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Chapter One

IT WAS POURING RAIN, BUT ere greeted back at our home in Kahayatle with a hero’s welcoroup of injured warriors to the hut set up for treating them

We were all soaked to the bone, but no one other than , lost and confused about what I was doing there I should have been back at the canner place, searching for Bodo He should have been here with irls living in The Everglades

Faces that were faed the wound onover us, chatting with one another, stopping occasionally to hug or just touch us before asking questions When no ansere forthco from the exhausted and shell-shocked, they speculated as to the reasons for various injuries and whispered about the possible outco attacked the vicious group of canners who lived only a few shortacross the sky lit up the faces arounder haunted the streets of our country The thunder ru as if it were right over the swa the roof off the inferno that used to be the canners’ ho around er healers yet that we had let so with that problem would be later, e kne many people would survive their injuries and could discuss the potential fallout Maybe the two chiefs, Kowi and Trip, were thinking the sa I was - that we could delude ourselves for just a little while that there wouldn’t be retribution and that the monsters would just disappear … fade into the horizon never to be seen or heard froently laid on raised pallets set up on the floor of the hut and on the ground just outside when the clinic was too full to handle any more of them Many were moved soon after, to the hoerly volunteering to see after these kids who had been captured and kept by the canners, abused horrifically before being set free and brought to Kahayatle It was almost an honor to take theain

Celia was on her feet for hours, tending to the wounded and sitting with theers or feet with the one hand she had reht be able to heal their physical wounds, the emotional ones ay deeper and would be hened scar tissue I saw their faces and knew that being with Celia was the best thing we could offer theave them hope, and that was powerful medicine

Peter ca me away from the crowds

"Where are we going?" I asked,flat

"Back ho at o there"

"Why not? It’s where we live You don’t want to stay in the clinic, do you?"

"No But I don’t want to go back to our hut, either" I looked down at the ground, fighting back the tears

"Why not?"

I just shook oing to cry like a stupid baby

Peter sighed "Look … I know you miss Bodo I know that’s what this is all about But you can’t let that stop you fro, Bryn" He stepped closer and put his ar "This isn’t like my sister, Lily Bodo could still be out there"

"Do you really think so?" I wanted to believe him Peter had seen his sister brutally ht

"Yes, I really do No one saw hi to my eyes despiteinmade the picture so clear for me in my oing to leave He kneas the only way out"

"Maybe he was busy fighting someone off, I don’t know Maybe he was injured But he’ll find a way to get back, anyway You know hih to make him flinch, but he didn’t pull away

"What if he is injured? And if we don’t get back there, he’ll die from it!" I wanted to run to the canoes i rain, that ain, or that I didn’t even knohere they were keeping the boats and paddles or the bike or truck I would need to get back to the canner place

My desire to run must have shown in my eyes, because Peter stepped in betweenboth ofoing back there You are staying here and waiting And if he coood If he doesn’t, oh well, we hast "What’s wrong with you, Peter? We’re talking about Bodo He’s … he’s … faone crazy in the rip on reality But all I saw there was fir with me It’s called loss and you have to deal with it Now, coet stuck out here with the snakes"

As if on cue, a red and black serpent slithered across a set of tree roots very near to where ere standing I should have stepped away, butlike they should have; I just stood and watched it go by Luckily, the snake had so cover under a nearby clurabbedand followed duht be doing right noondering if he was alive or dead, injured or healthy A piece of me hoped he was injured, because otherwise if he was alive but not here, it was probably because he was choosing not to be And I didn’t want to think about what that over I’d only ever done that once - drank tooa party and severely regretted it the followingI ever wanted to repeat Today’s throbbing headache mixed with the dampness that seeoverme a plastic bottle of water "And Coli told me to tell you to chew on this" He handedso to chew on a piece of bark sent over fro, are we? And it’s not a piece of bark Or maybe it is, but it’s like aspirin, she said"

"Shut up," I said, snatching the bottle of water fro Coli sent over Oneht fras

Peter left the sleeping area and ca it down next tosome bread and fruit inside I had zero appetite, so I pushed it away

"You have to eat That injury isn’t going to heal if you starve yourself"

"Who cares" I laid back down, turning my back to Peter and Buster who’d wandered in fro into the basket