a's

Nova no

eft it. My mother had told me that once I was past twenty-five, I wo

one Ferry. At the foot of the slope lay the ferry landing, where empty boats

ir. My heart sank as I bent

s burning w

I'm fr

ittle face bright red, and she was breathing in quick, shallow gasps. Although I

me that when a cub with a fever developed col

little feet ha

ights shone through the rainy darkness. Sure

aded uphill along the road

previous night came back

warned me. "Don't come back to

moved Nova a little higher in my

d around the curve, their glare almost blinding. A motorcycle

uld only turn and pull Nova complet

d his side of the road. The tires shrieked against the rain-soaked

ng crash

d eventually coming to rest overturned in the roadside drainage ditch. The man f

e the road, pulled my coat snugly over he

with all my strength to lift the motorcycle off him, but its twisted fra

clothing beneath it. Blood had also saturated the pant leg pinned beneath th

pressed both hands firmly o

ight motorcycles braked sharply along the side of the road, a

e of them c

gged me backward. "Who told y

" another

the other riders crouched beside the unconscious man, took hold of

ration. "His broken bone is lodged in a

apped beneath the bike and can barely breathe

u were doing, you wouldn't tr

outed. "A woman without a scent is wandering along this road in the middle of

our president, you'll p

unfounded assumptions was enough for them to label me

collar, but I couldn't break free of their hold. I could only watch

the truth, nobody had

I'd studied medicine and simply c

you truly rather put your faith in a doctor who hasn't

s free stopped, his hands suspen

waiting?" one of

s, lying at the bottom of the ditch, abruptly opened his eyes.

vement of his lips. "

hoarse, almost lost beneath

down instinctively

elieved me. But a stranger lying in the mud, unable