Page 39

Outside, the night was cold and clear. The moon had risen above the dark line of the Hollow Wood, enormous and white against the sky, bright enough to sharpen the edges of the castle walls and throw shadows across the grass.

The tightness in my skin returned the moment I looked at it.

Something in me responded to that light. I didn't understand what it was, only that my body seemed suddenly alert in a way it hadn't been a moment before.

I drew in a breath of cold air, and it burned all the way down.

Then a horn sounded from the walls, long and low, and the newcomers began to run.

The others started shifting before they even reached the trees.

I had never seen so many transformations happen at once. Twenty people were sprinting across the moonlit grass, and within seconds bodies were changing all around me. A girl several yards ahead stumbled forward onto her hands, but by the time she hit the ground she had become a fox, leaving her clothes in a heap behind her. A boy launched himself forward and changed in the middle of the movement, wings spreading where his arms had been before a heron climbed toward the treetops. Portia Vale became a lynx without losing a step.

Everywhere around me came the sounds of bones rearranging, fabric splitting, clothes dropping onto the grass, and feet turning into paws or hooves.

I kept running through the middle of it on two human legs, still wearing my dark sweater and the boot that was coming apart at the toe.

Then I crossed beneath the trees and the light disappeared.

The forest wasn't completely dark, but the canopy broke the moonlight into narrow patches that shifted across the ground as the branches moved. Within less than a minute, the other runners had scattered in different directions and vanished.

I was alone.

My heart was pounding and my breathing was too loud in my own ears, but I didn't panic. That surprised me more than anything else.

Instead, I stopped moving and forced myself to listen with the same concentration I used when holding a stethoscope to an animal's chest.

At first I heard only the ordinary noises of the forest: branches moving, water dripping from leaves, something small rustling through the undergrowth. Then I picked out another sound beneath them.

Running water.

It was somewhere to my left.

The river was narrower than it had appeared from the tower, and far colder than I had expected.

I stepped down from the bank, and the first shock of the water forced a gasp out of me. Within seconds it had soaked through my jeans and filled my boots. The cold became painful almost immediately, and before a minute had passed my feet were already aching.

After five minutes, the ache began to fade.

That worried me more.

The water was colder than I had expected, which meant I needed to change the plan. The sensible thing would have been to climb out, keep moving until I could properly feel my feet again, and only use the river when I had no better option.

Unfortunately, the bank made that difficult. This stretch was mostly exposed mud, soft enough to hold every footprint clearly, and climbing out would mean dragging my soaked clothes through the reeds and leaving an obvious trail behind me.

Delphine’s voice came back to me.

Lovely little maid.

So I stayed in the water.

I told myself I would only remain there until the hunters moved past this section of the Wood, but twelve minutes later the numbness in my feet had spread far enough to frighten me. I forced myself onto the bank and walked beneath the trees until sensation returned in a painful rush of pins and needles.

After that, I changed tactics. I used the river only where the bank left me too exposed or when I needed to break my trail, and I made sure I never stayed in the water any longer than necessary.

For some time, I moved that way, spending short stretches in the river and much longer ones beneath the trees, always giving myself time to warm up before going back in. It was still dangerous. My clothes were soaked through, and even on dry ground they kept drawing heat from my body.

I continued upstream with the wind coming toward me, listening constantly for any sign that something was following behind.