Selie was giggling. “Don’t worry,” she whispered. “I won’t tell.”

—

When, hours later, the party emerged from the tunnels into the pink morning light of the Monsean forest, tears began to stream down the face of Selie’s mother. She crouched onto a carpet of rotting leaves, sat, and said, “I just need to rest my feet for a moment, children.”

“Let me take a look,” said Giddon, lowering Selie stiffly to the ground. Selie made a protesting noise, clinging to him. “I need you to walk now, Selie,” he said. “You see the forest? This is Monsea. What do you think?”

The forest here was practically identical to the forest in Estill where they’d entered the tunnels: tall, thick trees with the pale green buds of early summer, dark, scraggy pines. Wind, birdsong, trickling water, squirrels.

But Selie began to cry. “It’s ugly,” she said, and Giddon understood. It was the nature of escape. A person consumed with the need to flee didn’t have the luxury of realizing how far away her home would seem, once she stopped running.

“Come, Selie,” said her mother, holding an arm out to the child. “Come keep me company while Giddon prods at my feet.”

“Your faith in my abilities is touching,” said Giddon. “Let me just go collect some sharp sticks to stab them with.”

Selie, still crying but now also giggling, tucked herself against her mother’s side, where she sniffled, receiving kisses, while Giddon took off her mother’s shoes. When he found her feet so bloody that it would be difficult to remove her socks without pulling her skin away, he chided himself for not checking sooner. Then he considered the distance still to go. The contact Giddon was bringing them to would have clean, fresh water, medicines, a bed for this woman to lie down upon. It wasn’t far, and the others seemed able to walk.

The baby was fussing. The woman reached her free arm out for the infant, then gave him her breast. The father and Ranie hovered nearby, as if wanting to be useful.

It would be best to wait to remove these socks. Thank goodness I’m big, Giddon thought.

When the baby was done feeding, the woman handed him back to her husband. Then Giddon gave her a pill for pain, lifted her into his arms, and carried her the rest of the way.

Chapter Two