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The creature looks up. It's Pippa, her face streaked with the animal's blood. For a moment, I swear I see her eyes go blue-white, a look of hunger passing over her usually lovely face.
"Pippa?" Felicity asks, lowering the bow. "What are you doing?"
Pippa rises. Her dress is tattered and her hair a mess. "I had to do it. It was going to hurt you."
"No, it wasn't," I say. "Yes, it was!" she shouts."You don't know these things." She walks toward us, and I instinctively move back. She pulls a dandelion from the ground, offering it to Felicity. "Shall we ride down the river again? It's so lovely on the river. Ann, I know a place where the magic is very strong. We could make you so beautiful that you could have your heart's desire."
"I should like to be beautiful," Ann says. "After we find the Temple, of course."
"Ann," I warn. I don't mean to say it. It just slips out.
Pippa looks from Ann to Felicity to me. "Do you know where it is?"
"Gemma saw it in a vis--"
I interrupt Felicity."No. Not just yet."
Pippa's eyes brim with tears. "You do know where it is. And you don't want me along."
She's right. I'm afraid of Pip, of what she's becoming.
"Of course we want you along, don't we?" Felicity says to me.
Pip demolishes the flower. She glares at me."No, she doesn't. She doesn't like me. She never did."
" That isn't true," I say.
" It is! You've always been jealous of me. You were jealous of my friendship with Felicity. And you were jealous of the way that Indian boy, Kartik, used to look at me, as if he wanted me. You hated me for it. Don't bother denying it, for I saw your face!"
She's pierced me through with the truth, and she knows it. "Don't be ridiculous," I say. I can't catch my breath.
She fixes me with a stare like a wounded animal."I wouldn't be here if it weren't for you." There it is, the thing that's been left unsaid.
"You--you chose to eat the berries," I sputter."You chose to stay."
"You left me here to die in the river!" "I couldn't fight Circe's assassin--that dark thing! I came back for you."
"Tell yourself whatever you wish, Gemma. But in your heart, you know the truth. You left me here with that thing. And if it weren't for me, you wouldn't have known... "She stops.
"Wouldn't have known what?" Ann asks.
"You wouldn't have known they were looking for you! I was the one who warned you, in your dreams."
"But you said you didn't know about that," Felicity says, sounding hurt."You lied. You lied to me."
"Fee, please don't be cross," Pip says.
"Why didn't you tell me earlier?" I ask.
Pippa folds her arms. "Why should I risk telling you everything when you won't promise me anything?"
Her logic is a web expertly spun, and I am caught in it.
"Very well. If I cannot be trusted," Pippa says, turning her back, "then you may find the Temple without me. But don't come
looking to me for help later."
"Pippa! Don't go!" Felicity calls after her. I've never seen Felicity beg anyone for anything. And for the first time, Pippa does not heed her call. She keeps walking till we can't see her anymore.
