Home by Shayna Krishnasamy Read Free Book Online Page A

grew, and where the streams ran, until she could tell which side of the village she was on by touching the bark of the nearest tree, or listening for the gurgle of water. She’d often get lost and have to scramble about, waiting to come upon some landmark with which to orient herself, but she soon learned that there was no harm in this confusion so long as she remained calm. Eventually she began to look for paths to get lost on, for she’d come to know the wood about Trallee so well that it bored her.
    Of course, Shallah didn’t know the entire forest by heart. The forest was vast, it went on for miles, much farther than she could walk in one night. Still, it would be days yet until she and Liam would enter lesser-known territory. For the time being, they might still be in the village, she knew her way so well.
    For the time being they were safe.
    Liam had never seen such trees. There were trees so wide it took five breaths to walk past them. There were trees so tall he couldn’t see their branches. When he looked high up he could see fog swirling around their trunks like ghosts, and he felt nervous. With the canopy above and the ground below it was like being in a very big cage. He didn’t want to be in a cage with ghosts.
    In the village the trees weren’t quite this big. Ma Betta had been teaching him all their names, but he hadn’t gotten the chance to learn them all. Mirabel was always interrupting. Toly said Mirabel was jealous, but Liam didn’t mind. It was easy to forgive Mirabel because she was so pretty. He’d never known a little girl so pretty.
    He’d been in the forest of the big trees once before, but he’d missed seeing them because he’d been upset. And before that … he didn’t want to think about before that . Before that made him cry. If you cried it was best to do it at night when nobody would know. He’d cried in the night at Ma Betta’s and nobody had known because Catin talked in her sleep and masked the sound. Liam liked Catin because she talked in her sleep.
    It was nice to be under the big trees, nicer than being inside. At Ma Betta’s he’d often been kept inside. Sometimes when he’d been in the close and other villagers had come, Ma Betta had told him to go inside. He didn’t like being inside because the hearth was inside, and also because of the roof. The roof might fall down. Ma Betta didn’t understand about the roof falling down, and she thought inside was better than outside. But now Liam knew he would be outside all the time because he was on a journey.
    Ma Betta had explained the journey to him even though he already knew. He often knew things before other people knew. Other people knew only what had come before, but he also knew what would come after . Not everything, but some things. He’d known he would be taking a journey through the forest, and that a girl would be taking him, not Ma Betta. This had upset him for a little while, but not enough to cry. He missed Ma Betta but he was getting used to missing.
    Shallah had the long curly hair. She was almost as pretty as Mirabel. She wore a red kirtle, while Mirabel’s had been blue. Shallah was very different from Ma Betta. She talked to him in a different way. Ma Betta had always talked to him in questions. Do you know how to make pottage? Do you know what we put in the pot? Shallah told him what she was thinking, and she didn’t seem to mind that he didn’t answer. Liam had decided not to talk anymore because if he talked he knew he would have to talk about before . It seemed safer not to talk at all. Shallah understood this.
    Liam liked Shallah, but he knew there was something not right about her. When they found all the white flowers he found out what it was.
    The flowers covered the ground on both sides of the path. They were tiny and white and they dazzled his eyes. He wanted to pick a bunch of them and give them to Shallah to make her smile. He could tell Shallah didn’t often smile.
    But when he returned