“This way!” He grabbed me by the back of the dress and pulled me to the right, toward a packed dirt path just wide enough for one person. It skirted the edge of the field, a thin sliver of earth reflecting the ghostly moonlight.
Radven was still faster than me, even with my excess skirt out of the way. He sprinted ahead, regularly glancing up at the sky.
I hurried along behind him as fast as I could, silently cursing all those times I’d faked having my period to get out of running a mile in gym class. I was not the sort of girl who was made to outrun anything. And the poor black flats I was wearing were definitely not made for mad dashes into the night. I could already feel half a dozen blisters forming on my feet.
As if in response to that ungrateful thought, one of my shoes slipped off my foot. I stumbled but kept running, refusing to be the person who stopped for a shoe.
I quickly realized my mistake.
The ground had seemed flat and clear when my feet were protected, but now I could feel every lump and stone beneath my sole. Every time my bare foot came down, I felt something new jab into my skin.
But it was too late to go back now. I’d never find my shoe in the dark. And Radven was getting farther and farther ahead with every passing second, his long, athletic legs easily widening the distance between us. I would have called out to him, but that seemed like a stupid idea when we were trying to remain undetected by flying spy-beetles. Besides, I was so out of breath that I wasn’t sure I could have mustered the lung strength to do anything more than gasp for air.
And then my other shoe fell off.
I cursed, but I kept going. Radven was just a smudge in the dark ahead of me now, and I was afraid if I lost him I’d never find him again.
Just keep following the path, you doofus, I chided myself.You might be slow and embarrassingly unathletic, but even you can’t get lost running in a straight line.
That was the only thing that kept me going—the knowledge that I was going the right way, that I’d get there eventually.
And that once there, I’d have the opportunity to rip Radven a new one for leaving me behind.
My feet throbbed in protest of every step, and my chest burned as I wheezed and panted, but despite the fact that I could feel sweat dripping in unmentionable places, I kept going.
Until I felt apulsesomewhere above me.
Shit.I had no idea how far I was from the supposed safety of the hills, and I couldn’t even see Radven anymore. I risked a quick glance up, but I didn’t spot anything moving in the darkness above, and I didn’t trust myself to keep staring up at the sky without tripping over my own feet.
There was anotherpulse.I couldn’t be sure, but it felt closer this time.
I panicked. There was only one place to hide, and I didn’t have time to think.
I dove into the field of grain.
It was taller than I remembered—higher than my head now. Or maybe this was a different field, and I hadn’t noticed. Either way, I was grateful that I didn’t have to crouch down.
Holding very, very still—or at least as still as I could manage while my chest was heaving—I looked up at the sky. I could sense twopulsesnow, one very close and one farther away.
Had I been spotted?
Awhirzipped past, and I saw a small, dark shape move across the stars glittering above.
But it kept moving—onward, in the direction I’d been running. Did that mean it had missed me? Or had it already psychically alerted Laitha to my presence and now it continued on in search of Radven?
Either way, it seemed stupid to dart back out into the open, at least before I was sure the zhespers were farther away.
I crouched down on my heels, trying not to rustle the stalks of grain around me. And then I waited.
After thepulsingand whirring moved away, the night fell silent again. For several long minutes, I heard nothing but my own breath.
And then the stalks rustled behind me.
I twisted my head, my breath catching. I couldn’t see very far—the shadows among the stalks grew deeper closer to the ground—but I could see the ripple of movement through the grain.
I was already anxious, but now fear gripped my heart.
Something was in here with me. Somethingbig.
