Joshua and the Arrow Realm by Donna Galanti Page A

we have—that and our freedom.”
    â€œFree? Here in the trees?” Charlie said with questioning eyebrows.
    â€œFree,” Ash repeated, her lips in a tight line. “If we survive the hunt, Artemis leaves us alone. I hope she keeps the deal even with us sticking one of her men.”
    â€œShe leaves you alone forever?” I said.
    â€œUntil we’re eighteen,” Ash said. “Then we’re Goners on our Leaving Day.”
    Charlie shook his head. “Then you die?”
    â€œNot the lucky ones.” Ash pulled out her knife and twirled it expertly in her hand. It flashed in the lantern light, spinning like a bullet. “We raid the WC—the work camp—for weapons and extra mash. It’s easy for us to get in and out. We’re protected in our tree community, unlike anywhere else on Nostos. As Wild Childs, we stay alive for a reason. We’re stolen children once used as bait to hunt the great beasts—and we survived. Queen Artemis respects this, as did her ancestors. When the first group of Wild Childs started growing up, Queen Artemis of long ago sent an army to round us up. She got most of us, but not all. Those caught were sent to their death on a great hunt. Those that didn’t get stuck were sent to the WC. So, the Wild Child leader in charge went to her and made a deal to save us. If we turn out our own to the ground for the WC on their Leaving Day, then the queen lets us all live. Payment for being left alone. There’s no other place safer on Nostos for Earth kids. The Goners either get to the WC safe and work there … or they don’t.”
    â€œThey get stuck and grounded as in—”
    â€œShot and dead.” Ash lowered her head. “The queen gets them either way—by hunt or by slave. Life in the WC is still imprisonment, but it’s a life.”
    â€œNot all the queens have honored this deal,” Apollo said. “My grandfather told me hunting stories about it from when he visited here as a young man.” He bent his head. “He loved the hunt.”
    â€œWell, Leandro doesn’t … or didn’t,” I said. “In the Lost Realm, he told me he got in trouble for refusing to hunt kids. It’s how he got his broken arrow scar—the queen branded him a failure.”
    Ash handed me a wrap from a trunk filled with squirrel mash and ache cakes, bringing me back to this realm’s unpleasant reality. “Time to leave.”
    First, I needed more from her. “Why’d the old queen make that deal to save you?”
    She sighed and talked fast, filling us in. “Hundreds of years ago, the son of that ancient Queen Artemis wanted to become a Wild Child. He hated how his people stole kids from Earth, and he went runabout to join ranks with the Wild Childs. His mother sent in her soldiers to bring him back, but there was a fight and the son was accidentally wounded by a soldier’s arrow. The prince nearly died but the Wild Childs healed him and the queen agreed to let her son live a double life as prince and Wild Child. Now every Queen Artemis—with some exceptions—carries on the tradition of letting the Wild Childs live.”
    â€œFirst they have to escape the hunt and live to become a Wild Child,” Charlie said.
    â€œYeah, until their Leaving Day. Then the hunt restarts,” I said, my voice rising. “You’re no different from this world, Ash. You throw your friends to the wild beasts, and if they don’t get
stuck,
they get to live as slaves in the WC?”
    â€œThey live, blockhead,” Ash said in a clipped voicewith flared eyes. “One Goner at a time saves us all. One for the many. You better be a Goner now too or we’ll all be. Three for the many.”
    â€œI’d rather be a Wild Child,” Apollo said quietly, fiddling with his square buttons. “Better to be imprisoned on your own terms than by someone