Dawn begins to cry. Oliver hides his face in her shoulder.
‘Please.’ Not one of them will look at Riley. ‘I didn’t mean it.’ She feels like a ghost. ‘Don’t—’ she pleads again, looking around, hoping, seeking. She is invisible. When Riley’s eyes light on Cal she stops. She drops her head to her chest. Riley can’t look at Cal.
Noon stands and hands something to each person – two small objects. After a moment, with a rush of fear Riley realises what they are. They are human teeth. One is painted black, the other left white.
‘You know what we’re voting for,’ Noon says. ‘Riley has killed one of our own.’
Noon points at a tree stump. Everett goes to stand beside it. His machete gleams at his belt. Riley has seen this stump many times at firelight nights. She has even sat on it, talking and laughing. Now she sees the brown stains that spread across it.This is where they take the fingers, she thinks, hazy. She assumes that this time it’s for her head.
‘It’s the worst punishment we have,’ Noon says. ‘So I want us all to agree.’
The faces around the fire bow, and offer their breath to Nowhere. Noon takes up a leather bag. ‘White is no. Black is yes – for the house.’
‘What does that mean, for the house?’ Riley’s throat is so tight she almost can’t get the words out.
‘You’ve no right to ask questions.’ Noon’s face is grim and stony. ‘But I will answer. It means that all the blood goes to the land.’
Noon moves around the circle. One by one everyone drops a tooth in the bag.
Riley sees it, the flash of black in Cal’s hand. She watches Oliver carefully, but she can’t see what lies in his palm. ‘Oliver Olive,’ she whispers. He does not look at her.
Noon spills the contents of the bag onto the bloodstained tree stump. Black teeth, all.
Cal’s throat moves hard. ‘Wait. Maybe we … Hold on a second.’
Noon comes close to him and puts a hand against his cheek. ‘Do you want to change your vote?’
Cal’s mouth hardens. He shakes his head just once.
The firelight is rocketing into the sky, Riley sees, and sort of mingling with the stars.
‘Is this what you did to the others who lived here, before?’ Riley struggles to get the words out. They seem to be solid in her mouth. ‘Did you give their blood to the land?’
‘We made ourselves safe,’ Noon says. ‘We made Nowhere safe.’
‘What’s happening?’ Riley’s mind is floating outside of her body. The faces in the firelight are drifting, fading in and out of the dark. She thinks of the mushroom stew she ate. It’s too late, she knows, but she retches, bends double, trying to throw up. She can’t and spits uselessly onto the earth.
Noon’s face stretches and contracts, shadows and light writhingacross it like worms. ‘It’s time for you to go. We’re giving you as an offering.’ She turns to Cal. ‘It’s your right to offer her. But first we take her bones.’ Riley wants to scream but her mouth seems to have grown beyond a usable size.
‘And this is for all.’ Noon raises her voice. ‘I have taken down the fly. I have cut the cable into pieces. We don’t leave Nowhere anymore. We trust the land.’
Around the circle heads nod.
‘We have discovered the penalty,’ Noon says, ‘for inviting outsiders in.’ Noon comes close and reaches for Riley’s throat. Riley waits for the blade, the cut.
Noon unfastens her bone necklace. ‘You are no longer one of us.’ Her breath smells like a warm meadow; it brushes across Riley’s cheek.
Noon nods at Cal. ‘You can take her now.’
He nods, pale. Riley struggles and pulls at the rope around her neck, but it’s no good. As she goes, she sees Oliver’s face, his mouth a round ‘O’ of horror. She wants to tell him it’s ok, but it’s not. ‘Riley!’ He starts to run to her but Dawn catches him. She holds Oliver back as he struggles.
‘You did the right thing, Oliver,’ Riley hears Dawn say. Dawn strokes his head.
Oliver’s high cracked voice follows them, calling her name, as Cal takes her towards the woods.
With her last glance backwards, Riley sees Noon spreading her arms and tipping her face up to the night sky. Cal tugs on the rope around Riley’s neck and she stumbles. But just before that, she could swear she glimpses Noon rising into the air, arms wide, taking flight.
The world gets stranger as Cal and Riley go through the trees. The rope about Riley’s neck has become a live thing like a warm animal. The ivy and stinging nettles are crowned with whitish-green bloomsand some of the flowers rise into the air and dart like gnats. The moss and leaf litter are a rich carpet beneath her feet.
