She would never have believed that something that looked as slow and clumsy as the Bear could run the way it did. But this was faster than she had ever traveled in her life, much, much faster than riding in a wagon, faster than traveling on a boat, fast enough to take her breath away. The great body heaved and surged under her, muscles rippling as he drove himself forward, tree branches lashing at her.

She hid her face in his fur to save herself from the branches, taking long, deep, slow breaths to try to get her own wind back. He smelled like dried grass or clover, sweet and fresh.

Somehow, he picked a path where branches weren’t constantly whipping at her, and as the wind of their passing rushed over her, the warmth of his back and fur made her realize how cold she had been. Her feet, which had been like two blocks of ice, regained feeling.

Where were they going?

Don’t care. Jest as long as it’s away from McDaran.

What would she do when the Bear decided to stop running?

She didn’t know that, either. She only knew one thing. For the time being, she had escaped McDaran, and now she had to find Josh, and find out, face to face, if he really had abandoned her for Jolene. After she knew that . . . she might be able to figure out what to do next.

Even if she did it with her heart shattered in a million pieces.

Suddenly, the Bear slowed for a few paces, and stopped.

“This is as far as I can take you, Little Sister,” the voice rumbled, vibrating in her body. She raised her head and looked around.

There was nothing in this part of the forest to tell her where she was—except that it was not unlike the part of the Holler where Elder Raven’s band lived. Huge, old trees, with moss-covered trunks; ferns as tall as her shoulders. They were not far from a steep mountain slope, rising up to the right, where trees somehow grew out of ground that was nearly vertical, and moss-covered rocks humped up between them. She pried her hands open and slid down Bear’s back.

“This isn’t where Elder Raven lives, is it?” she asked Bear. “I don’t want McDaran following us and finding the band!”

“It is not. I would not do that,” Bear reassured her. “This is as far as I can take you to where you need to go. Over yonder is your guide.”

She peered toward where Bear was pointing to the right with his nose, and then, when it moved, she saw it. Green as the moss, but with a metallic sheen, it was one of Jolene’s little lizards.

She moved toward the lizard, slowly, so as not to frighten it. But it didn’t seem frightened. It raised its head, then bobbed the front half of its body at her, as if in greeting, and flicked its tongue at her. It wasn’t a thin, forked tongue like a snake’s; it was a glistening, fleshy tongue like a human’s.