The Works of Rudyard Kipling: Departmental Ditties, and Ballads and Barrack Room Ballads (1899)

Philoxenia. When the police call using this code word, 16-year-old Darya knows she will be sheltering strangers: women with missing teeth, dislocated jaws, black eyes-and stalking husbands.Other strangers-nonhuman-seek Darya’s protection too, whispering from the depths of the forest in voices only she can hear. If she obeys the voices, she risks her adoptive mother’s rage, the taunts of a surly island boy, and the wrath of her community. If she refuses the voices, a primeval species faces extermination.What if you discovered your birth fulfilled an ancient prophecy?What if you were destined to save an entire wild species?Would you heed the call?