the top yet, but it didn't matter, the boat was sinking. She couldn't wait.

"CLIMBING!" she shouted, and she pulled herself hand over hand, higher and higher above the waves and rocks. The rope twisted and turned and felt like it could break or pull free at any second. She tried not to look down.

"YOU OKAY, WENRY?

"YEAH, STILL CLIMBING!"

"GOOD, KEEP COMING!"

Stella could hear George but she couldn't see him. She grabbed another loop, and another, and she didn't look down. It was too scary. She kept looking up, and then she saw tree roots, and then George against the tree holding the rope, and then Freddy watching her from the ledge.

"Almost there, Toots, come on!"

Stella grabbed the last loop, and then a tree root. She scraped both knees scramblingrotting leaves. "Kuck! Kuck! Kuck! Kuck!"

"What's he want, Freddy?"

"Nothing but trouble, Toots." Freddy got between them and growled at the raven with bared teeth.

"Rawk! Rawk! Rawk!"

Stella didn't breathe.

"RAWK! RAWK! RAWK!" The raven rasped, and then it hopped to the ledge and flew away on wings that flashed like blackened sunshine.

"What was that?"

Freddy looked up at her and started to answer, but then he stopped.

"Wha'd the raven want, Freddy?"

Freddy didn't want to tell her. The raven flew higher and higher and got smaller and smaller until it disappeared against the burning sky. The sun was going down and Stella had a strange sad feeling about it, like her heart was sinking with the sun.

# Mirrors and Dreams

That night they slept under the cover of the isosceles triangle tent. Above