Page 29 (1/2)

Bravery

That night at dinner, she ate alone

Now that she’d spent a day cutting trees herself, the wooden table in the dining hall no longer horrified her The grain of the wood felt reassuringly solid, and tracing its whorls with her eyes was easier than thinking

For the first tiain, stew again A couple of days ago, Shay had explained that the plump meat in the steas rabbit Not soy-based, like the dehydrated Bol, but real anie of the S killed, skinned, and cooked suited her mood Like the rest of her day, this meal tasted brutal and serious

Shay hadn’t talked to her after lunch, and Tally had no idea what to say to Croy, so she’d worked the rest of the day in silence Dr Cable’s pendant seehtly as the vines, brush, and roots grasping the railroad tracks It felt as if everyone in the Smoke could see what the necklace really was: a symbol of her treachery

Tally wondered if she could ever stay there now Croy suspected what she was, and it seemed like it would be only aa terrible thought had kept crossing her ed, but she’d lost her chance by going there as a spy

And now Tally had co, she’d shafted her best friend

Like walking poison, she killed everything

She thought of the orchids spreading across the plains below, choking the life out of other plants, out of the soil itself, selfish and unstoppable Tally Youngblood was a weed And, unlike the orchids, she wasn’t even a pretty one

Just as she finished eating, David sat down across froed to s alone had rely when everyone knew she should be pretty Today was the first ti to the Smoke

David reached across and took her hand "Tally, I’m sorry"

"You’re sorry?"

He turned her palers

"I noticed you didn’t wear the gloves Not after you had lunch with Shay It wasn’t hard to guess why"

"Oh, yeah It’s not that I didn’t like them I just couldn’t"

"Sure, I know This is all et out of here? I’ve got so the cold pendant against her neck and reot soh the Suished with shovelfuls of dirt; s coht with candles and electric bulbs; and a handful of young uglies pursuing an escaped chicken

They clie from which Tally had first looked down on the settle it to a cool, flat outcrop of stone where a view opened up between the trees As always, Tally noticed how graceful David was, how he seemed to know every step of the path intimately Not even pretties, whose bodies were perfectly balanced, designed for elegance in every kind of clothing, moved with such effortless control

Tally deliberately turned her eyes away froloith pale ainst the dark shore of the forest

David started talking first "Did you know you’re the first runaway to come here all alone?"

"Really?"

He nodded, still staring down at the white expanse of flowers "Most of the ti theht they’d seen each other in the city, saying that the mysterious David would take her to the Smoke Back then Tally had hardly believed there was such a person Now, sitting next to her, David seemed very real He took the world ly she’d ever met - more seriously, in fact, than middle pretties like her parents In a funny way, his eyes held the sah without their coldness

"My mother used to in the old days," he said "But now she’s too old"

Tally sed They always explained in school about how uglies who didn’t have the operations eventually became infirm "Oh, I’hed "She’s plenty fit, but uglies have an easier tie"

"Oh, of course" Tally remembered her reaction to the Boss that first day Only a couple of weeks later she was e created

"So coded directions like you did But it’s always been three or four in a group No one’s ever come all alone"

"You must think I’m an idiot"

"Not at all" He took her hand "I think it was really brave"

She shrugged "It wasn’t that bad a trip, really"

"It’s not the traveling that takes courage, Tally I’ve donehoer "I can’t i to walk away fro I’ve ever known, realizing I’d probably never come back"

Tally sed It hadn’t been easy Of course, she hadn’t really had a choice

"But you left your city, the only place you’d ever lived, all alone," David continued "You hadn’t even met a Smokey, someone to convince you firsthand that it was a real place You did it all on trust, because your friend asked you I guess that’s why I feel I can trust you"

Tally looked out at the weeds, feeling worse with every word David said If he only knew the real reason she was there

"When Shay first told ry at her"

"Because I iven the Smoke away?"

"Partly And partly because it’s really dangerous for a city-bred sixteen-year-old to cross hundreds of ht it was a wasted risk, because you probably wouldn’t even make it out of your dor her hand softly "I was a down that hill"

Tally sht that day"