The Fire Sisters (Brilliant Darkness 3) Read Online Free PDF

a patch of soft ground where I accidentally stuck it. “How?”
    “I was trapped by a group of runa once.”
    Runa is the anuna’s word for the sick ones. It’s an indication of the direness of our situation that no one has even mentioned what we’ll do when our sacks of pure water from the Myuna runs out, and we have to drink the poisoned water. I’m not going to worry about it now, either.
    “They were starving," she says, "and I was small and frightened. I didn’t have a weapon with me, and I’d been taught never to use one against the runa if I could help it.”
    “What did you do?”
    “I climbed a tree and screamed. Very loud.” We both laugh. “My brother found me. He chased them away and brought me home. But I learned to like the treetops after that, and to carry a knife or spear. I was teaching my own daughter to be comfortable with weapons so she could defend herself against the runa .”
    “Your daughter… was she… is she . . .?”
    “The Fire Sisters took her, with the other children.” She tells me this in a matter-of-fact tone. “Her name is Ellin, and she is seven years old. Her name means to move . She never stopped wiggling inside of me… or outside of me, either.” She pauses. “I will find her. I won’t stop looking until I do.”
    It’s not only matter-of-factness I hear in Amarina’s voice. There’s pure determination, too. My instinct is to reassure her we’ll find the children and bring them home, but from our short conversation, I can already tell she won’t appreciate lies to make her feel better.
    “I’ll do my best to help,” I say instead.
    “Hold up,” Peree calls from ahead. “Don’t move.”
    I stop to listen. Is it the Sisters? There’s no breeze this evening, and the sun is almost completely gone now, thrusting the forest into gloom.  The trees seem to hold their breath.
    “What?” Moray asks.
    “A footprint,” Kai says. “Too small to be an adult’s. Watch where you walk; there may be others.”
    Amarina moves ahead, probably to see the track. I step to the side, then stay where I am, afraid I’ll step on something important.
    “It does look like the footprint of a guru ,” Amarina agrees. “And here’s another.”
    The others spread out around me, their feet rustling. I needn’t have bothered being cautious. The one set of prints is all they find. If it had been the Sisters and the children, there should have been more, shouldn’t there?
    “Maybe one of the children got away,” Conda says.
    “It might have been a wanderer,” Derain says. “They come our way, although not often.”
    Something moves through the dark wall of trees behind me. A sudden stench wrinkles my nose—beyond unwashed, it’s putrid. Panting and a few low groans come to my ears. I scramble forward, away from the forest.
    The sick ones are coming.
     

Chapter Four
    The creatures moan and mumble, not clear words, but also not the terrible shrieks and howls I hear when I haven’t been drinking the pure water of the Myuna. Nonetheless, the old fear clamps its hands over my face, suffocating me.
    The others must see or hear them, too, because the group constricts, huddling together on the trail. Our collective breathing quickens. Peree pushes in behind me and lays a hand on my shoulder; I barely catch his distinctive scent under the carrion odor of the sick ones.
    “How many?” I ask.
    “A lot. More than us,” he answers.
    “What are they doing?”
    “Looking foul and smelling worse,” Moray says from my right.
    There’s bravado in his words, but revulsion crawls through his voice. Every Groundling was raised to fear the Scourge. This may be the first time he's seen the sick ones since coming to Koolkuna and drinking the pure water. At least we all should still be protected.
    “Let’s take a few out, boys.” They shift around, probably to get in a better position to wield their spears.
    “No.” Derain is quiet but firm. “We do not kill the runa