Page 16 of Moonmarked

They were farther away, set one over the other, three rows of four. Big, dirty, full of bones.

I held onto the wall to keep my balance as I took in the trees to the sides of those cages that curved inward as if to shield them from the rest of the world. As if they were planted there on purpose to hide them from anybodywalking on the other side—but not from me. From where I was standing at the edge of the house, they were perfectly visible, and my eyes were already full of tears, as full as they were of bones.

Animal bones—please be animal bones. Please, please, please…

A growl reached my ears and my heart stopped beating. Images of monsters that looked like monkeys with fangs and red eyes filled my mind instantly, and my instincts screamed at me to run. Forget the meat, forget water, forget everything—justrun!

Except my muscles were locked in place and I couldn’t even scream, couldn’t blink, couldn’t breathe in at all.

My eyes moved back to the cages, and that’s when I saw the animal locked in the first cage at the bottom, almost completely hidden away by the large leaves that grew at the base of the tree nearest it.

A dog.

It was a dog lying in the cage, dark fur and half-closed eyes as he looked at me, slowly bringing his tongue out to lick his nose. It was just a dog, and it was locked in a cage, and it couldn’t even sit up, bark at me. Only growl.

I moved.

Thinking wasn’t required. I was by the dried meat hanging on that rope against the wall of the house in a blink. I pulled three big pieces and put two in my pockets, pushing out the nuts I’d already stuffed in there, but I didn’t care. Nobody had seen me yet, and so I ran to the spring of water, the odd piece of rock it spilled out of, and I didn’t even look about me before I leaned in and drank.

Pure and tasteless and cold.

It was like the world was mine all over again. I drank until I couldn’t anymore, wiped my mouth with the back ofmy hand, and I finally took a look around as I bit into the piece of meat still in my hand. Couldn’t even tell you what it tasted like, if it was disgusting. I just chewed and swallowed while I took in the front of the house, the round door and the windows withXs nailed to the front in pieces of wood painted red. The fence went all around the front, and these saplings sprouted here and there in no particular order, and then the large oaks started not three feet away from the short fence gate.

Trees, trees, and more trees.

And another growl.

Even though I knew the animal was caged, my heart still jumped in my chest as I turned. The dog couldn’t even hold his head up as he looked at me, licked his lips, showed me his teeth. He was as big as a golden retriever by the looks of it, his fur a mix of shades of brown and a deep black around his sharp ears.

The way he looked at me.

It made me uncomfortable because I could have sworn he was asking for something, possibly food.

Possibly the dried meat that was in my hand.

I knew I should walk away. I knew I had everything I needed, and I should go hide in the forest, try to find direction and focus on getting to Blackwater.

Except I couldn’t. If I walked away right now, there was no way it wouldn’t haunt me for the rest of my life worse than seeing the prince’s body on the floor. He looked so weak, that dog. He was barely awake. I wasnotgoing to just walk away—I couldn’t. Might as well just get it over with sooner.

Taking in a deep breath, I strode over to the cages, squatted down in front of the dog, and offered him the piece of meat. There was more hanging on those ropesbehind me, anyway. I would get another piece before leaving.

The dog moved. At first, I was going to just drop the meat there and step back, but he could barely extend his neck closer, and when he licked the meat and tried to bite it, I realized he wasn’t going to be able to eat it if I left it on the cage floor.

My God, it was…terrifyingto watch an animal, a creature that was alive barely manage to bite hard enough to break apart a piece of fucking meat. His big eyes, half brown and half golden, were glazed over, and it took him a good moment to chew and swallow the first bite. I couldn’t move away if I tried.

With the second bite, he was faster.

With the third, he broke the piece of meat off in one try.

I couldn’t even tell you what the hell kept me there, why I refused to even blink too often as I looked, as I analyzed his fur and his limbs and even his tail in detail. There was no blood on him, no open wounds that I could see, but he was still weak. And when he ate half the piece of meat, he bit the edge of the other half and stayed there, locked eyes with me for a beat, as if to say,let go.

I did.

The dog was moving. Within minutes, and just a dozen bites, he was able to raise his upper body higher and put the piece of meat between his paws, biting on it as I watched. Meanwhile, words Rune had said to me before spun in my head, about sorcerers and how they used anything they could find and bind—animals, mostly—as sources for their magic. How they trapped and basically stripped animals and plants of their life energy to do their own spells and potions.

It was clear to see that the sorcerer who lived in thishouse had used this dog as a source for a long time now. Tears in my eyes when I grabbed another piece of meat from my pocket and gave it to the dog, put it right over his paw. He paused and looked at me while chewing.Reallylooked at me, like he’d just woken up and he was realizing I was there. Like he was really taking me in for the first time—and he was an intelligent dog. You could tell by the look in his eyes that he knew exactly what was going on. He knew where he was and what was happening to him—he knew well.

My heart broke a little more. “Hey there, little guy,” I said out of sheer awkwardness. “Well, not so little, I guess. But…you will be okay.”

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