Chapter 40 Elin

40

Elin

Parque Nacional, Portugal, October 2021

Elin wakes to the muffled sound of Isaac's voice outside. A low murmur.

She looks through the window to see him pacing the decking, phone clamped to his ear.

Behind him, the sunrise is a spectacle, jagged peaks turned the soft yellow of warmed butter, but he's looking the other way, oblivious. Whatever this call is, it's got all his concentration.

Getting dressed, she heads out. ‘Coffee?' she mouths, waving a hand, trying to catch the thread of what he's saying, but he's speaking too quietly for her to hear.

Elin moves a little closer, straining her ears. Single words drift her way, Airstream , later , but nothing that reveals who he's speaking to. She waves again.

‘Please,' he finally mouths back, giving her a thumbs-up.

Back inside, Elin flicks on the coffee machine, glancing towards the other Airstream. No signs of any activity, but she's hauled right back to last night, and the odd, flickering light illuminating the shadows of the interior.

It consumed her thoughts as she'd drifted off last night, morphing into a strange, warped hybrid imprinted behind her eyes. Pira on map, map on Airstream. Nonsensical.

By the time Isaac comes back inside, Elin's already poured the coffee. ‘Everything okay?' She slides the steaming mug across the counter towards him.

‘That was Penn. He's going to try to come out early. Maybe tomorrow, depending on flights.' Isaac shakes his head, his expression worried.

‘What's wrong?'

‘I don't know. He was rambling a bit when I told him everything, in shock, maybe, about the map. Kept coming back to it.'

‘You sent him the photo? The—' She stops, her phone loudly vibrating on the counter.

FaceTime. Steed.

‘Give me a minute,' she says to Isaac.

‘What's up?' Elin smiles as she answers. ‘Got to be bad if you're calling this early.'

Expecting a quick comeback, she's thrown when it doesn't arrive. Steed's face is still. None of the usual animation.

‘Just wanted to talk. I've been thinking about what you said the other day, about me being there for you.' He clears his throat. ‘I wanted you to know it's been the same for me. Not sure I realised it until now, with you being out there, I mean. Don't reckon you ever know how much you rely on someone until they're not around.'

‘So what have I done for you?' Elin laughs, trying to lighten the mood, a little unnerved by his awkwardness. ‘Apart from providing you with an endless source of shit jokes and junk food?'

Steed smiles, his eyes roaming her face in a way that's making her feel strange. ‘A whole lot,' he says quietly. ‘The job we do, it's tough, isn't it? The late nights, the stress, all the stuff we see. Having someone there that you can talk to properly, switch off with, it makes things' – he searches for the right word – ‘easier. Puts things in perspective.'

‘Need to go away more often if I'm going to get this kind of praise.'

‘That's the last thing I want to encourage.' His face turns serious again. ‘Not sure if I'd cope without you.'

‘Well, you don't need to worry on that score, you're not going to be able to get shot of me.'

Steed laughs, but as her gaze finds his, something shifts, something she can tell neither of them were expecting.

His eyes dart away from the screen as if he's interpreted it with the same weight.

The conversation meanders for a few more minutes, and then they say their goodbyes.

Rather than the easy feeling she's usually left with after speaking with him, Elin's not only feeling confused, but uncomfortable. Like there's something still lingering there, between them, the conversation not quite resolved.

Still mulling it over, she picks up her coffee and takes a seat next to Isaac. ‘Sorry to interrupt … you were saying about Penn, and the map.'

Isaac nods. ‘I don't think he could make sense of it. He kept saying the same thing, over and over. That Kier would never leave one behind, not voluntarily.' He sips his coffee. ‘He asked if we'll take another look ourselves, at some of the places she's painted on there.'

‘Before he arrives?'

‘Yeah.' His brow furrows. ‘He sounded desperate, Elin. Really desperate.'

*

‘ETA?' Elin stops halfway up the track, leaning against a tree to catch her breath. Her heart is thumping in her chest.

The gentle meandering path up the hillside has rapidly mutated, steepening into severe switchback turns that required every bit of their concentration. All around them, the trees were thinning out, the grass receding to bare ground, mottled granite boulders protruding from the soil.

‘Five minutes max. I don't think it's far from here.' Isaac cross-references with the map on his phone. ‘Hard to tell as the geography on Kier's map isn't exact, but it's the only place in this area that could work as a viewpoint.' He watches her interlace her fingers, stretch her arms out in front of her. ‘Rib playing up again?'

‘Yeah, it's not properly sore, but I'm feeling it.'

‘We can take a break if you want.' He gestures to a pile of stacked-up logs. ‘Sit down for a bit. The sun's pretty strong now we're losing the trees.'

Smiling, Elin shakes her head. ‘If I sit, there's every chance I won't get back up again.'

They continue climbing.

On the last few turns, the plateau at the top finally becomes visible, the land flattening out ahead of them.

They take a shortcut, scrambling the last few metres, up and off the path, cutting across a scrubby patch of grass. Walking forwards a few feet, Isaac whistles between his teeth. ‘Okay, worth the hike.' He gestures to the large granite boulders sitting in the centre of the plateau. ‘They block the view of the other side, but even so.'

Elin joins him, still breathing heavily. He's right. The boulders are vast, obscuring the view on the right, but the vista from this side, right down the valley, is imposing.

Tracks crisscrossing both woodland and open land pull her gaze forwards to the hazy peaks on the horizon. In the bright light, everything has a fragile, unreal quality. Blink and it would be gone. A mirage, an illusion.

Isaac points. ‘You can see the fojo.'

‘Fojo?'

‘The wolf trap.' He frowns. ‘Didn't realise it was quite so close to camp. Just the other side of the hill.'

Elin walks a few steps forwards, follows his gaze.

Two long granite walls draw vertical lines down the folds of the hillside, converging to a large circular pit made from the same stone.

‘Hunters used to beat the wolves into the pit to stop them from killing cattle. The men would encircle the top of the pit.' He raises an eyebrow. ‘Like a net closing in.'

Elin suppresses a shudder. The perfect analogy for this park, how it could feel sometimes. Despite the space, the open vistas … a net, closing in.

‘It's impressive, all of it, but what I don't get,' she looks in the other direction, ‘is how this relates to what Kier painted on the map.'

‘The lens?'

‘Yeah.' Elin turns the image over in her mind: the circle of landscape inside the lens, almost artificially bright.

Still mulling it over, she walks across to the other side. Slipping between the two boulders, she's greeted by two more, even larger than the first. The stone is a pale grey, lighter in patches, like it's been bleached by the sun.

‘The view from where you are is definitely better,' she says, peering between them. ‘Can't see much from here.' Elin stops, taking a sudden, sharp pull of breath. ‘Hold that thought. I think the view from this side is a little more interesting.'