‘Hey, Oliver,’ Dawn says. ‘You want to come help me find some dandelions for salad? I really need some help.’
‘Um, ok,’ he says. Dawn takes his hand. Oliver doesn’t usually like people quickly, but he likes Dawn already.
Cal is standing over by Noon. He’s not smiling his white smile. Their heads are bent together and they’re talking close.
They’re so absorbed they don’t notice Riley approach.
‘He’s never been away this long,’ Cal is saying to Noon, pleading. ‘Two full days late, now. I have to go and look for him. I can walk the trails in the dark.’
‘No one moves alone at night,’ Noon says.
‘But—’
‘Cal,’ she says gently. ‘I’m worried. But we don’t want to lose you too.’
Cal looks like he might be about to cry, but he nods. He sees Riley and scrubs one eye with a fist. ‘Maybe you saw him on the mountain, Riley?’
‘Who?’
‘Danny,’ Cal says. ‘My brother. It’s his place you’re sleeping in.’ His words are rushed. He’s got a faint, faint hope that Riley might save him. ‘He went to walk the trails. He’s tall. Missing his right little finger, like me.’ It’s phrased like a question – he is still pleading.
Riley’s insides make a movement like a big wave crashing. Thebitter scent of lion fills the air. She sees it all again, she is back there in the firelight, the big body like a cage over her, brown eyes turning to bloody holes. She sees the stump of a little finger twitching on the pine needles.You seem like a girl who doesn’t want to be found.She looks at Cal’s face and it’s clear now, she wonders how she missed it before – the lineaments of the lion boy echoed in his bones.
‘No,’ Riley says. ‘We never saw anyone after we left the main trail.’
‘We saw the demon,’ says Oliver, at her elbow.
Riley starts. ‘You’re supposed to be helping Dawn.’
Oliver shrugs. ‘I didn’t want to so she gave me a toy.’ He frowns and worries the rag doll in his hands. He’s not interested in adult conversation but he always likes to correct Riley when she lies. Riley should have thought of that.
Noon is watching him. ‘You saw a demon?’
‘Uh huh. Riley saw the demon and she killed it,’ Oliver says.
‘Yeah,’ Riley says, smiling down at him. ‘I sure did kill the demon, didn’t I?’ Riley throws her smile at Noon, rolling her eyes a little.Sun in the head, she thinks.
Oliver gives her a look of disgust, which Riley knows she deserves. He starts towards the other kids, who are piling on top of Midnight on the grass, screaming.
‘Hey, Oliver Olive.’ Riley seizes his hand. ‘Come hang out with me, ok? You can play with the others soon enough.’ She doesn’t know if this is true. ‘I’d better stay with him,’ Riley says to Cal and Noon. ‘Keep him distracted.’
‘I’m going out first thing tomorrow,’ Cal says to Noon. ‘If I don’t find him, I’ll go out the day after that. And the next day and the one after that, every day until I find him.’
Noon nods and touches his shoulder.
Oliver tugs on Riley’s hand. He strains towards the other kids.
‘How about we climb that tree, Oliver Olive?’ she says. ‘See? It’s so high, I bet we can see all the way to Boulder if we get to the top.’
‘Ok,’ he says, resigned, and lets Riley draw him away.
Over her shoulder Riley says to Cal, ‘Sorry about your brother. I’m sure he’ll be home soon.’
7Adam
He has been at Nowhere for twenty-six days. His bedroom is large and light, with a floor-to-ceiling window that shows the mountains. It smells of cedar. Adam has never slept in a room as nice as this and he loves it – except for one thing. The men’s clothes in the closet.
The first day he asked Leaf, ‘Can I move this stuff?’
