Page 13 (1/2)

Pretending didn't keep you safe

"I heard it growl," Kira said in a low voice

"Nahed "Yarrow," she said and set some pale yellow next to the deep brown The dyer nodded

She exaht "Tansy," she decided finally, and the dyer nodded again

"It growled," Kira said once more

"There be no beasts," the dyer repeated firmly

Kira continued to sort and na the deep red, one of her favorites She picked up a pale lavender near it and frowned "I don't know this one It's pretty"

"Elderberry," the old woer"

Kira folded the lavender threads in her hand "Annabella," she said finally, "it growled It did"

"Then it be hu at beast," Annabella told her in a fir to keep you scairt of the woods There be no beasts"

Together, siowly, they sorted and nah a silent forest with no frightening sounds from the thick bushes on either side of the path, Kira wondered what human would have stalked her, and why

"Thoether, "have you ever seen a beast?"

"Not alive"

"You've seen a dead one, then?"

"We all have When the hunters bring theht thee pile over by the butcher's yard"

Kira wrinkled her nose, re "What a smell," she said "But, Thoht for dinner they had been brought meat in a thick sauce Beside it on the plate were some small roasted potatoes

Kira pointed at the ht It's hare, I think"

He nodded, agreeing

"Everything the hunters brought in was like this Wild rabbit Soe"

"There were deer I sao at the butcher's"

"But deer are gentle, frightened things The hunters bring nothing with claws or fangs They never catch anything that could be called a beast"

Thomas shuddered "Lucky A beast could kill"

Kira thought of her father Taken by beasts

"Annabella says there be none," she confided

"Be none?" Thomas looked puzzled

"That's the way she said it 'There be no beasts'"

"She speaks like Matt?" Thomas had not met the old dyer

Kira nodded "A bit Perhaps she grew up in the Fen"

They ate in silence for a ain "So you've never seen a real beast?"

"No," Thoed

"But probably you know soht for a moment and then shook his head "Do you?" he asked

Kira looked at the table It had always been hard to talk of it, even to her mother "My father was taken by beasts," she told him

"You saw it?" His voice was shocked

"No I was not yet born"