Witch Crag by Kate Cann Page B

hell— ”
    â€œShut up!” Quainy snarled back. “Wait till the others are asleep.”
    It didn’t take long. Sheep people were always exhausted; soon the hut was full of slow breathing. Quainy jabbed Kita again. “What’s up with you?” she hissed. “Ignoring me, not sitting with me.”
    â€œWhy would I sit with you when you were with those trolls ?” Kita hissed back.
    â€œKita, don’t be so childish ! Those trolls both work full time in the kitchen now. Marth is in charge of supplies . The dried food, the stored food, all kept in those huge boxes at the back of the kitchen. Guess where this is going?”
    â€œNo,” said Kita, sulkily, but she felt as though she’d come back to herself again. The terrible, frightening feelings that had possessed her ebbed away.
    â€œWe’ll need supplies, won’t we? That hard grain cake they make with sheep fat . . . dried berries . . . whatever we can get. I did a real weepy on Marth today, saying how scared I was about going as trade. She’s taken me under her wing, teaching me how to cook breakfast because I’ll need to as a wife. She’ll make sure I’m in the kitchens until I go. And I’ll be helping her get things from the supplies boxes. Look .” Quainy pulled a little dead-leaf package out of her pocket, and unrolled it. It contained a precious slab of wild bees’ honeycomb, used to sweeten the sheep milk. “This’ll keep us healthy. It’s magic stuff. I snatched it when Marth’s back was turned. I’ll get more stuff tomorrow. Here, hide it under your bedding, that far corner, no one’ll look there, they know you bite.”
    Silently, Kita did as she was told. Then she said, “Quainy, I’m ashamed.”
    â€œSo you should be.”
    â€œI doubted you. I felt – it was horrible. I thought you’d decided not to go.”
    â€œThe opposite.”
    â€œI know. You were stealing honey and plotting to steal more . . . you’re brilliant. I didn’t so much as thieve a bit of old wool rope. It didn’t cross my mind. You’re way ahead of me.”
    â€œYes, Kita, because the moon’s halfway to being full. We must go soon .”
    â€œI know, I know. Look – we’ll know tomorrow if Raff is with us.”
    â€œWhat about going the night after that?”
    â€œWill it give you time to get enough supplies?”
    â€œYes. We can’t carry much, after all.”
    â€œGood,” said Kita, “the night after next it is.” And she suddenly felt full of the most wonderful, confident, exhilarating energy. “I can hide what you get up on my ledge, we can pick it up when we go.”
    â€œWhat route do we take, Kita? Only I was thinking – if we go straight towards the crag, across the grasslands and the wastelands beyond, we’ll be seen. Clear as an ant on a bone.”
    â€œWe won’t go that way. We’ll go roundabout, under cover of the forest. Disappear into the trees from the east and head south. Get to the crag from the other side.”
    â€œThat’ll take a lot longer. And it means going near. . .”
    â€œThe old city. I know. It’s a huge risk, but only a risk, and crossing the open plains we’ll be caught for sure.”
    â€œAll right. Maybe we’ll make it. What about dogs, though? And crows?”
    â€œMake ourselves big and noisy to scare them off.”
    â€œAnd shout to the cannibals that we’re here!”
    â€œLook,” said Kita eagerly, “we can’t plan all that, we don’t know what’s out there. But we’ll deal with it! We’ll deal with things as they come at us.”
    â€œLet’s just hope they don’t come at us too hard,” said Quainy.
    *
    Kita woke the next morning determined to make amends for the day before. She was in the infants’ pens again, and that was a blow as she’d