traps, then back directly into the forest. She moved fast, selecting paths that were secret as well as efficient. They struggled to keep up as they crossed running water, climbed rocky outcrops, crawled through thorny thickets, and ran along game trails through dappled sunlight. The day felt like the hottest of the whole summer, and sweat poured out of them, but none of them cared. Having a purpose put iron in their limbs; knowing there was a chance to get revenge against Charlie ignited fires in their chests that burned hotter than the sun.
The bounty hunters’ camp was on the far side of the mountain, and it took them almost two hours to reach it. Lilah guided them to a rocky promontory that was overgrown with white sage. They flattened out on the edge of the narrow cliff and pulled foliage over themselves. The camp looked strangely exposed, with paths leading up through forestland to a plateau as flat as a tabletop. Three traders wagons were positioned to block each path, their sides reinforced with sheet metal. The teams of horses were corralled in the center of the camp, each of them wearing a carpet coat, even in the afternoon heat. Without saying a word, Lilah slowly pointed out each guard and the other men wandering around the camp.
Nix cursed very quietly under her breath. There were twenty-three men in the camp. She glanced at Benny, but he kept his jaw set, so she didn’t see the new fear that was making his heart jump around in his chest. The resolve he’d had back in the cave-one part bravery, one part need for revenge, and a couple parts craziness-felt suddenly brittle.
He had not expected there to be so many. Then his roving eyes found the pen where they were holding the kids. It was a pen, too, the kind used for keeping pigs. Two guards stood watch over the captives, and through the shimmering heat haze, it took Benny a couple of tries to count them all. There weren’t a dozen kids. There were nineteen of them. Other bounty hunters must have joined the camp in the last few hours, which would account for the higher number of guards and captives.
Nineteen kids. Five boys, fourteen girls. The oldest looked to be twelve, the youngest about eight. They were all hunkered down, tied together by ropes that were attached to metal rings in the leather collars each of them wore.
Any doubts Benny had when he’d first looked down at the camp withered and died at the sight of those kids huddled like animals in the pen. If Nix hadn’t escaped, she’d be collared and penned with the rest. He knew that Lilah had already been through that hell.
He saw Charlie Pink-eye walk across the center of the camp, and Benny pointed a finger at him, tracking the big bounty hunter, as if he was looking down the barrel of a hunting rifle. If wishes were bullets, Charlie would be sprawled dead in the dirt.
Careful not to make the slightest sound, they crawled back from the edge of the plateau and huddled together under a willow.
“Harder,” Lilah said. “More than I thought.”
“More kids, too. Nineteen.”
Benny cleared a space on the ground and, taking a small stick, began drawing a map of the camp. The others helped, making additions and corrections. Benny asked Lilah to mark where the landmarks were: Coldwater Creek, the blocked highway, the ranger station, and other places that had factored into recent events. Benny studied the map for a long time in silence. He rolled over onto his back and marked the position of the sun. In the Scouts, Mr. Feeney had taught them how to tell the time of day by using the sun, and Benny had a rough guess as to when it would set.
“Okay, we have about five hours until twilight,” he whispered.
“Less,” said Lilah, and jerked a thumb over her shoulder. They looked to where she was pointing and saw a line of heavy clouds.
“Rain?” asked Nix. “Will that help or hurt us?”
“Rain is bad,” said Lilah. “Can’t hear, can’t see.”
“Neither can they,” said Benny. “If it rains, we deal with it. We’ll find a way to make it work for us.”
Lilah took a last look over the edge. “Need go. Much… to…” She stopped, and Benny could see her working something out, then she said, very slowly, “I need to go, now. I have much to do.” She almost blushed. “I don’t… think… the same way I read. It is… harder to put thoughts… into sentences.”
“You’re doing better than I would have if I lived alone all this time,” said Nix. “And you’re doing better than Benny does now.”
“Hey!” said Benny, but he was grinning.
“It’s strange,” said Lilah. “I never thought I would…
For the first time since they’d met the Lost Girl, Benny felt that a window had opened into who she was. It was only open a crack, but he thought he caught a glimpse of the stark loneliness and sadness that defined her interior life, just as the weapons and quick actions defined her exterior world.
“Lilah,” he said, “when this is all over…”
“Yes?”
“I’d like to go on knowing you. I’d like us to be friends.” He cut a look at Nix, who was listening intently. “You, me, Nix. And our other friends. Morgie Mitchell and Lou Chong.”
“‘Friends,’” Lilah echoed, as if it was a word she’d never encountered in any of her reading. “Why?”
Benny opened his mouth to speak, but it was Nix who answered. “Because after all of this, after everything that’s happened to us, Lilah… We’re already family.”
It wasn’t exactly what Benny was going to say, but what she said was right. He nodded. The Lost Girl considered it for a while, then said, “Let’s talk about that tomorrow.”
“Okay,” said Nix, “I’d like-”
“If there is one.” She turned away and checked her weapons as she prepared to depart.
“Lilah,” said Benny, “are you sure you can do this?”
Instead of a smile or some reassuring comment, Lilah simply said, “Have to try.” Then she paused and looked Benny straight in the eye. “Why?”
“Why…
“You could go back. To your town. You and Nix. These people”-she waved a hand in the direction of the kids in the pen-“aren’t yours. So… why?”
Benny didn’t have a ready answer for that. There had not been time to explore his own feelings about everything that had happened or was still happening. He would liked to have made a bold speech about honor and dignity, or fired off a remark of the kind that would be quoted by future generations. All he managed was: “If we don’t do something to stop this, who will?”
Lilah considered him, her hazel eyes seeming to open doors into his thoughts. She must have seen something that she liked, or perhaps it was the simple honesty of his words, because she nodded gravely.
“Have to try,” she said.
“Have to try,” Benny said, nodding. “For Tom, for Nix’s mom… for Annie.”
Lilah closed her eyes for a moment, nodding silently to herself. Then, without another word, she turned and slipped like a promise into the shadows under the trees.
Benny and Nix climbed down from the plateau and found a dark and sheltered spot under a row of thick pines. Their part would not start for hours.
Overhead a lone buzzard drifted on the thermals.
Benny held his hand out to Nix, and she came and sat next to him. They drank from Benny’s canteen and ate some of the dried meat Lilah had given them. It was only marginally less disgusting than her stew, but they were hungry and eating gave them something to do. They said nothing for almost an hour. Benny spent much of that time reviewing the plan and looking for holes. There were plenty to be found. In fact, there were more ways the plan could go wrong than go right.
“Life’s weird,” Benny said.
“Thank you, Captain Obvious.”
“No… It’s just that two weeks ago the worst thing I had to worry about was finding a job before they cut my rations. All summer long the bunch of us-you, me, Chong, and Morgie-all we did was goof off, hang out, and laugh. We used to laugh a lot, Nix. Life used to be fun.”
She nodded sadly.
“I have to believe,” Benny continued, “that we’ll get through this. Not just this stuff tonight, but all of it.”
