Jade was the youngest, just turned sixteen, and she didn't look like either of her sisters. She had white-blond hair that she used as a veil to hide behind, and green eyes. People said she looked serene, but she almost never felt serene. Usually she was either madly excited or madly anxious and confused.
Right now it was anxious. She was worried about her battered, half-century-old Morocco leather suitcase. She couldn't hear a thing from inside it.
00 "Hey, why don't you two go down the road a little way and see if she's coming?"
Her sisters looked back at her. There were few things that Rowan and Kestrel agreed on, but Jade was one of them. She could see that they were about to team up against her.
"Now what?" Kestrel said, her teeth showing just briefly.
And Rowan said, "You're up to something. What are you up to, Jade?"
Jade smoothed her thoughts and her face out and just looked at them artlessly. She hoped.
They stared back for a few minutes, then looked at each other, giving up. "We're going to have to walk, you know," Kestrel said to Rowan.
"There are worse things than walking," Rowansaid. She pushed a stray wisp of chestnut-colored hair off her forehead and looked around the bus stationwhich consisted of a three-sided, glass-walled cubicle,and the splintering wooden bench. "I wish there was a telephone."
"Well, there isn't. And it's twenty miles to BriarCreek," Kestrel said, golden eyes glinting with a kind of grim enjoyment. "We should probably leave our bags here."
Alarm tingled through Jade. "No, no. I've got allmy--all my clothes in there. Come on, twenty milesisn't so far." With one hand she picked up her cat carrier-it was homemade, just boards and wiresand with the other she picked up the suitcase. She got quite a distance down the road before she heard the crunch of gravel behind her. They were following: Rowan sighing patiently, Kestrel chuckling softly, her hair shining like old gold in the starlight.
The one-lane road was dark and deserted. But notentirely silent there were dozens of tiny night sounds, all adding up to one intricate, harmonizing night stillness. It would have been pleasant, except that Jade's suitcase seemed to get heavier with everystep, and she was hungrier than she had ever beenbefore. She knew better than to mention it to Rowan, but it made her feel confused and weak.
Just when she was beginning tothink she would have to put the suitcase down and rest, she heard a new sound.
It was a car, coming from behind them. The engine was so loud that it seemed to take a long time to get close to them, but when it passed, Jade saw that itwas actually going very fast. Then there was a rattling of gravel and the car stopped. It backed up and Jade saw a boy looking through the window at her.
There was another boy in the passenger seat. Jade looked at them curiously.
They seemed to be about Rowan's age, and theywere both deeply tanned. The one in the driver's seat had blond hair and looked as if he hadn't washed ina while. The other one had brown hair. He was wear ing a vest with no shirt underneath. He had a toothpick in his mouth.
They both looked back at Jade, seeming just as curious as she was. Then the driver's window slid down. Jade was fascinated by how quickly it went.
"Need a ride?" the driver said, with an oddly bright smile. His teeth shone in contrast to his dingy face.
Jade looked at Rowan and Kestrel, who were just catching up. Kestrel said nothing, but looked at the car through narrow, heavy-lashed amber eyes. Rowan's brown eyes were very warm.
"We sure would," she said, smiling. Then, doubtfully, "But we're going to Burdock Farm. It may be out of your way...."
"Oh, hey, I know that place. It's not far," the onein the vest said around his toothpick. "Anyway, anything for a lady," he said, with what seemed to be an attempt at gallantry. He opened his door and got out of the car. "One of you can sit up front, and I can sit in back with the other two. Lucky me, huh?" he said to the driver.
"Lucky you," the driver said, smiling largely again. He opened his door, too. "You go on and put that cat carrier in front, and the suitcases can go in the trunk," he said.
Rowan smiled at Jade, and Jade knew what she was thinking. Iwonder if everybody out here is so friendly? They distributed their belongings and thenpiled in the car, Jade in the front with the driver, Rowan and Kestrel in the back on either side of the vested guy. A minute later they were flying downthe road at what Jade found a delightful speed, gravel crunching beneath the tires.
"I'm Vic," the driver said.
"I'm Todd," the vested guy said.
Rowan said, "I'm Rowan, and this is Kestrel. That'sJade up there."
"You girls friends?"
"We're sisters," Jade said.
"You don't look like sisters."
"Everybody says that." Jade meant everybody theyhad met since they'd run away. Back home, everybodyknew they were sisters, so nobody said it.
"What are you doing out here so late?" Vic asked. "It's not the place for nice girls."
"We're not nice girls," Kestrel explained absently.
"We're trying to be," Rowan said reprovingly through her teeth. To Vic, she said, "We were waiting for our great-aunt Opal to pick us up at the bus stop, but she didn't come. We're going to live at Burdock Farm."
"Old lady Burdock is your aunt?" Todd said, removing his toothpick. "That crazy old bat?" Vic turned around to look at him, and they both laughed and shook their heads.
Jade looked away from Vic. She stared down at the cat carrier, listening for the little squeaking noises that meant Tiggy was awake.
She felt just slightly ... uneasy. She sensed something. Even though these guys seemed friendly, there was something beneath the surface. But she was toosleepy-and too light-headed from hunger-to figure out exactly what it was.
Rowan was still looking polite and puzzled, but Kestrel looked at the car door on her side thoughtfully. Jade knew what she was looking for-a handle.There wasn't one.
"Too bad," Vic said. "This car's a real junkheap; you can't even open the back doors from inside."
He grabbed Jade's upper arm so hard she could feel pressure on the bone. "Now, you girls just be nice and nobody's going to get hurt."
They seemed to drive a long time beforeVic spoke again.