Page 14 of Mislaid in Parts Half-Known

“So see, you helped a lot more than you may have accidentally hurt. If you need to, you can say sorry. If Kade sayshe doesn’t want to talk about it, you don’t. The way you fix things now is by finding another door. It doesn’t have to belong to any of us.” Emily’s expression turned a little wistful. “Maybe it’s better if it doesn’t.”

“Don’t you want to go back to Harvest? You talked about it like you did.”

“Oh, I do. More than anything else there is. More than dancing, even—not that I could dance at a professional level now, not after my time at Whitethorn.”

“They hurt you?”

“Absolutely yes. Everything they did to us was meant to do us harm, and they were very good at what they did. If you mean physically, then no. That would have been too obvious. It was still a school, after all, even if it was a school run by the bad sort of monsters. What they did to me… they wouldn’t let me dance, Antsy. Ballet is what I love more than anything else inthisworld, and I’d been in lessons since almost the time I could walk. The last doctor who looked me over said that my legs and hips will never be free of pain, because of the amount of ballet I did, and it was worth it, or it would have been, if they’d let me keep training so I could be good enough to dance professionally.” Emily sighed. “But now, I’ll never be anything more than a talented amateur, because while I was at Whitethorn, they took away my dancing—allmy dancing, even the kind that doesn’t need training at all. I had to do my exercises in the space between the beds when no one was watching, just to stay limber enough to hold on to hope.”

“Harvest likes the people to dance,” said Antsy.

Emily nodded. “Exactly. If they’d managed to break me to the point where I couldn’t bring myself to dance at all, I would never have been able to go home.”

“So why don’t you want me to find your Door?”

“Because I’m not sure yet.” The admission seemed to pain her. “I wanted to ask if youcould,because I hoped if I knew youcould,I’d finally be sure enough to make it come back for me. I didn’t want you to actually do it. I missed my family while I was over there. I missed my ballet classes, and reality television, and my cat.” She laughed, high and unsteady. “Well, my family sent me to Whitethorn, and they gave away my cat while I was gone, and ballet isn’t the same now that I know I’ll never be as good as I could have been. So I guess I just love reality television so much that I’m neversure.”

“Everyone has something,” said Cora, who had slowed to walk just barely ahead of them, Christopher still ahead of her. Perhaps twenty yards farther up the hill, Sumi and Kade were stepping into the shadows of the trees. “It doesn’t matter what it is. If it’s yours, it’s enough.”

In the distance, a hunting horn blew loud and long, and ahead of them, Kade shouted, “Come on, get to the trees! They’re coming!”

Emily took Antsy’s hand, and they broke into a run, Cora ahead of them, Christopher stopping at the edge of the wood to look back and be sure they didn’t leave anyone behind. Sumi emerged from the trees, darting forward to grab Christopher by the shoulders and yank him into the woods, like some sort of strange but efficient predator.

Nothing grabbed or tripped or stopped the rest of them, and in no time at all, they were reunited in the safety of the trees, the horns still ringing in the distance, the sunlight slanting through the prismatic leaves.

“Now what?” asked Christopher.

No one seemed to have an answer.

8 SOME FLOWERS BLOOM IN SHADOW

“I DON’T KNOW,”said Kade, when the horns stopped and the silence stretched so thin that it felt like a breath would break it. “I’ve never spent much time in the woods.”

“Too bad Regan’s not here,” said Sumi, who had already made her way halfway up a tree. She was straddling a branch, tapping a spray of shelf fungus with one fingertip. Every time she touched them, they cycled through another color, like a very slow, very silent rave. “She’s good at forests.”

“I am not,” said Cora. “Lakes, sure. Oceans, awesome. Forests, no, thank you.”

“Better here than Confection,” said Christopher.

Cora shuddered. “Oceans shouldnotbe strawberry soda.”

The silenced horns were replaced by the pounding of hooves and the jingling of tack. Cora reached out and took Kade’s hand. All of them, even Sumi, stared at the forest’s edge.

“Should we run?” asked Antsy.

“No. We’re in the trees. They won’t see us, and even if they do, they won’t take us. There are rules.” Kade said the last word like it was bitter in his mouth, all but spitting it out.

“So we stand,” said Sumi, dropping out of the tree and taking Kade’s other hand.

They kept watching the edge of the wood.

A company of tall, brightly dressed figures on horseback rode up to the edge of the woods. Their horses gleamed with mother-of-pearl, white, black, gray, and roan. Their tack was polishedsilver, and their clothes were elegant and flowing, somehow combining dozens of disparate shades without clashing at all.

As to the people themselves, they had long, flowing hair and equally long, beautifully patterned butterfly wings which sprouted from their shoulders, slowly fanning the air.

Antsy stared. Sumi scoffed, looking like she was about to say something, but stopped as Christopher motioned her to silence. Kade clung to Cora and Sumi’s hands like he was in danger of drowning if he let them go.

“Well?” asked the lead rider, in a voice like sharpened ice.

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