Darkwood

by M. E. Breen

  She would let the thing come and take what it wanted.

  “Cut him loose.”

  Serena looked at her, stunned, but did as she was told. Barely had she cut through the ropes when Gibbet started to run. He ran wildly, first toward the cave, then veering away across the clearing.

  “Mother, no! I’m sorry! Please, Mother, please, no!”

  The fluttering darkness took shape and flew screaming out of the depths of the wood. It sprang from treetop to treetop and bounded to the ground, snatching up Gibbet as though he were nothing more than a field mouse.

  It had the wings and talons of a hawk, the lithe shape of a cat, the fanged human face. It was all things, and none.

  “Mother, no!” Gibbet screamed as she bore him writhing into the air. Suddenly his cry changed. “Devour the witch! Devour the witch! Scion! Devour the witch!”

  The apothecary turned its head and looked at Annie, just for an instant, the bright eyes full of malevolence. Then it was gone.

  Silence stretched over the group for a long moment. They stared at one another, and at Annie, their leader. Gradually the normal sounds of the forest in daylight returned: the rustle of an animal burrowing into its bed of leaves, the sigh of the wind through the trees, the raven’s cough, the mourning brook.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  My thanks to Charlotte Sheedy for wisdom; Melanie Cecka for insight; Meredith Kaffel for patience; Katharine Noel for generosity; Corinne Rocca for partnership; Elizabeth Hines and Nicholas Boggs for fellowship; Eric Puchner, Charlotte Taylor, and Katharine Breen for smarts; Cass Rogers for endurance; Jocelyn Yant for good heart; Laura Ostenso for good humor; Alison Werger for the beach; Ed Feldman for dinner; Mary Taylor Huber and Pat Hutchings for friendship; Jill Campbell for kindness; Philip Alex for guidance; the Brothers Grimm for being grim; Mr. Rorschach for his blots; the Carnegie Foundation for having my back; and my mother, Judith Puchner Breen, for everything.

  Copyright © 2009 by M. E. Breen

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

  First published in the United States of America in May 2009 by Bloomsbury Books for Young Readers E-book edition published in April 2011 www.bloomsburykids.com

  For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to Permissions, Bloomsbury BFYR, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York 10010

  The Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition as follows:

  Breen, M. E.

  Darkwood / by M. E. Breen.—1st U.S. ed.

  p. cm.

  Summary: A clever and fearless orphan endures increasing danger while trying to escape from greedy, lawless men and elude the terrifying “kinderstalks”—animals who steal children—before discovering her true destiny.

  ISBN-13: 978-1-59990-259-3 • ISBN-10: 1-59990-259-1

  (hardcover)

  [1. Adventure and adventurers—Fiction. 2. Orphans—Fiction. 3. Human-animal communication—Fiction. 4. Sisters—Fiction. 5. Wolves—Fiction. 6. Fantasy.]

  I. Title.

  PZ7.B74822Dar 2009 [Fic]—dc22 2008044413

  ISBN 978-1-59990-601-0 (e-book)