Rocks pelt us from behind, stinging our backs through our thin clothes. A speck of blood blooms on Glory’s shirt. We dart into the woods, around a thicket of brambles, with the shouts of our pursuers chasing after us. But the traitorous moon is full, lighting the clearing, lingering on bushes and trees. I notice a thick limb overhead. We could hide behind its silvery leaves, but it’s too high to reach. We dash across a meadow, Glory just ahead of me because she’s always been faster. Her hair trails behind her, full of pebbles and bracken and glimmering charms.
Suddenly I am falling. Leaves slap me in the face, bare branches scratch my arms. My feet continue in a running motion, but the ground’s not there, only twigs that catch me, hard, on my shins. I land on my stomach, my arms and legs dangling down either side of a wide limb. I try to catch my breath, wiping my mouth as I hoist myself onto the very branch I’d wanted to climb. My chest and left leg are bleeding. Beneath me, Glory turns in circles, screaming my name. I try to call to her but don’t have enough air.
Then the boys are upon her. A foreign gypsy with a blue-scarfed head shakes her. “Where’s the doomkeeper, where is she?”
Another knocks her to the ground. I try to shimmy down the tree but there’s so many branches and I’m so high up. The boy punches her nose before Jedrey makes him stop. There’s a scuffle and the rest of our clan boys pull the strangers away. No one from Hunter Clan would hurt Glory. They run off, pointing and shouting, still searching for me. As he leaves, Jedrey casts a guilty look back to the clearing where my only friend lays in a heap, sobbing.
I scramble the rest of the way down and race to her side.
She raises her battered face to me. “Why, Selena? Why did you leave me?”
“I don’t know what happened.” Using my sleeve, I wipe the blood dribbling down her cheek. “Somehow I ended up in a tree. I’m so sorry.”
She nods and rests her head on my shoulder. I am forgiven. It’s that easy for her. So different from me. We clean her wounds as best we can, using a combination of leaves and magic, too proud to see the medicine man and let the boys know they hurt us. I’m surprised when my incantations obey me, stopping the flow from her nose and sealing her wounds. Only one gash won’t respond. It’s small but already filled with a nasty green ooze.
