Messenger - Lois Lowry [41]
"I'll cut them," Matty said. "Wait here."
Kira stood waiting, Frolic suddenly quiet and wary at her feet, while Matty sliced through the vines at eye level ahead of them.
"Ow," he said, and winced. An acidic sap dripped from the cut vines and burned where it landed on his arm. It seemed to eat through the thin cotton fabric of his sleeve. "Be careful not to let it drip on you," he called to Kira, and motioned to her to come forward.
They made their way carefully through the passageway, which was a maze of vines, Matty in front with his knife. Again and again the sap spattered onto his arms until his sleeves were dotted with holes and the flesh beneath was burned raw. Their progress was very slow, and when finally the path widened, opened, and was free of the glistening growth—which they could see had already, amazingly, regrown and reblocked the path they had just walked—they stopped to rest. It had begun to rain. The trees were so thick above them that the downpour barely penetrated, but the foliage dripped and was cold on their shoulders.
"Do you have more of that herbal salve?" Matty asked.
Kira took it from her pocket and handed it to him. He had pushed back his sleeves and was examining his arms. Inflamed welts and oozing blisters had made a pattern on his skin.
"It's from the sap," he told her, and rubbed the salve onto the lesions.
"I guess my sweater was thick enough to protect me. Does it hurt?"
"No, not much." But it wasn't true. Matty didn't want to alarm her, but he was in excruciating pain, as if his arms had been burned by fire. He had to hold his breath and bite his tongue to keep from crying out as he applied the salve.
For a brief moment, he thought that he might try to use his gift, to call forth the vibrating power and eradicate the stinging poisonous rash on his arms. But he knew he must not. It would take too much out of him—it would, in Leader's words, spend his gift—and it would hamper their progress. They had to keep moving. Something so terrifying was happening that Matty did not even try to assess it.
Kira did not know. She had never made this journey before. She could feel the difficulties of this second day but did not realize they were unusual. She found herself able to laugh, not aware of the incredible pain that Matty was feeling in his singed and blistered arms. "Goodness," she said, chuckling, "I'm glad my clematis doesn't grow that fast or that thick. I'd never be able to open my front door."
Matty rolled his sleeves back down over the painful burns and returned the salve to Kira. He forced himself to smile.
Frolic was whimpering and trembling. "Poor thing," Kira said, and picked him up. "Was that path scary? Did some of the sap drip on you?" She handed him to Matty.
He saw no wounds on the puppy, but Frolic was unwilling to walk. Matty tucked him inside his jacket, curling the ungainly legs and feet, and the puppy nestled there against his chest. He felt the little heart beat against his own.
"What's that smell?" Kira asked, making a face. "It's like compost."
"There's a lot of decaying stuff in the center of Forest," he told her.
"Does it get worse?"
"I'm afraid it will."
"How do you get through it? Do you tie a cloth around your nose and mouth?"
He wanted to tell her the truth. I've never smelted it before. I've come through here a dozen, maybe two dozen, times, but I have never smelted it before. The vines have never been there. It has never been like this before.
Instead, he said, "That's the best method, I suppose. And your salve has a nice herbal odor. We'll rub some of it on our upper lips, so it will block that foul smell."
"And we'll hurry through," she suggested.
"Yes. We'll go through as quickly as we can."
The searing sensation in his arms had subsided, and now they simply throbbed and ached.
But his body felt hot and weak, as if he were ill. Matty wanted