smooth amber bridal train.

It had been a while since finders had come to town, and their arrival always began with hope, and ended with disappointment. Finders were endlessly searching out objects that crossed into Everlost, bartering and trading the items they found for things of greater value. But nothing much crossed here. The finders usually left with a sneer and didn't come back.

"Sorry," Dinah said to the two, as they got off their horse. "We don't have much to trade. Just this." And she held out a shoelace.

The boy laughed. "The lace crossed, but not the shoe that went with it?"

Dinah shrugged. She expected this reaction. "It's what we've got. If you want it, then give us something in return. If not, then leave." She looked over at the girl, daring to ask what the younger kids in her care were too afraid to ask. "You have a name?"

The girl smiled. "If you want my name, it'll cost you a shoelace."

Dinah pulled the shoelace back, shoving it in her pocket. "A name's not even worth that much here. It's probably made up anyway, like everyone else's."

The girl finder gri

All the younger kids oohed and ahhed, but Dinah kept her stony expression. "That's worth more than a shoelace. And finders don't just give things away."

"Consider it a gift of good will," the girl said, "from Allie the Outcast."

This was the moment Allie loved most. The gasps, and the expressions on their faces. Some would believe she was who she claimed to be, others would have their doubts, but by the time she left, they would all believe--because it was true, and she liked to believe that truth did make itself clear in the end.

The young Afterlights, who had been so standoffish just a moment ago, now crowded around her, bombarding her with questions.

"You're Allie the Outcast?"

"Is it true you can skinjack?"

"Is it true you spit in the face of the Sky Witch?"

"Is it true you charmed the McGill like a snake?"

She glanced at Mikey, who was not at all amused.

"I admit nothing," Allie said with a smirk, which just made them believe it all the more.

Dinah, however was only partially convinced. "All right, if you are who you say you are, then let's see you skinjack." The kids all voiced their nervous approval of the suggestion. "Go on--there's plenty of fleshies around." Allie looked around them, and sure enough the moving blurs of the living swept by them on the street, so easy to tune out when one wasn't looking.