The Silver Moon Elm Read Free Page A

permit and Jennifer doesn’t.” Susan shrugged out of the backseat while calling out the window.
    Catherine wrinkled her nose. “Um, no offense, Susan, but—”
    “But she just met you this morning and trusts me more than your little piece of paper. Return to your station in the backseat, trollop.”
    Susan grinned back at Jennifer and settled down. “Fine. Eddie, our friend Jennifer is colder than the weather. Care to warm me up?”
    That was enough for Eddie, who quickly opened his door, scrambled away from Susan, raced around the back of the idling Mustang, and slipped into the passenger seat.
    “Hmmph! Fine. Skip, you’ll do…”
    “I’ll do what?” With a traitorous grin, he pushed Susan over into the spot Eddie had occupied. “Keep your distance, before you get us both into more trouble.”
    The grimace of hurt and anger was gone so quickly, Jennifer wondered if she’d imagined it on Susan’s face. She forced her mind back on track and settled into the driver’s seat. “Fine advice,” she said with faux enthusiasm. She turned the key in the ignition. The resulting sound was terrifying.
    “Um, Jennifer, the engine’s already started.”
    “Also fine advice. Thank you, Eddie. Let’s go. Catherine, flap those wings hard and try to keep up!”
    She gunned the engine, and the Mustang spun gravel into the air as it thrust back onto the highway.
    “Geez, won’t people see her? I mean, it’s broad daylight!” Susan gaped out the rear window at the winged shape that glided behind them. Every few hundred yards, a giant hind leg would smash into the ground, propelling its owner farther.
    Jennifer shook her head. She had learned that most people did not see dragons—not because dragons were invisible or had any special mental powers, but because it was just too darn difficult for the average person to admit that things like dragons, and giant spiders, and soldiers who devoted their lives to slaying such things, could exist. Wow, great special effects, what movie are they shooting? Or, Huh, I must not have shaken the flu like I thought. Or, Whoa, is the Air Force testing new funny colored jets around here or what?
    After that initial burst, she kept her speed down so that Catherine could keep up—the trampler had a hard time moving much faster than forty-five miles per hour. Fully adult tramplers could gallop much faster, Jennifer knew—she and her father had been on hunts where tramplers had moved in coordinated, predatory herds that topped sixty or more miles per hour. But she stayed patient with Catherine. After all, there was no hurry. This was her first time behind the wheel of a car, and despite the automatic transmission, she was anxious.
    “What if the state patrol stops us?” asked Eddie, voicing Jennifer’s primary concern. “I mean, we’re breaking the law here.”
    “Correction: Jennifer’s breaking the law,” Skip said. “We are innocent bystanders. Hostages, really, to her ferocious temper.”
    “It’s just to the cabin,” Jennifer answered. “Maybe five more miles, tops.” Her nerves did not stop jangling, however.
    “So how will we get home?” Susan’s tone was more concerned than accusatory. “It’ll still be a crescent moon for a few days. We’re not staying that long, are we?”
    There was no easy answer to this question. Nobody offered to take Jennifer’s place, not even Susan. Driving the rural route the last few miles to their destination was one thing; braving state highways for the long trip back to Winoka was something else again.
    “Let’s worry about that when we go back.” Jennifer decelerated to take a right turn onto an unpaved county road. The ground shifted uneasily beneath the tires, as if the earth itself were aware of her moving violation. This was dumb; why didn’t they let Susan drive? Sure, that would have been technically illegal, too, but at least her friend had had lessons. And a police officer would probably look more kindly on a