Birthmarked by Caragh M. O'Brien

Author:Caragh M. O'Brien [O'Brien, Caragh M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781596435698
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Published: 2010-03-30T07:00:00+00:00

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and not to lose it." She neglected to add that her mother had warned her to destroy it.

"Who told you this? Your mother?"

She shook her head. Hopefully Old Meg was long gone by now and safe in the Dead Forest. If not, she had probably perished on the way. Gaia hesitated a second, then remembered how ruthlessly Mabrother Iris had commanded the shooting of the bird. She could not resist him now. "Old Meg," she said. "She was my mothers friend. She gave the ribbon to me the same night my parents were arrested."

He frowned slightly, and Gaia guessed this was something he had not known. It gave her a modicum of hope. Maybe he would decide she could be useful to him.

"Where is Old Meg now?" he asked.

She averted her eyes, looking at the tall windows to her right. She could see the top of the obelisk emerging through the fog. She shifted uncomfortably on her chair, her hands still tied behind her back.

"Answer me!" he said sharply.

Gaia jumped. The canary made a cheap from its cage. "She left," she said. "She said she was leaving town."

"No one leaves town," he said. "Did she say where she was going?"

Gaia swallowed hard. "To the wasteland. To the Dead Forest."

Mabrother Iris's eyebrows lifted in amusement.

"What is it?" she asked.

"The Dead Forest doesn't exist," he said. "It's a place from a fairy tale."

She was confused. "But-- "

He was shaking his head now, his eyes warming slightly through the tinted lenses. "I keep forgetting you're a child," he said. "From outside the wall, no less." He paused, and rubbed

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