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tight,” he told her over his shoulder. “Make it the way it was when you came.”
    She did as he commanded, and he flinched when she tugged on the rope. She squatted in front of him and tied his ankles. “I’ll try to find some more food for you. I don’t know how long it will take. The Avitras don’t eat meat. Just know that I’m working on it.”
    “Don’t endanger yourself,” he told her. “Keep yourself safe, no matter what.”
    She stood up and moved toward the door. “I have to try. I can’t see you like this without trying something. I only wish I could do something more to help you.”
    He didn’t say anything else until she turned her back on him and put her hand against the door. Then he called after her. “Anna?”
    She looked at him.
    “Thank you,” he told her. “You are helping me.”
    She broke into a radiant smile and hurried out of the room. She dropped the bar across the door and hurried away from the house. She had to cover her tracks before Penelope Ann or Aquilla found her.

Chapter 9
    The minute she got clear of the store room, Anna set off at a run down the bridge away from Penelope Ann’s house. Her heart pounded in her chest, and she fought for every breath. Her stomach turned at every step in case someone saw her. She was safer inside the store room than out in the open village.
    She raced from one bridge to the next, past three platforms, before she let herself slow down and look back. Golden sunshine touched the treetops and the roofs of the houses. The first doors and windows opened, and the Avitras poked their heads out to view the day.
    Anna smiled at some people she knew and set off on a circuitous route back to Penelope Ann’s house. She moved with casual slowness and stopped often to chat and smile and look around at the forest that, until a few days ago, had been her home. At the last platform, she turned—and stopped. Penelope Ann crossed the bridge toward her with a basket in her hand, and she didn’t return Anna’s greeting. “Where have you been?”
    “I woke up early,” Anna told her. “So I decided to go for a walk.”
    Penelope Ann didn’t react. “Your bed wasn’t slept in.”
    Anna pretended to be surprised. “What do you mean?”
    Penelope Ann lifted her basket. A scrap of cloth covered the bottom. She tossed the cloth aside, and Anna stared down at the collection of egg shells in the bottom of the basket. “You forgot to get rid of these.”
    Anna lifted her eyes to Penelope Ann’s face. “Why didn’t you tell Aquilla about the eggs?”
    Penelope Ann brushed her question away. “You’re playing with fire. You’re going to get burned one of these days.”
    “What are you going to do?” Anna asked.
    “I’m going to get rid of them,” Penelope Ann replied. “I don’t know where I can put them where Aquilla and his men won’t find them, but you can’t leave them lying around in your sleeping roll without getting caught.”
    Anna let out a shaky breath. “Thank you.”
    Penelope Ann shook her head. “Did you visit him again last night? Is that where you were?”
    “Can you blame me for wanting to help him?” Anna asked. “I put some kelep salve on his wounds and on his wrists.”
    “You’ll stay away from him from now on if you know what’s good for you,” Penelope Ann told her. “You’ll get yourself in trouble—or worse. He’s an Ursidrean. He’s an enemy of our faction.”
    “He’s a person who feels the same pain and hunger and fear we do,” Anna countered. “You would be upset if one of the other factions kidnapped an Avitras and held them captive.”
    Penelope Ann shook her head. “It’s not the same.”
    “You just told me I could get in trouble—or worse—for helping Menlo,” Anna went on. “So you admit Aquilla is capable of killing anybody who stands in his way. He’s not the benevolent patriarch he made out to be when I first came here.”
    “How can you say that about him?” Penelope Ann asked.