Hina woke tense from a dream of being chased, and the sick ache in her gut grew as the memories trickled in. Where she was and what had happened.

They were coming for her. For both of them. And this time, they were going to do more than just take them home.

She rolled over into a sitting position, wiped dirt from her face. The sun was somewhere behind them—afternoon at least, but so much brighter than it had been. A bird chirped in the distance.

Kai was lying face down within arms reach, his backpack rising and falling slowly. The bag had a long tear in the side, the fabric moving unevenly as he breathed.

The clearing was smaller than she remembered, lychfyr thorns all around them except on one side. Was it closer than it had been before they slept?

Hina touched Kai's shoulder. The blood on her arm was dry. She ignored it.

"Kai, you okay?" She spoke quietly, there was no telling if anyone from Grambe was nearby. The rustling of the hedge would cover the sound of their voices, she hoped.

Kai groaned.

Hina shook his shoulder. "Are you hurt?"

"No... sleepy..." He opened his eyes. "Oh shit." Kai moved to crouch beside her in the dirt. "Are they here? Nearby?"

"I don't think so. We've been here a while," she held up her bloodied arm. "I got pricked at least once."

Kai nodded slowly. "Thorns went straight through my shirt," he said, touching his left side. "Just a scratch, though."

"Show me." Hina moved closer. The holes in the fabric were barely there. "Lift up your shirt? Bram's Emergency Treatment says—"

Kai rolled his eyes. "It's fine." But he lifted up his shirt anyway.

Hina leaned in to get a better look. Kai's scrawny torso was a tapestry of yellow and orange and brown. Bruises. Old bruises. And his side was caked with dried blood. Hina reached out a hand to check the most recent wounds.

"Ouch."

"Shush. I haven't touched you." There were three scabbed over wounds on his side. Hina thought they looked superficial. "It looks... okay."

"I told you." Kai's loose long shirt dropped back down, forming a tent over his knees.

Hina considered the plant growing around them, looked down at the blood on her arm. She shuffled closer to the center of their little clearing.

She shook her head to shake away some of the fuzziness. "If they were going to find us here, maybe they would have already. But they know which way we went. If we head out there now," she nodded towards the opening in the hedge, towards the wild, "it'll be a long walk before we're out of sight. If we wait until dark... It's not long now."

"Don't think we should wait here." He was looking back towards where he had been lying, where a faint depression was visible in the ground. The thorns were nearly touching it.

He shuffled closer. "Think they've found the body yet?"

Hina shook her head in a sharp motion. She shook it again. "If they haven't found it yet, they will soon," her voice small and quiet.

Kai rocked back and forth on the balls of his feet. "If they're looking now, they're gonna look harder when they find Lagi. I think we run now. Get far enough into the wilds that they can't follow. That they can't tell which way we went."

"And if they spot us running?"

"Better there than here."

Hina thought about that for a moment. She shrugged. "I can't argue with that."

"And I don't think they're gonna follow us into the wild. Not right away."

"I hope you're right."

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Through the gap, the ground sloped up gradually into a series of low hills, long grass waving in the breeze. There was a stand of trees at the top of the hill in the distance—if they made it that far without being spotted, they'd be out of sight. Safe.

The road that ran along the river towards Hertley was somewhere towards her left. They must have gotten turned around. That was okay, they didn't want to travel along the main road right now anyway.

She looked around the edges of the hedge, left and then right. No sign of anyone. "I can't see much, but I think we're okay from here."

"Let's do it."

Hina walked fast into the grass and up the slope, feeling exposed, like she'd stepped up to the podium at a school event. She glanced looked back over her shoulder. No-one in sight. She broke into a jog.

The grass was knee-high and scratched against her bare legs as she moved up and over the first hill and then the second.

Hina slowed to catch her breath at the tree line. Standing in the dappled shadow of a sala tree, she turned to look back.

The great mass of the Grambe hedge filled her vision, sun a above it in the sky.

Nothing was moving, no boats on the river, no-one on the road.

The feeling of being watched faded. The school-children had gone home for summer.

Hina led them through the trees at an angle which would intersect with the road eventually, and when they got close to the road, turned so that they were headed in the same direction.

