She leapt up, facing the feral pack. Six more to fight. The two dead porcs lay on the trail next to Landis’s faceless body. Her arm felt leaden and her leg was on fire. Then a feral trotted forward to bite at one of the porc carcasses. Another one ripped at Landis’s clothes and then the pack began to tear animal and human apart. She shuddered.

“Now, Sorrel!” Emrallie yelled from above. “They’re distracted!”

“Go!” she said to Genus. “Run! Guatan do what I tell you!” She pushed her hard and the girl ran, still sobbing.

“I don’t want to turn my back on them,” she shouted to Emrallie. The light was failing and she could not see her friend.

“I’m going to bring down some rocks to block the path. I’m not going to leave you here.”

The smell of the feral pack came in waves and she heard the sound of flesh ripping. Her gorge rose. “I’m ready now, Sorrel,” Emrallie shouted. “Guatan run!”

Sorrel turned on her heel and ran along the path towards the ropes. She caught a glimpse of Emrallie on the cliff above, her legs braced against a pile of rocks. She pushed and they came down in a landslide, a rock hitting Sorrel’s shoulder a glancing blow. “Don’t look behind,” Emrallie cried. “The ropes are there. Just climb. I have your back.”

CHAPTER 24 – HIGH CAVE

It was almost night and the cave Emrallie had found held a denser blackness inside. Sorrel stood at the entrance and waited for her friend. Caroni was consoling Genus, whose shoulders still shook, and the girls gathered around them, many of them crying.

Landis’s body had been left for the porcs.

Sorrel retched, but nothing came up. “Drink some water,” Caroni said, over Genus’s shoulder. Lichen left the group and came to stand by Sorrel. “Y-you did your best,” she said. “No one could have done more.”

Maybe I could have, Sorrel thought. You weren’t there to see. She thought she might faint. She was filthy, covered in blood. She remembered the first time she saw the river and what it felt like to lie in it, the water rushing past.

Emrallie came over the ledge and Sorrel saw that she was exhausted. She tripped at the smallest of ridges at the cave’s entrance and sprawled on the ground. She lay without moving. “Em? Are you okay?” Sorrel said, squatting beside her. She offered an algaskin. Emrallie didn’t respond but she drank.

“Are either of you hurt?” Caroni said.

“No but I hate those guatan things,” Emrallie said from the ground. “Guatan hate them. We have to find a place they can’t get to. I want to go back to eating them.”

Sorrel looked at her ripped pants. “A little,” she said to Caroni. Her thigh was beginning to throb.