“Wait here,” Darna said.
“I’m coming with you,” Thorat insisted. “It doesn’t feel safe.”
Darna wanted to listen without anyone breathing down her neck. She didn’t really want Thorat trailing after her like a body guard, though she knew as well as he did that she needed one.
Eppie raised her eyebrows. “Well?”
Darna held up a hand for silence, then closed her eyes and listened as well as she could. She heard no one. “I don’t think anyone’s here,” she said. “Let’s go see.”
All three of them circled around to the front, where the water still spilled merrily out of its spout and the vines still climbed the columns of the porch. Darna took a deep breath. The smell of neglect had deepened over the past quarter-moon. The air was stagnant, and the dust inside had settled more deeply. A new cob
