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"Taroup Give him a break His mother died He’s allowed to feel any way he wants about it"

"My great-aunt died there, too," Celia said "My parents talk about her all the time, but I never knew her I’m not mad at you, Call I just wish it didn’t happen to either of us To any of theht his naht be Rafe He was tall, with a thicket of curly dark hair, and he wore a T-shirt with a grinning skull on it that glowed a faint green in the di apologetic to Celia and Rafe, until Tamara turned to Aaron and said fiercely: "But it’s like he doesn’t care They were heroes"

"No, they weren’t," Call burst out, before Aaron could speak "They were victiic, and it can’t be fixed Not even by your Eneht?"

There was a shocked silence Even people who had been involved in other conversations in other parts of the bus turned around and gaped at Call

His father had blaes for his mother’s death And he trusted his dad He did But with all of their eyes on him, Call wasn’t sure what to think

The silence was broken only by the sound of Master Rock The bus had turned onto a bumpy dirt path

Very quietly, Celia said, "I hear there are Chaos-ridden animals near the school From the Enemy’s experiments"

"Like horses?" Drew asked

"I hope not," Tamara said with a shudder Drew looked disappointed "You wouldn’t want a Chaos-ridden horse if you had one Chaos-ridden creatures are the Eneot a piece of the void in them and it makes them smarter than other animals, but bloodthirsty and insane Only the Enemy or one of his servants can control them"

"So they’d be like evil-possessed zombie horses?" Drew asked

"Not exactly You’d know the colors inside of theular That’s the scary part," put in Gwenda "I hope we don’t have to go outside nize and kill them I want to do that"

"Oh, yeah," Call said under his breath "I’isteriu attention to hi to Celia say, "I hear there’s a new type of Chaos-ridden where you can’t tell from the eyes The creature doesn’t even knohat it is until the Enemyon you or --"

The bus stopped with a jerk For a second, Call thought as station, but then Master Rufus rose to his feet "We’ve arrived," he said "Please file off the bus in an orderly fashion" And for a fewwas really ordinary, as if Call were just on a field trip Kids grabbed their luggage and bags and jostled toward the front of the bus Call got off just after Aaron and, since he didn’t have to collect any baggage, was the first one to really take a second to look around