Then they were back on the road, heading south out of town.

The headlights sparkled as the mist fell out of the dark.

The water sweeping across the road rose whitely against the tires.

"Mom," Matt said as they passed the gas station and headed into the woods, "what about Lilla?"

She refused to answer; Colin saw her hands tighten on the barrel.

"What about her, pal?" he said into the silence.

"She isn't dead, is she?"

"No."

"Then shouldn't we try to save her, too?"

"No!" Peg said, scarcely parting her lips. "If she's alive-"

"Matt," Colin said quickly, "when we do what we have to at Gran's, we'll see. Right now, though, there's nothing left of the Lilla we used to know. You saw that when we had her before. I think… I think that her trying to help us did something to her mind. That part of it we knew is long gone, I'm afraid."

"There's doctors for that, though," he persisted. "She talked to me in the jail. I mean, she really talked to me. She called me Little Matt, just like always."

He heard the boy's anguish, and felt his mother's rage. "Matt, for what we've all been through today, there are no doctors at all. And none for Lilla, either."

"It isn't fair," he pouted. "It isn't fair. I never met a real witch before. It isn't fair."

"She deserves to die," Peg said heatedly. Defiance pulled at her lips when she turned to look at Colin. "Well, she does! She started all this, and it won't end until she's dead."

"That's Gran, Peg," he said calmly. "That's Gran. Lilla never has been anything more than a dupe."

"What's a dupe?" Matt said.

"A dupe is a fool who believes someone who's lying," his mother said, staring hard out the side window. "Gran wasn't lying, and Lilla knew it."

Colin opened his mouth to disagree, changed his mind and concentrated on his driving. Peg's hostility bothered him a great deal, though he thought he understood why. And he was guiltily pleased that Matt had voiced what he'd been thinking himself. It was entirely possible that Lilla's retreat would be reversed when Gran was taken care of, and he didn't think it right they abandon her when all was done.

The wind shoved the car hard to the right, and his wrists were beginning to ache with the effort to keep the wheels straight.