IT’S JUST BEFORE SUNUP when Hope and Cat tiptoe back to camp.
The two of them waited till the others were asleep before sneaking off, the dull red glow of the fire’s embers their only illumination. It’s been the same each night since they crawled back from the fence. Seven nights, seven silent journeys. So far, with the exception of Argos, no one seems to notice.
The next morning the rains begin, and with the change of weather comes a change of mood. Despite the fact that it’s now the height of summer, the showers are icy cold and soak the fifteen travelers to the bone. They spend much of the day sloshing through mud.
For Hope, it’s impossible not to sense the resentment from some of the other Sisters. Although she was the last to cross back from the fence, she was the one who originally convinced them to join up with the Less Thans. She can only imagine the questions running through their minds. After all their hard work, after digging a tunnel under Camp Freedom itself, why are they throwing it all away to head back into the heart of the Western Federation Territory? For the sake of saving some Less Thans they’ve never met?
When they stop to make camp, Hope drifts off to look for firewood, happy for the chance to be alone. The rain has stopped. There is birdsong.
“You all right?” a voice asks. It’s Book.
“Why wouldn’t I be?” Hope says.
“Don’t know. Just curious.” Then he says, “I woke up last night and didn’t see you.”
Hope feels a stab of panic. She wonders what Book knows, what he saw. Even as she picks up a large, unwieldy branch, she tries to make a joke of it. “You’re not stalking me, are you?”
“No, just happened to look over. Didn’t see you.”
“Right, well, answering a call of nature.”
“Seemed like you were gone a long time.”
“Now I know you’re stalking me.” She laughs and snaps the branch in two. “Plus I couldn’t sleep, so I just, you know, walked around.”
“In the dark?”
“I think better that way.”
“Right.”
“Can’t say no to thinking.”
“Nope.”
Hope can hear the pathetic nature of her lies. They’re so obvious, so blatant. So bad. She tries to change the subject.
“I hear there are Skull People between here and your camp,” she says.
“That’s what we’ve heard.”
“You never saw them?”
Book shakes his head. “Hunters. Brown Shirts. Wolves. Crazies. No Skull People.”
“Consider yourself lucky.”
Her father once pointed out a camp of Skull People to Hope and her sister, Faith. With their painted skin and helmets made of animal skulls, they were the most frightening sight Hope had ever seen in her life. They were terrifying.
“How do we avoid them?” Book asks.
“Any way we can.” She means it as a joke, but Book doesn’t laugh. Doesn’t even smile.
“What happens after?” Hope asks.
“After?”
“Once we free your friends?”
“Head back to the Heartland. Get everyone to safety.” He studies her expression. “Why, you have something different in mind?”
“No, just, you know … curious.”
“Oh.”
They continue to scrounge, their boots squishing in mud.
“Good luck sleeping,” Book finally says, and heads back to camp with an armful of branches. Hope’s face burns crimson.
He was right, of course. She does have something in mind—but she’s not ready to share it. Not with Book. Not with anyone.
As for what she and Cat do each night, well, she wants to break that to Book as well. She does. But there are some things she just doesn’t know how to say.
I SLOGGED BACK TO camp and released the branches from my arms. They clattered on the pile with all the rest. If Hope wouldn’t tell me what was really going on with her, maybe her friends would.
Of the seven other Sisters, Hope was close to three. Diana was tall and willowy, terrific with a crossbow, and never afraid to speak her mind. Then there was Scylla, who had never uttered a single word in all the weeks I’d known her. I wondered if she was even capable of talking. She was short and compact and basically all muscle—not someone you wanted to meet in a dark alley late at night.
The third friend was Helen, who was frail and shy and seemed always on the verge of being blown away by a gust of wind. Small in stature with strawberry-blond hair, she looked at Hope with adoring eyes.
It was Helen I decided to approach.
She was sitting on a log, fletching arrows. Next to her was a pile of goose feathers.
“I can’t believe you’re able to attach those tiny feathers with just animal guts,” I said.
She smiled shyly. “Sinew. Once it dries, it’s there forever.” She expertly split a quill in half, then wrapped a short thread of dried animal gut around the base of the quill and the arrow’s shaft.
I sat on a nearby rock. “Helen, can I ask you something?” She flinched slightly but said nothing. “Are you okay with heading back into the territory?”
“If it’s the right thing to do, then we should do it.”
“And your friends? They feel the same?”
“I think so.”
Her voice had a sudden wariness to it. Like Argos detecting an unfamiliar scent. I realized I was in dangerous territory here.
“Everyone’s on board?” I asked. “Everything’s normal?”
“Yes …”
“And Hope? She’s fine with all this?”
Helen’s body shrank in on itself, and I suddenly realized I’d crossed the line. I was asking about the very people she was closest to. Helen nodded quickly, her fingers deftly wrapping the animal gut around the top of the fletching. She placed the finished arrow in a pile.
“You’re close to Hope, aren’t you?” I asked.
“She saved my life.”
“Then you and I have something in common.”
I pushed myself up and walked away. Although I needed to know what was going on with Hope, it felt somehow traitorous to ask about her behind her back.
But I was still convinced that she was up to something—I just didn’t know what.
THE AIR IS MOIST and heavy, and Hope’s breath frosts with each exhalation.
Cat’s does too, as he walks beside her.
They glide through the damp, dark woods, easing around trees, stepping over stones, hurrying away from camp—the pale light of the moon their only illumination. Hope’s heart