blood red road by moira young

Author:moira young
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: speculative fiction
ISBN: 9781442429987
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry
Published: 2011-06-01T00:00:00+00:00

JEST BEFORE MIDNIGHT, WE RIDE INTO THE FREE HAWK summer camp at Darktrees.

Nero flies on ahead to tel ’em we’re comin. Emmi runs up the moment we ride into view an runs an skips along beside the horses.

Saba! Yer here!

You should be asleep, I says.

What took you so long?

We got here soon as we could, I says.

I swing myself down of a Hermes’ back. She leaps at me, wrappin her arms an legs around my waist an neck.

Are they dead? she whispers. Did you kil ’em?

You don’t need to worry about ’em no more, I says. How’m I s’posed to do anythin with you hangin on like a leech?

I give her backside a swat an she slides down. She fol ows at my heels while I rub Hermes down, water him an send him o into the trees to join th’other Hawk horses an ponies to graze on the scrubby grass in the forest clearins.

She chat ers on, about Epona an how we’re gonna sleep in the same bunkhouse as Maev, but al the time she keeps hold of the edge of my tunic an sticks close.

I turn an jest about trip over her. I kneel down an take her hands. They’re tremblin.

Hey, hey, Emmi, I says. It’s okay. I’m here.

No you ain’t, she says. Yer leavin to find Lugh. An it could be dangerous. You said so yerself.

I’l be fine, I says. I’l be back before you know it. An I’l be bringin Lugh with me.

Yer sure I cain’t come with you?

I’m sure, I says. I promised Pa an Lugh I’d keep you safe. I ain’t done a very good job so far.

You done okay, she says.

Hey, I says. I dunno about you, but I’m startin to feel mighty tired. Why don’t you show me that bunkhouse you was talkin about?

Okay. Hey … Saba?

Uh huh?

Would it … would you give me a pickaback ride to the bunkhouse? She says it shy-like, not lookin at me but at the ground where her boot’s tracin a line in the dirt.

I ain’t never let Em ride pickaback on me in our whole lives. Lugh was the one who played with her like that. He’d grab her by the hands an swing her around til they both fel dizzy on the ground. Or she’d jump on his back an he’d gal op around an leap while she squealed with delight. I never used to like it when he spent time with her. Or anybody else fer that mat er. I always wanted him al to myself.

I look down at her. At the back of her neck, scrawny an grubby. She always was smal fer her age.

She’s only nine, Saba. You might try bein nice to her fer a change.

A pickaback? I says. I thought you’d never ask.

Human sacrifice. Maev frowns. That’s … crazy.

Her an me’s sit in on a log in the cool mornin shadows of the clearin where the Free Hawks camp is. I check to make sure Emmi ain’t in earshot. She don’t know none of this an I don’t want her overhearin.

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