“Eat! Why will you not eat something?” Aliya was almost in tears as she screeched at the howling child throwing itself all over the floor there on the by-road. She dare not take it through to the next town like this, it would draw too much attention to them. People would think she was stealing the cursed thing.
The Beast had not stopped screaming all morning. Aliya had tried washing her in salt-streams, sending scalding red blisters up her own arms as she did so. She had checked if the thing had needed changing, which she had not. She had tried rocking her, singing to her, feeding her. She had tried everything short of hitting her upon the head with a rock and getting some peace by force. The wretched creature would not stop its piercing wail, its little tongue curled back like a cat’s a
