“Aren’t you afraid of snakes?” asked Ronald.

“And alligators?” asked Jamal.

“Yep,” I said matter-of-factly, and then jumped into the water with all my clothes on.

Within minutes the newcomers had a swarm of girls swimming at their feet. They were all laughing and joking around, including Jamal. He kept looking at LaShay, but she wasn’t giving him the time of day. She was teasing Ronald though, and he was being really good-natured about it. I had a feeling he must have had a bossy mother, the way he handled her so well. He never got offended no matter what she said. I liked him more and more with each passing minute. He and his brother would be good additions to our little community.

Eventually the sun started going down, so I got out and sat down next to the guys. “We need to get going. The meeting will start in an hour or so and I need to try and get somewhat dried off.”

“You should probably get that leg cleaned up, too,” said Ronald, eyeing it warily.

I looked down and noticed it looked a little raggedy. “I probably shouldn’t have gone swimming,” I said, almost to myself, biting my lip as I tried to touch it without making it hurt.

“I’ll get you fixed up. Just go to the clinic, and I’ll be right there,” said LaShay. She reached up and smacked my hand away from my leg. “Don’t touch!” She swam away, a group of kids following behind her.

I rolled my eyes and pulled my moccasins on. I noticed Ronald and Jamal staring at the kids getting out of the water, every one of them missing an arm or a leg. They exchanged looks but said nothing. I was glad they were seeing it; I wanted them to know that the people here were the good kind and not the vicious kind.

When Peter and I were ready, the four of us walked together through the trees, headed towards the clinic. Ronald finally spoke.

“So … we noticed that the kids in the pool were all … you know …”

“Missing body parts?” I suggested.

“Yeah. I wouldn’t have put it quite so bluntly, but yeah.”

“Canner victims. We rescued them a few days ago,” said Peter.

“Wow. That’s amazing,” said Jamal, respect in his voice. “You guys did that? Why?”

“Because it was the right thing to do,” I said.

“But didn’t that put you in danger?” asked Ronald.

“Yes, it did,” said Peter.

“They took Celia, one of the Creek girls, and she escaped. But she told us what was going on, so we could hardly just ignore it and do nothing,” I explained.

“Everyone else does,” said Ronald softly.

“Well, we’re not everyone else,” said Peter, his voice filled with pride.

“Can I ask you a question?” said Jamal.

“Seems like you already have,” I said. I wasn’t being mean, but it seemed funny to ask permission now. We’d already had the awkward why-are-all-these-kids-missing-limbs conversation.

“When you all made the decision to go after those guys … what did Trip say? Was he for it or against it?”

I sighed. I knew this wasn’t just about the canner mission. “He was against it at first. But he changed his mind.”

“Who changed it for him?”

“Kowi, probably. They’re old friends. He trusts him.”

“Do you think Kowi’s going to let us stay?” asked Ronald.

“I don’t know. I want to think, yes, but you never know with these guys. They have a lot of people to take care of and worry about.” Even though I was pretty sure Kowi was going to let them stay, I didn’t want to get their hopes up yet.

Nobody said anything after that, all of us wondering about Ronald’s and Jamal’s fates.

We arrived at the clinic and Winky was there to fix me up. LaShay helped, but mostly she busied herself with changing bandages on the hurt kids’ arms and legs; and she worked very hard at ignoring Jamal, too. He kept staring at her but she obviously wasn’t interested. I shook my head. Poor guy. He and Peter should get together and compare notes on how to deal with difficult crushes.

We left the clinic a half hour later to go to the dinner meeting, along with all the people who worked there. Everything was riding on this moment, but I didn’t let myself think about the what-ifs and the whys. I just needed to get through tonight and the next couple days so I could go after Bodo. Nothing was going to stop that from happening.

***

Everyone but us was already there. Torches were lit and the food was out. I walked the two newcomers over to the baskets of food and gave them a basic idea of what they were eating. I left out the part that one of the hunks of meat might be snake, deciding since it hadn’t killed any of us, they’d be fine eating it too. Maybe for fun later I’d tell them. I had a feeling that Jamal might be easy to freak out when it came to eating things that slithered.

We ate in subdued silence, watching the others talking and joking around. This was a no-big-deal thing for them. For Ronald and Jamal it meant everything, and I totally felt for them.

I nudged Ronald. “Don’t worry about it. I’m sure it’s all going to be okay.”

Ronald shook his head slowly. “I’m not so sure about that. He would have sent word we could stay if that was his decision. That would have been the nice thing to do.”

I hadn’t considered that, but I brushed off my misgivings. “No. He’s a formal guy about stuff like this. He would have wanted to announce it.”

Ronald stopped eating and looked at me. “You sure?”

“Yeah. I think.” I was suddenly even more stressed, feeling like I’d just vouched for an affirmative answer from the chiefs; and while I was confident they’d do the right thing, I wasn’t sure my idea of the right thing and theirs would always match up. Please let it match up tonight!

“Just let it go, Ronnie,” said Jamal. “It is what it is. Stressing isn’t going to change anything.”

“Yeah. I know,” Ronald mumbled, poking at his food.

