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The dogs didn’t answer Xan floated out to the trees, and then behind the Then not even that

Cara sat by the water, hugging her knees Slowly, the natural sounds of the night cah, fluting call fro call from even farther The stillness cooled her, but not badly All she had to do noait

Voices woke her They were calling her name, and she couldn’t remember where she was It wasn’t her bed or her room or her house, because there was a dawn-stained sky overhead Her clothes ith dew

“Cara!”

She was on the edge of calling back, when the last forgetfulness of sleep slid off her mind She clamped a hand over her mouth as if her arm didn’t trust her throat to stay quiet She scrambled to her feet Momma bird and the little ones were already on the pond The dead, black eyes didn’t take Cara in The cart squatted where she’d let it She snatched the little bag of food out of it, took two steps toward the voices, and then tay Her

If she told them now, they’d call the soldiers They’d cos She didn’t think they’d wait for Xan to come back, and he had to come back But there were only so many paths They’d find her at the pond, and soon She’d have to say so, wouldn’t she? And what if they didn’t let her come back?

She felt like she was still struggling with the dilemma even as she trotted out toward the forest, and the darkness under the fronds She pushed through the underbrush, twigs and the stick-hard fingers of the scrub sliding off her A rough break in the plants shohere the animal path led away to the south, and she followed it

She’d never gone past the pond before There were probably surveys of the land so tier than the best intentions Sheplaces humans had never been before Or no one except for Xan, anyway

The voices grew s ached, but the work of htfor her, but when they started again, there were nized Instructor Hannu, Stephen DeCaamp Mari Tennanbaum

Her father

“Babygirl!” he cried His voice sounded raw Like he was hurting hiht here! Baby!”

She wanted to go back to hiht That she was and that Xan was too Tears rose up in her eyes, blurring the world

“Sorry,” she said softly, pushing forward “I’m so sorry”

She didn’t stop until the sound of the voices was gone The search would keep going, though There would be drones There would be ther If the soldiers helped, there would be visuals taken from orbit She stayed under the canopy of fronds There were plenty of large animals in the forest It wouldn’t be easy to tell which heat came from them and which came from her At least she hoped it wouldn’t

The sun tracked through the sky, changing the angle of the few, thin dapples that pushed down into the per tired She’d have to rest She’d have to eat And at some point she’d have to find her way back to the pond She had to be th