The sight of young sapling Scabs was so startling that Silvie actually gasped. And when the girl being chased pulled up at the sound, Jackov and Johnis forgot to duck. For a dreadful moment, their eyes locked. Hers were small and gray, and he knew that she was a girl by her brushed hair, which was completely different from the dreadlocks worn by the other three children.

All four stared up at the rocks, silenced by what must have been a very strange sight to them: three tanned humans with smooth skin peering over the rocks, an unlikely sight for four Scabs with scaly white skin.

The three boys turned and scrambled across the sand toward the city. “Run! Shataiki! Run!”

But the girl did not run. She stared at them with large, puppy eyes, hands by her sides, one holding a straw doll. Johnis wasn’t sure whether to think of her as a beast or a human.

Her tunic hung straight down to sandaled feet, the thongs of which were softened with some kind of cloth so they wouldn’t bite into the diseased skin between her toes.

“Hello,” she said.

Johnis ducked down, confused by the utter humanity this child seemed to possess. She couldn’t be a day over ten years of age. Her voice was soft and sweet, like a delicate chime.

Hello, she’d said.

“Hello,” Jackov said.

Johnis tried to hush him with a shhh, but he knew it made no sense. It wasn’t as if they could pretend not to have been discovered.

“What’s your name?” Jackov asked.

“Karas,” the girl said. “What’s your name?”

“Jackov.”

“What are you doing up there?”

Johnis lifted his head up and looked down on the girl. His anxiety eased, replaced by the mystery that this odd encounter brought.

“We’re looking for someone to help us,” Jackov said. The boys were already out of sight. With any luck their cries of seeing Shataiki would be met by dismissals.

“I can help you,” the little girl named Karas said.

Her offer caught them flat-footed.

“You’re not frightened by us?” Silvie asked.

“Yes.” But she didn’t run.

Jackov dropped to the sand and walked around the rock toward the girl, who seemed rooted to the desert floor. Johnis and Silvie followed quickly, stepping out into the open ten feet from her. The road leading into the city is still far enough away to avoid any scrutiny, Johnis thought, but we can’t risk even a casual glance that might raise an alarm.

He backed behind one of the boulders. “Can you step over here?”

“Why?”

“Why? Because we don’t want to be seen.”

“Why?”

He exchanged a glance with Silvie, who rescued him. “Because we’re afraid they won’t like us. You can see we’re . . . our skin has problems. Do we smell?”

“Yes.”

“Well, that’s why. We won’t hurt you; we just need some help. Promise.”