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One of the elders speaks back, his gaunt face pock You’ll see Dead wrong"
The elders start to laugh A snicker at first, then a jocular outburst, like a braying that sends shivers down ," I whisper to Sissy, "just keep e square, the streets are deserted, not a soul in sight Even the cottage s are shuttered closed, doors shut Echoes ofout in the distance, trailing us all the way back to e
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WE WAIT FOR dawn Huddled around our packed bags in the rooht Sissy, Epap, and I have drawn up a plan: we’ll follow the railway tracks On foot A journey that ht take several weeks, if not months, but at least we’ll be free and not trapped inside a train car We can forage and hunt for food And once we draw close enough to the destination, we should be able to view it from afar and decide whether to proceed or not It is this ability to determine our own destiny that sells us on this plan
Sissy wants to leave immediately but I talk her out of it Darkness in the woods would be so dense, we’d be at the utter ht And besides, on’t be able to cross the bridge until it lowers tomorrow Best to hunker down for now, stay wary Sleep if possible
Gathered in the hearth, atch the fronds of fire Ben co, Sissy and Epap steal out to the river, bring back enough water for everyone No one’s around, everything is quiet, they say The night deepens, thick with e, not even a speck of green light or the flickering waver of candlelight The night air is thick withus to sleep We decide on one-hour shifts At the first sign of trouble, we’ll run out together Still wired froht at the train station, I volunteer for the first watch It’ll be hours before I can sleep, I think
Alone now, the cottage has fallen quiet Minutes pass; I think I hear the sound of faint snoring My breath frosts the panes, then dissolves away, only to reappear seconds later, an epheradually At first, I think one of the boys upstairs is singing But as the voice gains force, lyrics e not froh the frosted glass It’s pitch black outside--nothing to be seen I crack theopen and the voice co unusual about singing, but soly different
For one, it’s a solo Stripped-down, al And so else The voice is ihtly exuberance, and the lyrics are stripped of the usual saccharine optiht
Lord, God of Power
This night and every night
My breath, frosting on the glass, quickens I know this song
It is a lullabyto me
The voice is co I remember of her--was sed chain of metal links But the h I do not know theotten lock
Within seconds, I’ stops But not before I see a faint haze of gray retreating away I give chase
He’s fast It has to be a he; the village girls, ha this speed "Hey, you! Wait!" I yell
He doesn’t look back, doesn’t slon Instead, he picks up the pace He ducks behind a cottage By the time I reach it, he’s nowhere to be found It’s all silent cottages and darkness Then--there His shadoafer-thin figure cutting across thein the darkness Now I knoho it is
"Clair," I shout
She keepsto keep pace A few minutes later, she’s reached the fortress wall She disappears into the shadows like a stone dropped into a black lake She’s there, and then she’s not
When I reach the wall, I touch the cold black steel S an entryway Then I see her footprints, little silvery splotches in the night dehisking beside the wall toward the corner tower I race along, find a door Pull it open, and then I’m inside the tower Her boots clomp-clomp on the spiral staircase
"Wait, Clair!" I yell, andloudly on the metal steps
She’s not in the tower room A door that opens outside to the top of the fortress wall is open When I walk through, I see her standing outside halfway along the length of the wall, gazing out at thefor me
She doesn’t turn around until I stop a fewsteadily, calmly
Finally, she turns to me Her eyes are shiny and wet
"I kneas you," she says "You’re just the way your father described you"
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