Chapter One
We children were supposed to be asleep....
But we woke, as if in response to some silent summons. We crept to the entrances
of our tents and wagons, drawn like moths to the snapping flames of the central
fire and the dark, leaping shadows the strange woman cast as she danced.
There was no music. I knew there was none, but it seemed to me that music filled
my head all the same as I peered around the painted flap and watched her. She
whirled, scarves trailing like colorful ghosts in her wake, her hair, black as
the night, yet gleaming blue in the fire's glow. She arched and twisted and spun
round again. And then she stopped still, and her eyes, like shining bits of
coal, fixed right on mine. Scarlet lips curved in a terrifying smile, and she
crooked a finger at me.
I tried to swallow, but the lump of cold dread in my throat wouldn't let me.
Licking my lips, I glanced sideways at the tents and painted wagons of my kin,
and saw the other children of our band, peering out at her, just as I was. Some
of my cousins were older than I, some younger. Most looked very much like me.
Their olive skin smooth, their eyes very round and wide, too thickly fringed for
the eyes of ... read full excerpt from: Twilight Hunger ebook