My food started to taste like sawdust. I threw my hunk of bread on the ground for Buster to eat and set the rest of my basket aside. Maybe I’ll be able to eat it later.

Trip and Kowi arrived, not bothering to get food. They stood talking for a few minutes before splitting apart, Trip going to stand with Jeremy, and Kowi remaining center stage. He raised his hands for everyone to stop talking.

My stomach started to burn.

“I need to talk to you for a few minutes and then I’ll leave you to your dinner.”

The talking stopped and everyone faced Kowi. Coli moved so she was just off to his left, looking every bit the proud chief’s woman. I wasn’t sure if it was just my imagination or not, but she seemed to be avoiding looking at me.

“As you probably know, we had a couple of strangers enter Kahayatle asking for safe harbor.” He looked over at Ronald and Jamal. Ronald waved and gave everyone a quavering smile. Jamal looked like he wanted to vomit.

Kowi looked out to the group. “Trip and I have discussed it, and we’ve decided to decline their request.”

Gasps echoed all over the hut, mine included. My heart spasmed, and the pulse in my neck started hammering.

He looked at Ronald and Jamal. “You can stay the night, but at first light, you’ll be escorted out of the swamp and given a few days’ rations of food. But if you try to come back, we will consider it an attack and react accordingly.” He moved to leave the hut, Coli walking behind him with her chin held high.

I looked at him in shock and then over at the two boys; their expressions told me they were both terrified.

Before Kowi got two steps, I leapt to my feet, ready to blow a gasket. “What the hell, Kowi?!”

He stopped, but didn’t look at me and didn’t say anything.

No one else spoke until Jamal said softly, “I told you, Ronald. We’re not wanted here either.”

My heart nearly broke with the unfairness of it. “You can’t be serious!” I demanded. “Tell me this is a sick joke, Kowi, please.”

Kowi sighed and turned his head to look at me. I noticed he didn’t bother to acknowledge the two people whose death sentences he was signing.

“I am serious. Your tie breaking vote is not needed today.” He turned his head back and started walking again.

“Well, I’m sorry to inform you that you’re going to get my vote anyway … and that’s that they be allowed to stay.” I stood with my legs spread and fists at my side. I felt a hand on my shoulder and shrugged it off.

“Bryn, let it go,” said Paci.

I had no idea when he’d showed up, but he was trying to tell me to back off, and all it did was make me hate him. “Get away from me, Paci,” I growled, my eyes blazing.

He backed up two paces, frowning at me.

I turned back to Kowi. “You can’t turn them out like dogs. Hell, you don’t even turn dogs out!” I yelled at Kowi, pointing at Buster.

“We’re not treating anyone like anything except people who don’t belong.”

“What? … Is this a racial thing?” I asked, completely confused.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” said Kowi in an offended tone.

“Well, explain it to me, then.”

“You aren’t owed an explanation!” screeched Coli. “You are not a part of this tribe! So shut up and sit down like a good girl!”

I pushed Peter and Ronald out of my way, advancing on her with only one plan in mind: I was going to slam her smug face into the dirt and suffocate her with it. She was hateful and nasty to the core and I was sick and tired of her constant ugliness in my life.

Kowi jumped in between us with his hands out. “Bryn, back down!”

I met Kowi, toe-to-toe. “Get the hell out of my way, Kowi, or I’m taking you out, too. She deserves what’s coming to her.”

He pleaded with me with his eyes before doing it aloud. “Please, Bryn. She’s out of line. I’ll talk to her about it. But you can’t touch her. I won’t let you.”

I raised an eyebrow at him. “You think you can stop me?”

“Maybe he can’t … but I can,” said Trip, leveling a gun at my face from off to the side.

I turned my head slowly, fixing him with a death stare, not even a little bit shocked that he’d stooped to this level. He hadn’t fought me fair before, so there was no sense expecting him to do it now.

“Don’t even try it,” I warned.

“You can’t move faster than a bullet,” he said calmly, never taking his eyes off me or his finger off the trigger.

“Holy shit, Trip, what are you …? Come on, that’s not necessary,” said Kowi. “Put it away.”

“What the hell is going on here?!” yelled Paci, louder and angrier than I’d ever heard him before.

Even I was startled enough to turn around.

“Have all of you lost your friggin’ minds?! This is Bryn here! And these guys are her new friends … they came her looking for her, not us. You can’t just … point a gun in her face, Trip!” He looked at Kowi, scolding him with his expression. “Kowi, man … what is wrong with you? You don’t treat people like this. You’re letting Coli talk to people like they’re trash now?” He looked back and forth between Trip who’d lowered the gun an inch and Kowi who looked just a tiny bit ashamed. “Did I fall asleep and wake up in an alternate reality or what?” He strode forward until he was standing at my side. Then he roared. “Somebody talk to me and tell me what’s happening!”

I heard LaShay’s voice behind me very softly say, “Damn … boy’s done lost his mind.”

Kowi was the first to respond, taking a step back before speaking, his hands up in a calming gesture. “Paci, just relax. We have enough hot heads here right now.”