1269_UgliesFreeBook

UGLIES 167
“Four days later take the side you despise,” Tally muttered.
She peered at the two rivers in the light from the moon,
which was almost full now. Which river did she despise? Or
which one would Shay think she despised? They both
looked pretty ordinary to her. She squinted into the distance.
Maybe one led toward something despicable that
would be visible in daylight.
But waiting would mean losing a night’s travel, and
sleeping in the cold and dark without a sleeping bag.
Tally reminded herself that the clue might not be
about this junction. Maybe she should just stay on the big
river until something more obvious came up. Why would
Shay call the two rivers “sides,” anyway? If she’d meant
this junction, wouldn’t it be “take the direction you
despise”?
“The side you despise,” Tally mumbled, remembering
something.
Her fingers went to her face. When she had showed
Shay her pretty morphos, Tally had mentioned how she
always started by doubling her left side—that she had
always hated the right side of her face. Which was exactly
the sort of thing that Shay would remember.
Was this Shay’s way of telling her to take a right?
Branching to the right was the smaller river, the tributary.
The mountains were closer in that direction. Maybe
she was drawing near the Smoke.
She stared at the two rivers in the darkness, one big and