What was he thinking? This was his opportunity. Talen wouldn’t be able to trap the hatchlings and take them in alive. So what? He had his bow. He had four arrows. Da had taught him well.

He would take them now, despite the fact that he couldn’t hear anything but his heart banging in his ears.

He didn’t dare miss. He’d have one shot. If it flew wide of the mark, they’d be on him. But if he made the first count, they’d hesitate just long enough to let him nock a second. A second arrow that he could send into one of their hearts.

That meant he had to wait until they were closer.

Talen bent and looked out the knothole again. It was definitely a girl and a boy. These were the hatchlings. He gauged the distance between them and the privy. He stood and slowly lifted away the bar that secured the door. Then he picked up his bow and nocked the first arrow. He reminded himself that he was an expert shot. He might not pull a bow as strong as Ke’s, but what he did pull was deadly enough for a girl and a boy.

He did not have enough space to draw his bow in the privy. He didn’t want to wait for them to open the door on him anyway. That would be far too close. So he’d have to kick the door open, then draw.

But he didn’t need to deliver a mortal shot the first time. He only needed to wound and surprise. Once he’d done that, he could take a bit more time aiming the second arrow.

This was not going to be hard. He could do this.

Talen took one more breath. Now was the time. They should only be a few paces away.

He kicked the door with all his might, but it banged off of something and swung back at him.

Someone grunted.

Lords, he’d kicked it into one of them.

The shock of his miscalculation panicked him. He tried to draw his arrow and step back, but the privy bench got in the way and he fell onto the wall.

He expected the door to fly open and one of them to rush him with claw and fang. But the door just hung ajar.

He heard the padding of feet running away, and felt relief. Then he realized they were running. They were getting away.

He kicked the door again, and this time it flew wide and banged against the outside of the privy.

The girl ran, holding the boy’s hand. They ran like the wind toward the old house and the woods.

He took a step forward and drew the string to his chin. Calm, he had to be calm. The string was locked behind his thumb ring. He had practiced this thousands of times. There were days when Da had demanded he draw and release his bow five hundred times. He had used up eight bows over the years, drawing, then relaxing the position of his thumb ever so slightly so that the string might jump away.

The precise moment of the perfect release, he had learned, would always come as a small surprise.

The string hummed and Talen watched the arrow fly. It snicked away into the dark, a perfect shot. But the hatchlings darted left toward the old house just as the arrow flew from his hand, and Talen’s first shot missed.

He strung the second arrow. “Ware!” Talen shouted. “Ware!” He yelled again, and saw Nettle throw open the door just about the same time the creatures disappeared behind the old house.

Talen ran to get a clear view of the open space between the old house and the woods. The thing would not escape this time. But when he got a view of the open space, he saw nothing.

Nettle came stumbling out with his bow in one hand and a half-lit torch in the other.

“They’re here!” said Talen. “I’ve seen them with my own eyes. They’re behind the old house.”

He and Nettle cautiously approached the old house. It was the first place his father and mother had built. Talen had slept in it now and again until a snake had come wiggling through the ceiling one night to land on him. Such were the hazards of sod roofs. Now it was only used to store things and shelter the dogs who had dug their warren underneath the old floorboards.

Talen and Nettle split apart, giving the house a wide enough berth, positioning themselves so that each covered two of the house’s four walls.

“Nothing,” said Nettle.

Where could they have gone? Talen realized he’d given the creature the opportunity to slip in the front door of the house both this and the time before.

He swung his bow and pointed it at the door.

“Open it,” said Talen to Nettle.

River called out from the house. “Talen? What’s going on?”

“We’ve got them in the old house!” he yelled back.

Talen nodded at the door. “Go on. Here’s something real. Open it.”

Nettle looked at the door. “Right,” he said. “Cover me.” Then he grabbed the handle, whipped the door open, and stepped back.

Talen almost released his shaft. But he was happy he didn’t waste the arrow, for nobody rushed out.

“There’s no use hiding,” said Nettle. “Come out where we can see you.”

Nothing moved.

“Queen,” Talen called, hoping that she hadn’t already been killed by the creatures.

A few moments passed, then Queen emerged out of the dog warren.

All this time in the warren, Talen thought, and not one bark. Something was very wrong. It was as if the dogs were deaf and blind.

“Stu, girl!” Talen said to Queen and pointed at the open door. “Stu!”

Queen looked at the house and sniffed, but then she turned away and came to him, wagging her tail.

“Are you sure it went in here?” asked Nettle.

By this time both Ke and River had arrived, Ke with nothing but his underclothes on. “What are you hollering about?”

“We’ve got ourselves a hatchling,” said Nettle.

“Two,” said Talen.

“Where?”

Talen pointed at the open door, and, to his horror, Ke walked right in.

“There’s nothing in here,” said Ke. “Goh, you’re an idiot.”

But Talen had seen them. Right here. Where else could they be? Then he looked at the dog warren and everything made sense.

“They’re underneath,” he said to Nettle. “With the dogs!”

Talen ran to the hole where the side of the house met the ground and pointed his arrow into the blackness.

“Bring the torch.”

“No,” said Ke.

But Nettle paid him no mind. Talen took the torch and knelt to the side of the hole. He saw that the hole had been widened. He should have seen it before, but who would have thought they were down there? He stuck the torch down as far as he dared and quickly pulled it back out.

It was enough. What he saw with the brief illumination was a leg that quickly drew itself back into the shadow. Talen dropped the torch and scrambled back.

“They’re down there,” he said. “They’ve subverted the dogs.” He drew his bow and pointed it at the mouth of the hole.

“Put that down,” said Ke.

“You can’t doubt me now,” said Talen.

“River,” said Ke and motioned at the mouth of dog warren with his head.

River calmly walked to the side of the house and knelt by the dog warren.

“Stop!” Talen warned. “Get away!”

Ke’s hands closed around the bow. “Give me the bow, and shut up.”

“Didn’t you see the leg?”

Ke yanked the bow from his hands.

“What are you doing?”

“Get them,” Ke said.

Talen watched in horror as River’s head and torso disappeared into the blackness of the hole. He expected to hear her cry out or be pulled entirely in. But after a few moments, she backed out and extended her hand to help a girl and then a smaller boy out. The girl had long black hair and a scar on her cheek. She appeared to be about Talen’s age, maybe a bit older. The boy stared off at nothing.

The girl looked at him with no fear. She looked at him like a bird might a bug. Talen noticed she was wearing River’s trousers all rolled up on the leg.

“Douse that torch,” said Ke. And when Nettle didn’t move, Ke snatched it and ground its flame out in the dirt.

“What is this?” asked Talen.