The Scourge (A.G. Henley) - By A.G. Henley Page 0,64

the water. The stream isn’t particularly cold, but I shiver. If the recent electrical current between us is permanent, things are going to be a lot more interesting from now on. A stick cracks in the forest in front of me.

“Peree?” I call.

Something—something not human—moans. I clamber back out of the stream and stand on the opposite side from the creature, poised to run.

“Is someone there?” I say, my voice shaking a little. Whatever it is moves through the underbrush toward me. It sounds too heavy to be an animal. I turn and rush back to the village, not waiting to find out if the creature follows.

I'm curled up in a chair in Peree’s shelter, shivering in my soaked dress. I wasn’t sure where else to go. I’ve been listening, but everything in the village sounds normal. At one point I heard Kora asking after me, but I didn't go out. I don’t want her to see me like this.

I’m not sure why I’m so unsettled. I knew the flesh-eaters were still out there. No one said they weren’t. I guess I’d let my guard down a little, stopped listening for them. Hearing one again brought back memories I’d as soon forget. The smell of rotting flesh, and the sound of agonizing hunger. Memories of Rose and Jack and their unborn child. Even after I begin to breathe easier, I stay curled up in a ball. It feels safer this way.

Eventually I hear Peree’s uneven steps outside, and Nerang’s serene voice. Kai’s with them, too. Is she always around when I’m not? The door opens and something solid raps my head. I yelp.

“Oh, sorry Fenn, I didn’t see you there,” Peree says.

I rub my scalp. “What was that?”

“My crutch—I tossed it at the chair when I came in. Are you okay? You look . . . strange.”

I tell him what happened, and he wraps me up in his arms. “I’m sorry you were alone.”

“I’m better now,” I mumble into his shirt. “How are you feeling?”

He flops onto his bed. “Angry. No, furious. I can’t decide if I’m angrier that she left, or that she let us think she was dead.”

I sit on his bed, too, and gently lift his bad leg onto my lap. “Did you talk to her?”

“Why should I? The situation’s pretty clear, isn’t it? She left us to come here. What else is there to know?”

“Why she left? She must have had a good reason.”

“Like what?”

“You said she was restless in the trees, that she wanted to have more freedom. Maybe she found that here, because Koolkuna’s protected.”

“We protected her!” For a moment I hear the wounded ten-year-old boy Peree was when his mother disappeared. A moment’s enough—it’s painful. “She liked it here. She didn’t like it at home. Either way, it doesn’t change anything. She didn’t love us enough to stay.” He thumps the wall with his fist. “Whatever. I’ll probably find out, whether I want to or not. Nerang says she’s all broken up, and I should give her a chance to explain. He wants us to meet them at the water hole at dawn.”

“The water hole? Why?”

“Who knows? Something about seeing clearly there. It’s Nerang—the man can’t just say what he’s thinking.”

“But the water hole is less protected in the morning.”

His laugh is short and sharp, like the rap of a woodpecker. “Maybe they’re planning to get rid of us now that we know the truth about her.”

“I’m sorry, Peree. I mean, I’m glad she’s alive, but I’m sorry you found out the way you did. I don’t know if this will help you, but she seems lonely. And I think she was going to tell me about you the night you woke up. I don’t think she meant to keep it from you for long.” I reach for his hand and find his knuckles are wrapped in cloth. I hold them up. “What happened here?”

“I couldn’t see straight for a few minutes after I took off. A couple trees are a little worse for wear.”

“I didn’t know you had such a bad temper,” I say, and I’m only half teasing.

“I don’t, usually. I think it’s . . . everything. My leg, Koolkuna, and now my moth– Blaze, Kadee, I don’t even know what to call her. But you’ve been through at least as much as me, and you seem to be handling it a lot better.”

I shrug. “I’m a Groundling. We learn to expect change. Especially me, being Sightless. Things surprise me all