Page 22 of Suncatcher

The branches caught and tugged at her torn wing. She cradled it close to her body and ran.

She had been trying to help.

Dampness stung her eyes. She was all wrong. Humans didn’t want her, and she didn’t belong with them. Even Pearl had stabbed her.

Driz was meant to be alone. This was what she got for trying to be anything else.

9

Walk

Pearl let her pursuers chase her all the way up the valley. When Steve arrived, it was over. She heard his whistling call and knew he had one in his sights. The shot rang close behind her, and she called and doubled back.

They left the bodies where they lay, too tired to deal with them now.

“Thought you were for sure dead,” Steve said, grabbing Pearl’s shoulder. She covered his hand and squeezed. “How’d you get away from that beast?”

“I got her to put me down.”

“I’ve never seen one so close, and don’t care to again. It came back and…I’ve no idea why, but it freed us. Must be some sick game. At least it bleeds red.”

“What d’you mean?” Pearl asked sharply.

“I shot its wing. Woulda done more, but it got away. Rave stopped me, the idiot.”

Pearl’s gut clenched. The thought of Steve shooting Driz after she’d rescued him left a new sick sensation. Because Pearl had stabbed her for the same reason.

And now Driz was out there somewhere, wounded and probably furious.

“How’re the others?” Pearl asked, picking up her strides.

“We lost Tom,” he said quietly. “Rob’s injured but alive, and Rave and I are fine.”

They didn’t speak again until they reached the camp. Rave had stoked up the fire. A quick search of the bushes revealed a stack of paint cans they’d ordered from the city. They also found freshly turned earth.

With heavy hearts, they started to dig. But they didn’t discover what they feared. Not bodies, but boxes of bullets. This party of bandits had been planning to come back. They wouldn’t be. And their stash became their grave.

Pearl hunted for the old white salt bags, bunched and stuffed in a box. Only a trace amount of blight lingered, caught in the weave of the fabric. They’d soak what they could from them, but these bandits had apparently already discovered their secret. Good thing they were dead already.

The exhaustion of the last days wore on her, the lingering effects of the blight mishap weighing down her limbs. And she couldn’t shake the heaviness at the thought of Driz. Pearl stopped frequently to scan the darkness for a sign of her, checking for shapes in the air or on the ridge. How badly was she hurt? Could she even fly?

“That goyle saved us,” Rave said somberly. “It let you go, Pearl?”

“She did.”

“It probably thought it’d be more fun if we tried to run,” Steve grumbled, but Rave shook his head.

“It spoke to us. Said to go up the valley, where Pearl was. I think it was trying to help us.”

“And why’d it do that?”

“No idea. But if it wanted to kill us, it woulda. And it was wearing clothes. Have you ever seen such a thing?”

“Stop calling her an it,” Pearl snapped and both men stared at her.

“Don’t tell me you got frisky with a goyle, Pearl. Is that how you got her to let you go?” Steve asked.

Pearl seized him by the collar. Everyone tensed and she bared her false teeth in his face. “What if I did?”