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.For an instant Maggie didn't understandwhy-all she knew was that she had a sudden feeling of alarm and alertness.Then she realized that Cady had turned suddenly toward the door.It was thequick, instinctive gesture of a cat who has heard something dangerous, and ittriggered fear in the girls who were learning to live by their own instincts.And now that Maggie sat frozen, she could hear it, too, faraway but distinct.The sound of people calling, yelling back and forth.And another sound, onethat she'd only heard in movies, but that she recognized instantly.Houndsbaying."It's them," Jeanne whispered into the dead silence of the shack."I told you.They're hunting us.""With dogs?" Maggie said, shock tingling through her body."It's all over," Jeanne said."We're dead."CHAPTER12Page 60 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlNo, we're not!" Maggie said.She kicked the heavy cover off and jumped up,grabbing Cady's arm."Come on!""Where?" Jeanne said."The castle," Maggie said."But we've got to stick together." She grabbedPJ.'s arm with her other hand."The castle?"Maggie pinned Jeanne with a look."It's the only thing that makes sense.They'll be expecting us to try to find the pass, right? They'll find us if westay here.The only place they won't expect us to go is the castle.""You," Jeanne said, "are completely crazy-" "Come on!""But you just might be right." Jeanne grabbed Cady from the other side asMaggie started for the door."You stay right behind us," Maggie hissed at P.J.The landscape in front of her looked different than it had last night.Themist formed a silver net over the trees, and although there was no sun, theclouds had a cool pearly glow.It was beautiful.Still alien, still disquieting, but beautiful.And in the valley below was a castle.Maggie stopped involuntarily as she caught sight of it.It rose out of themist like an island, black and shiny and solid.With towers at the edges.Anda wall around it with a saw-toothed top, just like the castles in pictures.It looks so real, Maggie thought stupidly."Don't stand there! What are you waiting for? Jeanne snapped, dragging atCady.Maggie tore her eyes away and made her legs work.They headed at a good pacestraight for the thickest trees below the shack."If it's dogs, we should try to find a stream or something, right?" she saidto Jeanne."To cut off our scent.""I know a stream," Jeanne said, speaking in short bursts as they made theirway through dew-wet ferns and saxifrages."I lived out here a while the firsttime I escaped.When I was looking for the pass.But they're not just dogs."Maggie helped Cady scramble over the tentaclelike roots of a hemlock tree."What's that supposed to mean?""It means they're shapeshifters, like Bern and Gavin.So they don't just trackus by scent.They also feel our life energy."Maggie thought about Bern turning his face this way and that, saying, "Do yousense anything?" And Gavin saying, "No.I can't feel them at all.""Great," Maggie muttered.She glanced back and saw P.J.following doggedly,her face taut with concentration.It was a strange sort of chase.Maggie and her group were trying to keep asquiet as possible, which was made easier by the dampness of the rainforestPage 61 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlaround them.Although there were four of them moving at once, the only soundfrom close up was the soft pant of quick breathing and the occasional shortgasp of direction from Jeanne.They slipped and plunged and stumbled between the huge dark trunks that stoodlike columns in the mist.Cedar boughs drooped from above, making it twilightwhere Maggie was trying to pick her way around moss-covered logs.There was acool green smell like incense everywhere.But however still the world was around them, there was always the sound of thehounds baying in the distance.Always behind them, always getting closer.They crossed an icy, knee-deep stream, but Maggie didn't have much hope thatit would throw the pursuit off.Cady began to lag seriously after that.Sheseemed dazed and only semiconscious, following instructions as if she weresleepwalking, and only answering questions with a fuzzy murmur.Maggie wasworried about P.J., too.They were all weak with hunger and shaky with stress.But it wasn't until they were almost at the castle that the hunt caught upwith them.They had somehow finished the long, demanding trek down the mountain.Maggiewas burning withpride for P.J.and Cady.And then, all at once, the baying ofthe hounds came, terribly close and getting louder fast.At the same moment, Jeanne stopped and cursed, staring ahead."What?" Maggie was panting heavily."You see them?"Jeanne pointed."I see the road.I'm an idiot.They're coming right down it,much faster than we can go through the underbrush.I didn't realize we wereheaded for it."P.J.leaned against Maggie, her slight chest heaving, her plaid baseball hataskew."What are we going to do?" she said."Are they going to catch us?""Not" Maggie set her jaw grimly."Well have to go back fast--2'At that moment, faintly but distinctly, Cady said, "The tree."Her eyes were half shut, her head was bowed, and she still looked as if shewere in a trance.But for some reason Maggie felt she ought to listen to her."Hey, wait look at this." They were standing at the foot of a huge Douglasfir.Its lowest branches were much too high to climb in the regular way, but amaple had fallen against it and remained wedged, branches interlocked with thegiant, forming a steep but climbable ramp."We can go up."`You're crazy, " Jeanne said again."We can't possibly hide here; they'regoing to go right by us.And besides, how does she even know there's a treehere?"Maggie looked at Arcadia.It was a good question, but Cady wasn't answering.She seemed to be in a trance again."I don't know
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