Mateo led the three of them through the woods. With the lunar eclipse well underway, the night was getting darker by the minute. The last glimmers of yellow light made a final effort to poke through narrow gaps in the tall redwoods. They had been walking for at least an hour with no luck finding Priya. Mateo looked back at the shrinking moon behind them. He didn’t need a watch to know that time was short and that the blood moon would be starting soon. If we don’t find Priya fast, we might never see her again. The thought was a little too much for him. He shook it from his head.
“Are we still walking in the right direction?” Mateo asked.
“The moon’s exactly where it was when we started,” said Kristy.
“You know Earth rotates, right?” said Carl. “The moon is constantly changing position in the sky. We might be going in exactly the wrong direction.”
“It’s our best shot,” said Mateo. He led them around a stump.
“Can you be positive for one second?” said Kristy. “Our friend’s life depends on it.”
“Sorry,” said Carl. “Just keepin’ it real.”
“How about keepin’ it to yourself,” said Kristy.
“You know, sailors used to navigate using the North Star,” said Carl. “Not the moon.”
“Well, when you figure out where that is, you let us know,” said Mateo.
“I have no idea where the North Star is,” said Carl.
Kristy shook her head. “Exactly.”
Mateo held back some branches from hitting the others.
“The landscape is changing, wouldn’t you say?” asked Carl. “The higher we climb, the fewer trees there are. That could be a sign we’re getting close, right?”
“Maybe,” said Mateo. He had noticed the same thing. They had been climbing a steep hill for at least ten minutes, and the trees had been thinning out. He crouched to shimmy his way under a bush. When he came up on the other side he was standing face-to-face with a sheer, fifteen-foot cliff. Up to this point, their climb had been constant but gradual. There would be nothing easy or gradual about this new hurdle.
The others crowded in behind him. “Should we go back and find another way?” asked Carl.
“No time,” said Mateo. The cliff was steep, but right away he spotted some footholds in the rocks. “We’re going up. Got your climbing shoes on?”
“Out of my way.” Kristy pushed past them and, like a mountain goat, scrabbled up the rock face.
“Impressive,” said Mateo. Kristy spent endless summer days climbing with her family. She might have been scared of spirits and ghosts and other things that go bump—or shriek—in the night, but she was hardly scared of a little cliff.
“You should see me with my cams and slings,” she said. She reached her arm down from the top. “Need a hand?”
Mateo smiled. He found some footholds and reached for her hand.
As he hauled himself over the edge, Kristy looked down to Carl.
“Let’s go, slowpoke,” she said.
“Keep that hand to yourself,” he said. “I don’t need any help.” Carl took one step up, then another. He was almost to the top when one of his feet slipped, leaving him dangling on the wall.
Kristy and Mateo couldn’t help but laugh. Carl was hardly in real danger. The fall wouldn’t do too much damage.
“Take her hand, macho man,” said Mateo.
Carl looked up at Kristy. She smiled down. “Take it,” she said.
He scoffed, got his footing back, then reached his right arm toward hers. She snatched it and hauled him onto the ridge.
“You need to come out climbing with me sometime,” Kristy said to Carl as he brushed off his pants. “I’ll have you hangdogging and jamming cracks in no time.”
“Sounds pleasant,” he said.
“Um, guys,” said Mateo. “We found her.”
Kristy and Carl ran over.
“There.” Mateo pointed down into a meadow a couple hundred feet below them. Pointing was a little ridiculous, though. Priya was impossible to miss.
Kristy gasped, her hands going to her mouth. “Oh, my.” She looked at Mateo. “It’s her.”
“Unreal,” said Carl.
A dozen flaming torches surrounded Priya’s limp form, now resting in the grass. Above her, eight spirits—some black, some white, and some a grayish color in between—circled in an eerie, rhythmic dance. They moved one way in the air, then another, then did a quick spin of two or three revolutions. Mateo thought he could hear them singing, a sort of wailing hum that vibrated a bit too high and a bit too low for human ears. And he could smell the torches, a scent that reminded him of the incense Priya burned at her house when she’d invite him over for study sessions. The spirits were oblivious to their arrival, keeping their entire focus on Priya.
The ridge they stood on extended all the way around the grassy meadow in a near-perfect circle, rising above piles of rocky fragments at its base. Nothing broke the smooth, green surface below—no trees and no large rocks—giving it the appearance of a perfectly mowed lawn.
“The moon is shining right on her face,” Carl pointed out.
The clock was ticking. Soon that moonlight would turn red. Soon their chance to save Priya would slip through their fingers.
“This isn’t good,” said Kristy. “It’s not good at all. Mateo, I don’t think we can save her. She’s going to turn into a spirit right before our eyes. There’s nothing we can do!”
“Now who’s the negative one?” said Carl.
“Shut it,” said Kristy.
“Hey, I’m not the one who’s giving up,” said Carl. “I’m not the one who says there’s nothing we can do other than sit back and watch our best friend die.”
Kristy lunged at Carl and tackled him, taking both of them to the ground. She effortlessly flipped him onto his back and jammed her knees into his shoulders.
“I’m not giving up!” she growled in his face. “I’m not going to let her die!”
Mateo rushed over. “Kristy, it’s okay. Take it easy.”
“Get off me, you psycho!” Carl grunted and rolled her off of him. They both lay panting in the rocks.
“Don’t ever accuse me of giving up on my friend again,” said Kristy. Her voice cracked.
“We all just need to calm down,” said Mateo. “We’ll figure something out. We have to.”
Carl stood up, brushing himself off once again. “You two go ahead with your figuring. I’m going to go do something.” He stomped away from Kristy and Mateo, toward the valley.
“Where do you think you’re going?” shouted Kristy.
“To save our friend,” said Carl.
“By yourself?” shouted Mateo. “What are you planning on doing?”
“Just watch,” he said.