It was wonderful being out like this, walking alonein the warm night air, with nobody to frown in disapproval. Wonderful to listen to the deer and rabbits and rats feeding in the meadows around her.
Happiness bubbled up inside Jade. She'd never felt so free.
"It is nice, isn't it?" Rowan said softly, lookingaround as they reached the fork in the road. "It's the real world. And we have as much right to it as anybody else."
"I think it's the blood," Kestrel said. "Free-range humans are so much better than the kept ones.
Whydidn't our dear brother ever mention that?"
Ash, Jade thought, and felt a cold wind. She glanced behind her, not looking for a car but forsomething much more silent and deadly. She realized suddenly how fragile her bubble of happiness was.
"Are we going to get caught?" she asked Rowan. Reverting, in the space of one second, to a six-yearold turning to her big sister for help.
And Rowan, the best big sister in the world, said immediately and positively,"No. "
"But if Ash figures it out-he's the only one whomight realize-"
"We are not going to get caught," Rowan said. "Nobody will figure out that we're here."
Jade felt better. She put down her suitcase and held out a hand to Rowan, who took it. "Together forever," she said.
Kestrel, who'd been a few steps ahead, glanced over her shoulder. Then she came back and put her hand on theirs.
"Together forever."
Rowan said it solemnly; Kestrel said it with a quicknarrowing of her yellow eyes. Jade said it with utter determination.
As they walked on, Jade felt buoyant and cheerfulagain, enjoying the velvet-dark night.
The road was just dirt here, not paved. They passed meadows and stands of Douglas fir. A farmhouse on the left, set back on a long driveway. And finally, dead ahead at the end of the road, another house.
"That's it," Rowan said. Jade recognized it, too, from the pictures Aunt opal had sent them. It had two stories, a wraparound porch, and a steeplypitched roof with lots of gables. A cupola sprouted out of the rooftop, and there was a weather vane on the barn.
A real weather vane, Jade thought, stopping to stare. Her happiness flooded _back full force. "I love it, she said solemnly.
Rowan and Kestrel had stopped, too, but their expressions were far from awed. Rowan looked a hairs breadth away from horrified.
"It's a wreck," she gasped. "Look at that barnthe paint's completely gone. The pictures didn't show that."
"And the porch," Kestrel said helpfully. "It's fallingto pieces. Might go any minute."
"The work," Rowan whispered. "The work it would take to fix this place up ..."
"And the money," Kestrel said.
Jade gave them a cold look. "Why fix it? I like it.
It's different." Rigid with superiority, she picked up her luggage and walked to the end of the roadThere was a ramshackle, mostly fallen-down fence around the property, and a dangerous-looking gate.
Beyond,on a weed-covered path, was a pile of white pickets as if somebody had been planning to fix the fencebut had never got around to it.
Jade put down the suitcase and cat carrier and pulled at the gate. To her surprise, it moved easily.
"See, it may not look good, but it still works-"She didn't get to finish the sentence properly. The gate fell on her.
"Well, it may not work, but it's still ours," she said as Rowan and Kestrel pulled it off her.
"No, it's Aunt Opal's," Kestrel said.
Rowan just smoothed her hair back and said, "Come on."
There was a board missing from the porch steps, and several boards gone from the porch itself. Jade limped around them with dignity. The gate had given her a good whack in the shin, and since it was wood,it still .hurt. In fact, everything seemed to be made of wood here, which gave Jade a pleasantly alarmed feeling. Back home, wood was revered-,and kept outof the way.
You have to be awfully careful to live in this kindof world, Jade thought. Or you're going to get hurt.
Rowan and Kestrel were knocking on the door,Rowan politely, with her knuckles, Kestrel loudly, with the side of her hand. There wasn't any answer.
"She doesn't seem to be here," Rowan said.
"She's decided she doesn't want us," Kestrel said, golden eyes gleaming.
"Maybe she went to the wrong bus station,"Jade said.
"Oh-that's it. I bet that's it," Rowan said. "Poorold thing, she's waiting for us somewhere, and she's going to be thinking that we didn't show up."
""Sometimes you're not completely stupid," Kestrel informed Jade. High praise from Kestrel.
"Well, let's go in," Jade said,to conceal howpleased she was. "She'll come back here sometime."
"Human houses have locks," Rowan began, but this house wasn't locked. The doorknob
turned in Jade's hand. The three of them stepped inside.
It was dark, even darker than the moonless nightoutside, but Jade's eyes adjusted in a few seconds.
"Hey, it's not bad," she said. They were in ashabby but handsome living room filled with huge, ponderous furniture. Wood furniture, of course dark and highly polished. The tables were topped with marble.
Rowan found a lightswitch, and suddenly the roomwas too bright. Blinking, Jade saw that the walls were pale apple green, with fancy woodwork andmoldings in a darker shade of the same green. It made Jade feel oddly peaceful. And anchored, somehow, as if she belonged here. Maybe it was all the heavy furniture.
She looked at Rowan, who was looking around tall graceful body slowly relaxing.
Rowan smiled and met her eyes. She noddedonce. "Yes."
Jade basked for a moment in the glory of having been right twice in five minutes--and then she remembered her suitcase.
"Let's see what the rest of the place is like," she said hastily. "I'll take the upstairs; you guys look around here."
"You just want the best bedroom," Kestrel said.
Jade ignored her, hurrying up a wide, carpeted flight of stairs. There were lots of bedrooms, and each one had lots of room. She didn't want the best, though, just the farthest away.
At the very end of the hall was a room painted sea-blue. Jade slammed the door behind her and puther suitcase on the bed. Holding her breath, she opened the suitcase.