“Why would a fool who’s followed this far turn back now?” the little girl on the huge horse said.

“Because following me into the desert would be even more foolish,” Darsal snapped. “Because they’re probably already screaming for you back at Middle. Because you have no reason to follow me in the first place!”

“Would I be here if I didn’t have a reason?”

“Only if you really are a fool.”

“She doesn’t look like a fool to me,” Hunter said.

“Shut up, Hunter,” Darsal said.

“Hunter?” Karas blinked. “My name’s Karas, and it’s not polite to be so harsh.”

Darsal set her jaw. “What reason do you have to follow me?”

Karas hesitated, then nudged her horse closer. “Does the name Grace mean anything to you?”

“I don’t know, should it? I’m telling you, you’d better head back before—”

“She was my mother. My father, the high priest, killed her.”

Darsal sat still. No matter how frustrated she was at the girl’s presence, she didn’t have the heart to tear into her the way she wanted to.

Karas continued. “She used to say that somewhere out there I had an auntie, because she had a younger sister—fifteen years younger—a long time ago. I think that I’ve found my mother’s sister.”

“Me?”

“You look like her twin.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. She had to be much older . . . She was a Scab.”

“Weren’t you listening? I said her sister was much younger. Thomas told me that when the Great Deception ruined the world thirteen years ago, families were broken up. The disease took most of their memory. But I can swear you’re mother’s sister because you look like my mother. Except for the scar.”

Darsal didn’t know how to respond to such an absurd claim. “Is this possible?” she whispered, then prodded the Roush for an answer.

“Yes. Yes, of course it’s possible,” Hunter said.

“Yes,” Karas said.

The forest’s edge stood tall and silent. Darsal couldn’t accept it, not after the years of suffering following her parents’ deaths.

She calmed herself and let anger creep into her tone. “Either way, you can’t just walk up to people and latch yourself on to them without knowing what’s happening.”

“Which is what?” Karas asked.

“Which is none of your business. This is crazy. It’s going to be dark in an hour!”

“Then we’ll build a fire,” Karas said.

Hunter offered a soft chuckle.

“No. We will not. I will, not you, because you’re not coming; it’s out of the question!”

Karas seemed unfazed. “I insist. I don’t know what you’re up to, but it looks like you’re headed out into the desert. I know the desert better than you.”

“We know it well enough. You just escaped the desert, for Elyon’s sake! Your insolence is infuriating!”