One of the harnesses seemed to sparkle in the darkness. Stella inched forward, trying to get a better look. The horses began to stamp and snort as the fire flared. The flames must be scaring them, too, she thought. And there, in the shadows of the trees across the pond, Stella could make out half a dozen of them. Jojo was only eight.Ī horse whinnied in the distance-it sounded nervous. Stella paused and smoothed his bushy hair, trying to figure out the best way to answer. “The Klan.” Just saying those words made Stella’s lips quiver. “Who are they?” Jojo whispered, stealing another glance. A trail of gray smoke snaked up to the sky, merging with the clouds. She could, however, smell the charring pine, tinged with… what? She sniffed deeper-it was acrid, harsh. Jojo pressed himself closer to her in answer.īesides the traitorous leaves, Stella could hear a pair of bullfrogs ba-rupping to each other, but nothing, not a single human voice, from across the pond. “Do you know what would happen if they saw us?” she whispered, shifting her stinging feet, the crushing of dry leaves seeming far too loud. Even though her toes were numb with cold and she knew they needed to get out of there, she could not take her eyes from the horror glimmering toward them from across the pond.

Stella covered her brother’s lips with her fingers to quiet him. “You’d still be ’sleep if I hadn’t come and got you. “It was me that saw ’em first!” he protested. “Shh!” she whispered, holding him tightly. Stella yanked the boy close, dry leaves crunching beneath his bare feet. Dressed only in nightshirts, Stella Mills and her brother Jojo shivered in the midnight October chill. Two children, crouched behind the low-hanging branches of a hulking oak tree on the other side of the pond, watched the flickers of scarlet in the distance in fearful silence. Reflections of peppery-red flames shimmered across the otherwise dark surface of Kilkenny Pond. Against the black of night, a single wooden cross blazed.

Chapter 1: Flames Across the Water 1 Flames Across the Water

Stella by Starlight by Sharon M. Draper