It would be slow, walking around trees and bushes, but this way they wouldn't seen by travellers on the main road, and they were close enough to the road that they wouldn't get lost. Hertley was south and a little east, in any case. Hard to miss, for all that they would be circling around the town.

The sun began to set as Hina found them a grassy clearing. "Let's stop here."

Sitting down felt amazing. Hina lay back for a moment, bag resting beside her, wild grasses tickling her hair. Her eyes closed.

The warmth of the morning sun woke Hina. A bird called loudly from overhead. Her stomach gurgled audibly. She was hungry, she hadn't eaten since—she remembered yesterday. The hunger faded a little.

Hina rolled herself out of her blanket and sat up. Her bruises ached. Her face was tender to the touch, and her—everything hurt. She groaned.

The blanket was a mystery. Kai must have put it over her after she fell asleep. He was sitting a little way across the clearing, cross-legged with an empty bag in his lap. The contents of his bag were piled on the grass in front of him. He was moving his hands back and forth in a circular motion. Was he sewing?

"Morning," she said.

Kai looked up. "Morning." He nodded towards the pile of stuff, continuing his stitch. "Bags got ripped up. By the thorns. Missing a couple of things—" He hissed and put one finger in his mouth. "Ouch."

Hina's left hand found the outline of the shape in her pocket. "Which things?" She turned to look at her own bag. There was a tear down the bottom, she vaguely remembered pulling when it had gotten caught on the thorns. The tear was the length of her hand.

"My spare shirt—the blue one? And the hatchet."

"You stole Dad's hatchet?"

"His hammer, too." He grinned and held it up. "Few other things. He's gonna be really angry."

"Here." Hina threw him half a loaf of bread. "Sleep okay?"

"Yeah. It's really nice out here. Peaceful."

Hina munched on the other half while she spread the contents of her bag on the ground.

It looked like she had most of everything:

Two spare dresses, one for working and one nicer one for the entrance exam.

One of the big metal water bottles that she'd stolen from a grocer in the market. Kai had helped distract him, and had the other one.

Her blue woollen blanket—she was sitting on that.

Her mother's little iron cook pot, which had a lid that you could clip down.

One bundle of brown jute string.

One spool of white thread, and one of her mother's iron needles. Kai was using these to repair his bag.

Three books of Little Flame matches.

A small ceramic bowl and a spoon—Kai was carrying his own set.

The knife—in her belt.

And the food:

Two big bags of dried beans, red and black, rustling in their wax paper wrapping. They would need to be soaked before cooking, but they would last a long time if Hina could keep them dry. Kai should have two more bags in his pack and a few other things.

Two more of seasoned and roasted beans, good for eating straight.

A paper packet of sweet raisins for a treat.

One more loaf of bread in a flour sack—stolen, but made by her own hands.

One small wheel of sharp yellow cheese.

Three plums.

A little jar of oil.

A bag of her mother's favourite spices.

And one flour sack full of bloody clothes, slightly damp.

Her blanket must have been plugging the hole in her bag. But she was missing a few things: her good black scarf was nowhere to be found, along with the little jar of honey she'd taken from her mother's kitchen, and she was sure she'd brought another bag of beans and at least one more plum.

Hina sighed. "I guess this will have to do."

"Hmm?"

"Few things missing, nothing major."

"We've got enough food?"

"Assuming you've still got your share?"

"Yeah."

"We're good for a week or so before we need to stop in town. Are you done with the needle and thread?"

Kai threw them over.

Hina picked the spool up off the ground and dusted it off. She got started on repairing her bag. "Let's get going after I'm done with this?"

"Ready when you are." Kai was loading his things back into his bag.

When she had the tear stiched up, she pulled the thread tight, broke the end with her teeth and tied it off. Her fingers found the shape in her pocket again.

She got up off the blanket and folded it up. It went into the bottom of her newly repaired bag. One by one, she picked up each of her supplies from on the ground and put them back into her bag.

The flour sack with the bloody clothes stayed on the ground. Here was as good a place as any to leave it.

Hina paused, then pulled the envelope out of her pocket, opened it and unfolded a heavily creased letter. She sat back down on the grass and began to read.