Page 34 of Moon Chosen

“Oh, no,” Mari murmured, looking frantically to the west, as if she could will the sun to stay in the sky.

“It’s no use. Night comes, and with it more pain…” Leda shuddered again before her eyes rolled to show only whites and she crumpled slowly, almost gracefully, to the ground.

“I’m here, Mama. I’ll help you. I’ll always help you,” Mari said. She gathered her mother into her arms and lifted her, so that as she began climbing up the bank she carried her mother close to her heart, thinking she was so light that it was as if her bones were hollow, and Mari was cradling a wounded bird.

Partway up a scream of pure terror had Mari freezing. Somewhere behind them in the distance, branches cracked and underbrush broke as careless feet trampled the delicate moss and ferns and the sacred idols of the Great Mother.

Gritting her teeth, Mari shifted Leda’s weight so that she could climb faster, trying not to hear her mother’s semiconscious moans of pain, and not dwell on the fact that her face had gone from the white of dead fish to the gray of moonlight and shadows.

Mari burst over the top of the bank. Clutching her mother in her arms, she sprinted to the ivy-choked cedar. It was an even better hiding place than she had imagined. The tree had half fallen, and the ivy had completely devoured it.

Another scream came from closer behind them. That and the pounding of feet coming toward them worked like a prod on Mari. She bent her head and, shielding Leda as best she could with her arms, pushed through the curtain of ivy and dead branches—and collided headlong into Xander and Jenna.

“Mari! Leda! You’re—” Jenna’s happy greeting was cut off when her father’s big hand closed over her mouth.

Mari fell to her knees. She pressed a finger to her lips, miming for Jenna to be quiet. The girl and her father stared back and forth from Mari to her unconscious mother with eyes round with fear as heavy steps sounded from just outside their hiding space. Too afraid to move, Mari held her breath while she cradled her wounded mother in her arms.

“I saw a Scratcher run this way,” said a male voice mere feet away from them. “She was the one that broke Miguel’s cheekbone with a rock and knocked him unconscious.”

“Nik, we already caught four Scratcher females. That’s one more than the Farm needed replaced. And grabbing another Scratcher won’t change the fact that Miguel’s skin has been broken. All he can do now is to wait and see if he heals or if he—” The second man was farther away than the first, but his words carried to their hiding place.

“I want the one that hurt Miguel,” insisted Nik, interrupting his friend.

“Look, Nik, that’s not excuse enough to stay out here. The sun is setting. We’ve already gone way outside our usual hunting area because you want to search for the pup. Thaddeus has even less patience than usual, and he isn’t going to allow the Hunt to continue, especially after one of us has been injured. We need to head back.”

“O’Bryan, I want to look just a little more.” Mari was surprised by the desperation in the man’s voice.

“Cuz, have you seen any sign of the pup—a paw print, a tuft of fur, some scat? Anything at all?”

Mari felt the pressure of his words as if they were stones sliding into hidden pockets, weighting her, holding her down, drowning her in fear and worry.

“No, but that doesn’t mean anything. We didn’t see any sign of this being a Scratcher colony, but we just counted how many, close to one hundred of them? The pup might have been drawn here—might have thought the Scratchers were people.”

“And if he was hanging around the Scratchers we’d have found some sign of him. But really, Nik, think about it logically. This will be the tenth night he’s been gone. He has to be dead.”

“He doesn’t have to be!” Nik’s voice exploded with frustration. “If I had more help—caninehelp—I could find him.”

“Cuz, Sol had the Terriers, Laru,andJasmine, the pup’s own mother, search for him the entire day after he went missing, and they found nothing—no trace of him.”

“Because those damn roaches swarmed and destroyed his trail so that there was nothing to find.”

“Or because there was no trail to find because those damn roaches fed off him and left no trace of the pup at all.” O’Bryan’s voice was firm, but kind, and even through her fear and worry Mari noted that there was a very real friendship between the two men. “I’m sorry to say this to you, but the swarm eats everything in its path. You know that, Nik.”

“The only thing I know for sure is that I can’t stop looking for the pup. Not yet, O’Bryan. We had a connection.He almost chose me.”

O’Bryan sighed deeply. “If I ever go missing, I hope you search for me with half of the tenacity you’re using to search for that pup.”

“I will, but don’t go missing,” Nik said.

“All right then. Go ahead and keep looking through some of that deep underbrush along the bank. I’ll make an excuse to Thaddeus, but we’re already out later than we should be, and once he calls for the Hunt to be over, there’s nothing I can—”

“Nik, there you are!” O’Bryan’s words were cut off by an excited third man. “Come quickly! Thaddeus’s Odysseus just alerted on a big holly bush. It looks like there’s a paw print under the foliage—a Shepherd pup’s paw print.”

“Yes! I told you! I told you all!” Nik’s shout was victorious. He and the other two men’s voices faded as they raced back to Mari’s first hiding place.

No one moved within the concealing vines for several long moments, then as all remained quiet in the forest surrounding them, Xander and Jenna crouched down, putting their heads near Mari, staring fearfully at Leda.

“Is she dead?” Jenna’s voice trembled.