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Lilah tested the bindings, looking for loose knots and weak points There were none

A vagary of wind brought sounds to her, and she lifted her head to listen Were there voices? Yells? She listened and listened, but all she really heard was the white noise of the endlesslytrees and the chatter of birds and monkeys

"Warrior smart," she told herself

And then she took her ax in both hands and ju froirl’s voice

Nix? No, it was a harder voice

Lilah? Definitely not Lilah’s voice was always a smoky whisper

"Yo!" said the voice "You in there, boy?" This time the voice was accompanied by a sharp poke in his shoulder

He said, "Ow"

"Okay, then y’all’s not dead"

She had a thick accent and pronounced it dayud

Chong licked his lips "Delighted to hear it," he said There was a cool cloth across his eyes, and he had no desire to remove it If he did, then he would have to face the reality of where he was, and he was not quite ready for that He felt absolutely terrible Weakness was the worst part, and it seeo all the way down to his bones He wanted to sleep Not here; at ho in the world would be to be curled up in his bed on the second floor of his family’s A-frame house Maybe Mom would come and tuck the blankets in around him and kiss him on the head in that way she always did, even when he was too big to be tucked in Mo It would be nice, too Being tucked in by his mom would chase all the o away too; to help him drift off to sleep

That would be real nice

But that was a different world Moht that he was dead by now Her skinny, bookish son lost out in the Rot and Ruin Would she be sitting on the edge of his e, her heart broken? Would she be praying that her son wasn’t a zo wasteland?

"Hey," said the girl, poking hi that"

The cloth hipped away, and Chong reluctantly opened his eyes

Riot sat beside him She had cleaned the blood from her face

"You asked if I was dead," he said His voice was thick "Should I be dead? Aot shot, boy, so put that in the pot and see if it’s soup"

"Ah," he said, bracing himself for the return of his memories Brother Andrew, the archer Carter and Sarah

The black-tipped arrow

"Riot?" he said slowly "That’s your na sharp as a new blade of grass"

She studied him with eyes that were older than the face in which they were set There isdo that looked every bit as sharp as Lilah’s, but there was so always saw in Lilah’s eyes Sadness Not new grief, but an older sadness that ran so deep it was as irl as her skin A sadness that are of itself and knew that it had nowhere to go

They were inside what looked to be an old shack Bare walls, a wood bea draped with spiderwebs

"What else do y’all reasped "Eve! What happened to her? Please, tell me that they--"

"She’s here," said Riot quietly "Keep your voice down She’s sleeping"

Chong turned his head and saw a tiny figure curled up under a thin blanket in the far corner He made as if to sit up in order to see her better, but a meteor of pain slammed into him He started to screa the sound before it could escape She bent close and whispered in his ear

"If y’all wake that little girl yonder, I’ll give you so took in a ragged breath through his nose Even that was an effort He felt thin, hollow, like he was host than person He stared into her eyes and saw that there was more fear than threat there

He nodded

Riot studied him for a moment, returned his nod, and slowly re very carefully gasped in a lungful of air The pain subsided slowly

"Poor kid saw her mommy and daddy cut down in front of her," murmured Riot "Hasn’t said a word since Not a peep She ain’t ever gonna be right after so like that, but at least we can let her sleep sos when she’s not dead-dog tired"

Chong nodded "She’s still younge, sad look "Nobody’s that young"

"You see sos"

He waited, but she didn’t elaborate He looked around "Where are we?"

"Old ranger station, I think Brought you here on a quad I filched from one of the reapers who clear don’t need it no lanced down at the feathered end of the arrow that stood up straight from his flesh It was low, just inside the hip bone He touched the feathers ever so lightly "What do we do aboutu to have to git ’er out Your shirt was all bloody so I cut it off ya"

"Ah"

"Wound’s a funny color and it smells, which bothers me ’cause that’s too fast for ordinary infection So I packed some stuff around the entry and exit holes--spiderwebs andnodded; he knew so about natural medicines These days everyone did, and he’d read several survival num moss had acidic and antibacterial properties; spiderwebs, apart fro antibacterial, were rich in vita that this girl knew her natural erous as zoms and wild animals

Over in one corner was a s in a shallow pan of water The bow and quiver of arrows that had once belonged to Brother Danny lay on the floor Souvenirs of an encounter Chong would rather have forgotten

"Howhow bad is it?" he asked cautiously "How bad a Arrow ood stuff, and you ain’t spittin’ blood or nuthin’"

"Hooray?" heit almost a question

"On the downside, you lost about a bucket of blood, boy, and you didn’t do yourself any favors when you grappled hold of Andrew back there I wouldn’ta bet a dead possu such a skinny boy an’ all But there’s sorits"

"Thanks I think" He closed his eyes for a second as a wave of nausea swept through hireasy and clammy "Can you just pull it out?"

Riot snorted and bent down to pick up Brother Danny’s quiver of arrows She fished one of the arrows out and held up the point "That arrow’s got the sa bear tip I’d tear a flank steak offa you if I tried to pull it out That what you want, boy?"