Part 14 (1/2)
She looked at Joey. ”Sorry, it's just so beautiful here.”
”We can look at it later.” Joey pointed. ”We need to get going. Did you see the direction we need to head in?”
”Let's start back at where you left Jenny. I was there and then I was taken away after I tuned into her...fear, I guess.”
Joey nodded. ”Dancing Deer says that is one way to do it. By tuning into the emotions of the person you're trying to track, it's very easy to find them. Fear is one of the strongest. Rage and l.u.s.t are others.”
”l.u.s.t?”
Joey shrugged. ”I don't know much about that one yet. But the things that people obsess over are stronger than just basic emotions. Pretty interesting stuff, huh?”
”Definitely.”
Joey led them back down the road and into the woods again. Annja laughed. I feel as if this is the third time I've traveled this route tonight. I'm almost getting tired of seeing it again.
Joey glanced back at her. ”Old hat to you now, huh?”
”I was just thinking that.”
”Happened to me, too. The first time I did it.”
Annja frowned. ”I thought you said you didn't know how to do it. That's why we went and saw your grandfather.”
”What I said was I wasn't skilled enough at leading someone else on a spirit track. I knew it would have to be you.”
”You never mentioned that.”
”Would you have believed me?”
”Possibly.”
Joey chuckled. ”I guess maybe you would have.”
They wound their way back down the trail. Annja's legs knew the terrain by now and she was surprised at how relaxed she felt as she moved along. It was almost as if she was able to sense the flow of the land, to read it before she reached it and adjust her body accordingly. The result was she wasn't nearly as exhausted this time.
Joey led them back to the hill where he'd left Jenny. ”Okay. Now what?”
Annja glanced around. The last time she'd been there, she'd been out of her body and tuning into Jenny's emotional state. But now, being there in the flesh, it didn't seem possible to do what she'd done back at Dancing Deer's home.
”I don't know.”
”Annja.”
Annja shook her head. ”It doesn't look familiar. I don't know if I can do this again.”
”Of course you can. You just need to stop thinking that it's different now from how it was when you were in the chair. It's not different. It's the same. It's all connected.”
Annja closed her eyes. She tried to remember how she'd felt when she reached this point. She could feel her heartbeat increase as the waves of fear gripped her insides again. She was Jenny. She was feeling the approach of some kind of unseen danger. And then she was swept up.
Running.