Darkwood (34 page)

Silence stretched over the group for a long moment. They stared at one another, and at Annie, their leader. Gradually the normal sounds of the forest in daylight returned: the rustle of an animal burrowing into its bed of leaves, the sigh of the wind through the trees, the raven's cough, the mourning brook.

My thanks to Charlotte Sheedy for wisdom; Melanie Cecka for insight; Meredith Kaffel for patience; Katharine Noel for generosity; Corinne Rocca for partnership; Elizabeth Hines and Nicholas Boggs for fellowship; Eric Puchner, Charlotte Taylor, and Katharine Breen for smarts; Cass Rogers for endurance; Jocelyn Yant for good heart; Laura Ostenso for good humor; Alison Werger for the beach; Ed Feldman for dinner; Mary Taylor Huber and Pat Hutchings for friendship; Jill Campbell for kindness; Philip Alex for guidance; the Brothers Grimm for being grim; Mr. Rorschach for his blots; the Carnegie Foundation for having my back; and my mother, Judith Puchner Breen, for everything.

Copyright © 2009 by M. E. Breen
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

First published in the United States of America in May 2009 by Bloomsbury Books for Young Readers E-book edition published in April 2011
www.bloomsburykids.com

For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to Permissions, Bloomsbury BFYR, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York 10010

The Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition as follows:
Breen, M. E.
Darkwood / by M. E. Breen.—1st U.S. ed.
p. cm.

Summary: A clever and fearless orphan endures increasing danger while trying to escape from greedy, lawless men and elude the terrifying “kinderstalks”—animals who steal children—before discovering her true destiny.
ISBN-13: 978-1-59990-259-3 • ISBN-10: 1-59990-259-1
(hardcover)
[1. Adventure and adventurers—Fiction. 2. Orphans—Fiction. 3. Human-animal communication—Fiction. 4. Sisters—Fiction. 5. Wolves—Fiction. 6. Fantasy.]
I. Title.
PZ7.B74822Dar 2009    [Fic]—dc22    2008044413

ISBN 978-1-59990-601-0 (e-book)