“How bad?”
Before I can answer, yet another dog leaps at us, this time grabbing onto Starshine’s backend.
She rears with a high-pitched whinny that sounds disturbingly like a scream, and it’s everything I can do to hang on to Asher. The dog is shaken loose and falls with a yelp to the ground. Starshine lands with a bone-jarring thump, and if it’s possible, she runs even faster.
Burying my face into Asher’s back, I hang on to him as tightly as I can. Through his back I can hear him murmuring. “Come on. Just a little more. Almost there.”
The dog-beasts are still behind us—I can hear them—but they’re falling back by the second. I turn and watch as their yellow eyes grow smaller and smaller until they disappear completely in the dark.
Relieved and perilously close to sobbing, I press my lips together and my body even closer to Asher. He doesn’t slow down for several minutes, only letting Starshine drop to a fast walk when the horse’s breath is chugging like an engine ready to fail.
He turns to me and his eyes are wide in the moonlight.
“Are you okay?”
“I—I don’t know. They clawed my leg.”
He glances down, but I doubt there’s enough light for him to see anything.
“We’re almost there,” he says after a minute. “Just a few more minutes. I think. Can you make it that long?”
“Of course,” I say, although I don’t know for certain. But I know now why he wanted us to get away from where we were so badly. There is absolutely no way I’m letting him stop to take a look at my leg. I’d rather lose it completely than give those … things time to catch up.
Gavin flits into my mind again. I seriously hope he found a safe place before we did. Those things were not playing around. I don’t even want to think what they’d do to him if they found him.
True to Asher’s word, it’s only a few minutes before I see what looks like the shadow of buildings rising up out of the dark. Asher lets out a relieved sigh and pushes Starshine to put on an extra burst of speed, racing toward them.
He stops short when he sees a tall wall surrounding the town, like the one surrounding our village. He follows it around until we find a large gate. It’s closed, as it should be after dark, but unlike in our village there is no sign of a guard.
Asher pulls Starshine to a halt and then jumps off. “Stay here,” he says, and I nod, trying to rub warmth into my arms and looking around to see if I can see any of those dog-beasts again. It terrifies me, standing out in the open like this, but I don’t see that I have a choice. There is a protocol we have to follow, I’m sure. There always is.
“Hello?” Asher calls. “Anyone here?”
There’s no response but the echo of his voice. I tremble again and curl into myself, trying to make myself as small as possible. It’s entirely too quiet for my tastes. The only sounds are the echoes of Asher’s voice.
“We’re from Black Star Cove. A village a few days’ travel east of here. We just want some shelter for the night as we pass through to Rushlake City.”
Nothing. Not even the sound of wind.
Asher turns back to me and shrugs before turning back to the gate. He presses on one of the gate doors and with a loud squeal it swings open. It’s worse than the proverbial nails on a chalkboard. I slap my hands to my ears, then wince when the movement causes my head to feel like I’ve split it open.
He freezes, waiting for an alarm to go up, but when it doesn’t, he pushes the gate wider. It squeals again, but nothing else happens. He then comes back to me, and takes the reins, guiding Starshine through the gates before shutting them again.
“Guess no one’s home,” he says.
I don’t say anything. Even though I should feel better that we’re not just standing outside the gates waiting to be those animals’ next meal, the whole place has my nerve endings tickling. I worry my pendant between my fingers. The village is dark, made darker in some spots because of the buildings that block out the moonlight. Almost all of the buildings reach for the stars, jutting out of the sand like fingers. I cannot believe how tall they are. They are at least three or four times taller than the mayor’s house in the village. Not to mention intimidating, with their yawning doorways and hundreds of dusty windows that show us nothing but inky darkness. The shadows are so thick it’s almost like I could reach out and feel a solid wall.
“What is this place?” I shudder as I stare into yet another pitch-black opening.
“It’s a city.”
“Not the one we’re going to, right?” Please tell me this isn’t the city that was supposed to cure me.
“No. This one is smaller. And probably abandoned, from the looks of it.”
Asher jumps back into the saddle and continues farther into the city, slowly. It’s still too quiet. Disturbingly so. The only sound is Starshine’s hooves making clacking sounds on the hard ground. I shiver, but this time it has nothing to do with the cold.
“Asphalt,” Asher murmurs. “Interesting.”
I glance around, and that’s when I see them. People. A bunch of them, standing in strange poses—as if time stopped and they were stuck in whatever move they were making at the time—just outside the doors of one of the tall buildings. I straighten and my hand tightens on Asher’s shoulder.
“What’s wrong?” He turns to look at me when I don’t respond. He follows my gaze and pulls Starshine to a halt. “Is that a person?”
“People. I think.” I keep my shaking voice quiet. I don’t know why, only that I’m almost scared to talk. As if the people are only sleeping and I’ll disturb them if I speak at a normal volume.
“Hello?” he calls to them, making me jump. “Can you help us?”
They don’t so much as budge and we exchange a look before he dismounts and cautiously proceeds toward them. When he’s within touching distance, he pauses, then starts laughing.
“What?” I demand. What could possibly be funny about any of this?
“They’re just statues!” he says.
“Statues?” I rub a hand over my forehead and look again. The placement is odd. And why in Mother’s name would they make them in such odd poses? It makes me wonder who lives here.
“That’s weird,” Asher says, tilting his head sideways as he studies the statues.
“What?” What I really want to ask is What now?, but I don’t.
“They’re all wearing real clothes. They’re a bit torn and dirty, but they’re real clothes.” He tugs on one of the sleeves of the closest statue. I try to come up with an explanation, but can’t. The whole thing is sort of creepy.
Asher comes back and vaults onto Starshine, prodding her forward with his heel. It isn’t long before we see more of the eerie statues. They’re placed so haphazardly, I start to wonder if they were positioned to make it appear as if people are living here. Like, maybe this town was meant to be some strange museum of what the world was like before the War. Some are clustered around doors leading into buildings, others at the cross streets we pass. The closer we get to the city center, the more there are.
“Whoa!” Asher exclaims as we get to a large, squat structure made of metal and glass, standing in the middle of the path.
“What is that?” I ask.
“It’s a car. Like they have in Rushlake. But it’s all rusted and falling apart.”
Peering over his shoulder, I see more of them. They line up in an almost straight line behind the first one, reaching as far as I can see. All in various stages of falling apart. I try to get a good look as we pass; then I gasp.
“Asher!” I say, pointing excitedly. “Look. Inside the cars. More statues.”
Even in the dark, I can see his eyes widen. “What the hell?”