Lacey crept back to bed and proceeded to have the worst night’s sleep of her life. Once, she drifted into a fitful dream but then startled awake, certain that someone was hovering over her in the dark.
After that she didn’t sleep. Her instincts told her not to trust Goeden. He had only just been at the head of a mob bent on killing her. But her instincts were what had gotten her lost in the Wish Wood in the first place. Her instinct to chase the rabbit, her instinct to follow it home, her instinct to run from Blayd. It was even her instincts that had caused her to drop the eggs and fight Devan. The only thing she could rely on them for lately was to get her in trouble.
Mama was right. She was not an animal. She had to think things through, and make the right choices. Stumbling around in the Wood trying to find her way home was definitely the wrong choice. Letting Goeden guide her to the road seemed to be the most logical choice.
Dawn crept through the cracks of the hut at an agonizing pace. Finally someone rapped loudly on the lopsided door to Cooper’s hut. Lacey jumped up and fumbled with her boots. She cursed her bandages. It would have been easier to sleep with her boots on.
Cooper sat up slowly rubbing her eyes. “Wha—Where are you going, child. You need your rest.”
“Goeden is taking me to the road. I’m going home.”
Cooper leapt to her feet. “No, you don’t want to go out with Geoden. Rest a few days. Talk to Ezerelle about a proper escort.”
Lacey paused, but then shook her head. “I need to go now.”
Cooper opened her mouth to say something, but then held back whatever it was.
Lacey stopped at the door, one hand on the knotted burl that served as a handle. “If I have a chance to get back today, I have to take it. I don’t want to…worry Mama any longer than I have to.” That was part of it but, the truth was, Lacey couldn’t be here another day. She couldn’t share breakfast with people who had been ready to kill her, only yesterday.
Cooper’s face fell. “You are a good youngling. You’re mother is probably beside herself.”
Lacey looked around the crude hut one last time. “When I get back, I can talk to the others. Tell them about you. Maybe the Wished could come live in the Village, or at least start trading for things you need.”
“No! Do not tell your Village about us. It would not end well.” Panic rose in Cooper’s voice.
Lacey thought of the children who tugged her ears, and more subtle unkindness from some of the adults. How would they react if they learned about an entire camp of people like her? She remembered the hatred in the faces of the mob, and imagined it on the faces of the villagers instead. It was not as difficult to imagine as she wanted it to be.
“Ok, I won’t tell them,” she said, leaning down to hug the little raccoon woman. “Goodbye Cooper. Thank you for the stew.”
“If—when you get to the road, don’t hesitate, just go.”
***
The sun had not risen yet. The world was colorless except for the crescent of the red moon, as it crossed paths with the white. There was nobody outside Cooper’s hut, but there were people over by the fire pit. Maybe Goeden was among them.
Lacey unwound the bandages from her hands. A giant bruise painted each palm. Her knuckles were scraped raw. She flexed her hands, and sucked in her breath at the sting from numerous cuts re-opening. They would need to be redressed when she got home, but she didn’t want to have explain where she found bandages in the middle of the woods.
Geoden was at the campfire--along with all of the cat-people from yesterday’s mob. Lacey froze.
“Ah, here she is. Village Girl, meet my hunters. Ready for the hunt?” Goeden’s smile was full of teeth.
“I thought we were going to the road.”
“You are going to the road. We are hunting. Look around, Village Girl. We are not suffering from abundance, here. If we go out into the Wood, we don’t come back without something to show for it.”
Yesterday, all Lacey had seen of these cats was claws and hate. The morning light, and absence of murder-lust in their eyes, didn’t make them seem any more friendly. The Wished were animals by nature. Blayd, Cooper and Ezerelle all had an air of wildness about them, but Goeden’s cats had a savage edge.
Many of them didn’t wear much more than their fur. Just loincloths, cloaks, leather belts or straps, to hang weapons and equipment from, and jewelry made from pieces of bone and teeth, which hung around their necks or pierced various body parts. A few of them had knives, but most obviously did not need them. They bristled with claws and teeth of their own.
A pair of eyes like golden discs turned on her; it was the cougar from the mob, Lacey would never forget those eyes. He wore a matching loincloth and cloak, which she was pretty sure was made of cougar hide.
A low growl rumbled in his chest, and she took a step back. He didn’t move a muscle.
She was about to go into the Wood with the nastiest, sharpest clawed bunch of creatures in the camp. She started wondering about her instincts again.
***
These hunters were not like the ones back home. They tromped and roughhoused as they went, snapping teeth at each other. They didn’t seem to be looking for prey, and Lacey doubted they would see any with all the noise.
To her left a squabble got out of hand and escalated into yowls and hissing. Goeden smacked one of the puffed-up cats on the back of the head and she backed down. The other, Golden-Eyes, moved to the front of the pack, his tail lashing behind him.
A lynx-girl crept up on Lacey’s right. “Laaaacey,” she said, as though savoring a tasty morsel. “Will you be hunting with us today?”
Surprised, Lacey veered to the left a little. So, they could be stealthy, they were just choosing not to use it—except on her. “I’m just going as far as the road.”
The girl gave her a slanted look. Her brown eyes were very human, with round pupils, instead of slits like the others. A heavy black surrounded them, like eyeliner, only it was fur, not makeup. The fur faded away on the rest of her face, and started up again at her ears. Lacey recognized the tufted ears. This was the girl who had taken her cloak, yesterday.
“Choose to hunt. It will be much more fun than the boring road home.”
“Don’t say that, Arley.” An old mountain lion with torn ears licked his paw and smoothed back his whiskers. “I am sure the road will not be boring.”
Laughter hissed all around her and Lacey felt like she was on the outside of a shared joke.
She eyed the blade Goeden wore on his belt. Maybe it was time to start listening to her instincts.
Goeden flashed his teeth. “What is it, Village Girl? You want a knife? But you’re just going to the road. Why would you need a knife?”
More laughter.
“It doesn’t seem like you are hunting either,” Lacey said. She would not give them the satisfaction of seeing her cower.
“Oh, but we are,” said a cougar, not Golden-Eyes.
Golden-Eyes, hadn’t spoken at all. Lacey thought he might be like Blayd and lacked the ability. But he didn’t need to speak to be intimidating. He flexed his bare chest under the leather strap that held his machete. A machete was nothing but overkill paired with claws like his.
“Is your prey deaf?” In her head, Lacey dared them to try something on her. She didn’t have Ezerelle’s protection out here, but she would not be a frightened little mouse for them.
“They are a noisy bunch. But they get the job done.” Goeden toyed with his bone necklace.
Lacey shut her mouth. She needed to just be quiet and get to the road. Whatever they were planning, she would deal with it once she got there. At least then, if she survived, she would know which way to go.
After that the hunting party did get quieter. The stride of the cats around her became slower and more deliberate. There were hand signals flashing between them and furtive glances in her direction.
Ahead the terrain changed. The grey wall of pine trunks was interrupted by the gold of falling leaves, and few small bushes squatted in places where sunlight broke through the canopy.
Lacey’s steps quickened. The pack slunk lower to the ground.
When she saw a wide strip of packed dirt, heavily rutted from the mountain caravans, she hesitated. She wanted to run the rest of the way, but she did not want to give them the satisfaction. And she didn’t want to turn her back on them.
“Umm. Thank you for the hospitality, and guiding me here,” she said, turning her back to the road.
A shout came from behind her.
Geoden looked over her shoulder. “Village Girl, you should have gone while you had the chance.”