The animals were all silent now, and so were the islanders. As they turned to go, Leelo glanced once more at the sheep, its dead eyes seeming to stare right through her. For a brief flash, almost like a vision, she saw her own mother lying there instead, and the thought made Leelo shiver the entire way home.

Chapter Ten

Jaren wiped his mouth as he stumbled down the trail in the moonlight, wondering if he was going to be sick again. He should have listened to Lars and Maggie, she of the eyebrows. Because even if the villagers had been wrong about the songs luring people into the lake—he was running away from the lake, as fast as his legs could carry him—they were still evil. He knew that now for a fact.

It had all been a stupid bet, one he’d agreed to in part because he wanted an excuse to come back here. But as he quickened his pace through the woods, the notes of that horrible song, some almost as high and piercing as the sounds of the dying animals, echoed in his head. He didn’t know how it was possible that the same people who had made such joyful music the last time he was here, or songs as beautiful as the one he still heard in his dreams, could produce anything so discordant. And while he was certainly no stranger to animal slaughter, the sound of so many animals dying at once, paired with that awful music, had turned it into something cruel and ritualistic, rather than necessary.

Stupid, stupid bet.

He had only gone back to the pub because Tadpole begged him to take her. She had retaliated for Story’s cod liver oil trick by cutting off a hunk of Story’s hair in her sleep, which had resulted in Tad being punished severely by Father (although perhaps not as severely as she should have been—Father simply couldn’t hang on to anger toward his children since his wife died). Story, who was attempting to cover up a not insignificant bald spot at the back of her head with some creative styling and a rotation of hats, had vowed to get her own revenge soon enough.

Eventually, Story either forgot about Tadpole’s betrayal, or she was playing a very long game. But his little sister watched sadly from the window every time her older siblings went to the pub, until finally, after an hour of desperate pleading, Jaren had buckled under the pressure and agreed to take her.