6
THE FIRE
THE next morning at Primo’s stand, all the kids gather to hear what may be Primo’s craziest scheme yet: He wants to go find the Tree of the Janara. Tonight!
Maria Beppina chokes at the thought of it. The Tree stands miles outside the city walls at the Bridge of Ancient Ages and is where witches gather before a night of mischiefing.
The reason Primo wants to go is the ring. He’s convinced that the ring belongs to a Manalonga and so will protect them from Janara and demons. But how can he be sure?
“He’s crazy!” Sergio says as they leave Primo at the stand.
“Do you think we’ll really find Janara?” Maria Beppina asks on their way down the hill. “And demons?”
She wonders if she might see the rooster that attacks her dad. But how will she recognize the rooster in its demon form? Will it still have black feathers? A beak? Chicken feet?
“Forget Janara and demons!” Sergio says. “Everyone knows bandits are what you really need to be afraid of outside the walls. I heard that ’O Diavolino’s band hijacked the overnight coach from Naples last week!”
“What do we have to worry about ’O Diavolino for?” Emilio says. “We’re not bringing any money, and we’re not going to be anywhere near the highway. It’s the bears and wolves that might kill us.”
“You’re all a bunch of sissies! Wolves and bears are nothing my trusty slingshot can’t handle,” Rosa says, tapping her weapon. “And as for Janara, they can’t be too brave or they wouldn’t wait until everyone’s asleep to go sneaking around to do their mischiefs.”
That afternoon, the kids who live inside the town walls—Maria Beppina, Sergio, and Primo—all tell their parents they are staying at the Twins’, and vice versa.
At the end of dinner, Primo and Maria Beppina go and get Sergio, and the three of them meet up with the Twins on the mill path just outside the walls.
The walk is definitely long, but hardly scary at all. They even stop to
make a nice big fire and have a snack in a clearing near a shepherd’s hut.
When they arrive at the Bridge of Ancient Ages, there are no Janara or demons and no tree that looks particularly supernatural.
Maria Beppina is relieved but feels bad for Primo, who is obviously disappointed and keeps insisting that they just got there too early and the Janara will come.
Sergio won’t wait. He tells Primo he has to go home. “I can lie to my mother, but not my ghost,” he says. “I can’t miss the morning offering.”
Maria Beppina says she has to go back too. “I’m sorry, Primo. I hope the Janara come!”
“Fine! Quitters! Who needs you anyway?” Primo calls after them.
Bad though she may feel for Primo, Maria Beppina feels a little rush of happiness to walk home alone with Sergio. But she soon feels a rush of a different kind—fear.
The two of them are too alone! Without Rosa and her slingshot, Primo and his confidence, and Emilio and his knowledge, it feels like they are going down a completely different path. The night has turned chilly, and Maria Beppina hugs herself as they walk.
They get into a patch of brambles that seems to go on and on. She doesn’t remember having come through them the other way. And why haven’t they come to the clearing where they made the fire?
“Are you sure we’re going the right way?” Maria Beppina says.
“Sure I’m sure! We’re following the river,” Sergio says, pointing. “You can’t lose a river!”
Except that you can and they have. The river narrows into a stream and peters out. They somehow took a fork in the river.
“Dang!” Sergio says. “How far back the other way do we have to go?”
It is now really late, and every sound they hear is spookier and spookier. Maria Beppina can’t decide what to worry about most—Janara, demons, bandits, or wild animals.
The two of them finally get back to where the stream meets the river and they turn down the path toward home.
Suddenly, they hear the sound of something breaking a stick. Loudly!
“Is it a wolf?” Sergio says.
“No, just a cat,” Maria Beppina says as a tiger-striped puss dashes under a log.
“Or a demon,” Sergio says, walking on. “Hey, what’s that up ahead?”
Through the trees and underbrush they see a light. At first Maria Beppina wonders if it’s from the moon. But it’s not.
“It’s a fire!” Sergio whispers, grabbing Maria Beppina’s hand.
She imagines a cauldron stirred by demons and Janara flying, but Sergio thinks it’s something else.
“Bandits!” he says. “We’ve stumbled onto a camp of bandits!”
Sergio squeezes Maria Beppina’s hand tighter as they move forward. “I think I see one,” Sergio says. “I think I see three! They’re warming themselves by the fire.”
They creep further toward the light, even though Maria Beppina isn’t sure why they aren’t running the other way.
At the edge of the clearing they hide behind a tree. But there are no bandits—at least none they can see. “But they could be in that hut over there,” Sergio whispers.
“Wait, that hut!” Maria Beppina says, recognizing it. “This is the clearing where we stopped. This is our fire!”
“But how could it have come back alive?” Sergio says. “Primo kicked dirt on it.”
They walk out from behind the tree to examine the situation, and that’s when they hear something—a noise—coming from inside the shepherd’s hut.
Snoring!
Maria Beppina’s eyes go wide and so do Sergio’s. Someone is here! Whoever it is, though, Maria Beppina and Sergio will never know.
They are already running home.
