Blaine huddled close to Dacey as they tried to stay under the greased tarp and out of the gentle but steady rain, but she felt like she might as well be alone. He slept soundly, exhausted, while her mind bounded from thought to thought like the hounds on a scent. Fear, mostly. Different kinds of fears — of death, of being Taken, of watching others Taken...of killing them. That she wasn’t planned to play that role in the rebellion didn’t keep her from fearing it.
And in the end, she feared what would happen after the fight. What would happen to her life. One way or the other.
She shifted to curl up more tightly over her knees. They had found the thick angled remains of a fallen poplar and used the space between the stump and the tilted trunk for their shelter, and now Dacey sat against the trunk, holding the canvas closed against the rain with his body. The small shelter stayed stuffy and too humidly warm; risking the rain, Blaine pulled up an edge of the canvas and stuck her nose out for the fresh, damp air. She was thankful for the rain even if it didn’t stop by morning, for she could easily imagine the boys moving around the hills at will while the heavier men slipped and slid around the slopes.
A big, cold drop rolled off the tarp and splashed onto her nose, and she pulled her face back inside.
Beside her, Dacey stirred, gave a slight start.
“Didn’t mean to wake you,” she said.
“It’s all right.” He tugged at his jacket, pulling the front open in the warmth they had created. “It’s just I...keep expecting to see things when I open my eyes. Foolishness.”
She didn’t say anything, still too lost in her own mind to come up with any words that seemed right.
“Blaine?”
“Just been thinking,” Blaine said. “’Bout what you said oncet. That things would never be the same. Seems to me that there’s some changes would do me good...but those’re the ones I’ll never see. I found the Annekteh looking for those changes...climbing around the hills, running away from being skinny and from ending up like my mommy. Now I don’t reckon any of that’s got me anywhere — no matter how tomorrow turns out, I’ll end up the same way — married off, tied to a big family, everyone saying I’m not quite right. We’re lucky, we’ll free Shadow Hollers tomorrow...but not me.”
“You have been thinking some,” Dacey responded in surprise — then in silence. “Surely it ain’t all like that,” he said after a while. “Surely there’s some good to look for. Living’s hard work no matter how you come at it.”
“I know,” Blaine said quietly. “But it’s easier to take when you got a choice how you’re going to go about it.”
“Don’t you?” Dacey asked. “Really?”
“I don’t follow you.”
“You can take care of yourself, by yourself — if you really want to — and I think you know it.”
She frowned at him, knowing he couldn’t see it. “Maybe I do know that. Now. But that don’t mean I’m strong enough to make the choice.”
“There’s that,” he admitted. “It ain’t a small thing. Tell you, though — climbing around the hills may not get you anywhere in the long run, but I sure am pleased you were at it when they had me the first time.”
Blue — his timing impeccable — stuck his damp and doggy-smelling head in the shelter, shoving his nose beneath a spot of tarp Blaine was sure she had weighted down. “Sometimes,” she said, trying to push him back out again, “Sometimes I got doubts about that. I surely never reckoned on him when I got you free.”
But Dacey just laughed.
“It’s a long piece till morning,” Blaine said, trying to sound cross. “Get some sleep.”
~~~~~
Blaine flew. She must be flying; she was way up in the air, looking down at the hill beside the meeting hall. Branches obscured her vision, scratched her face, became frustrating obstacles. She needed to see, to help the boys below her.
Young and determined, they fought a desperate battle against the plainsmen — who seemed to be rallying. Those plainsmen filled her vision; somehow she couldn’t force herself to focus on the boys. No, the plainsmen only, first this one and then that, just regular men. Or not quite regular — they were warriors, blooded men. Against boys.
She despaired, and her chest ached fiercely with tears she seemed unable to shed. No, I don’t want to look at them, she cried as loudly as she could, if only inside her head. But she couldn’t stop herself — and then suddenly she didn’t want to stop herself. Suddenly she needed to see.
For a purple finger of mist came up and touched one of them, and just that fast, he was surrounded by a hazy aura of purple. Not purple, exactly — no, the dark, bruised blackish color of the clouds she’d seen so long ago.
One after another, faces flashed before her, a dizzying array of enemies. All touched by the Annekteh magic. Taken.
Wait, that was no enemy! That was Jason! Jason, wreathed in bruised purple. And that man — she knew him, too! Suddenly familiar faces mixed freely with the ones she didn’t know, tainted visages that forced their way to her mind even when she tried to close her eyes.
Her world jostled. Rocked.
They’d seen her, flying above them. And they had the magic to fly up and get her.
They were coming up to get her.
~~~~~~~~~~