Page 16 of Mislaid in Parts Half-Known

Cora came after them, moving with the delicate care of someone who knew her environment was not on her side, but who had become resigned to the risk it offered her. She held her breath as she inched her way in, concentrating to avoid the crystals lining the walls.

Outside, Sumi grabbed Kade by the hand and tugged him toward the cave. He stayed where he was, staring off into nothing.

“Hey,” she said, voice low and sharp. “Hey, tailor-boy, you need to come with me now.”

“I killed the king,” he said. “I did it. I didn’t know what I was doing, or why it was so wrong, or why I didn’t want to hurt him, but I did it anyway to please the Queen, and he’s dead because of me. If they catch me, they’ll punish me for what I did.” He turned to look at Sumi, tears bright in hiseyes. “It doesn’t matter that I was just a kid who thought he was doing the right thing. It doesn’t matter that they lied to me. I did it. Shouldn’t I pay for what I did?”

“If we all paid for everything we’d done, there’d be nothing left in all the worlds but debtors’ prisons.” Sumi yanked on his hand again. “We’re your penance, silly, the whole chaotic bunch of us, and as part of your penance, I say you’re not done suffering us yet. You have to come and keep paying before you’re allowed to go and get your head chopped off for the sins of your past. Now comeon.”

She pulled a third time, harder, and this time Kade started moving, letting her yank him into the cave. The others were well ahead of them by now, and despite her concerns, Cora didn’t appear to have gotten stuck.

Sumi was moving fast, and pulling Kade in her wake. They caught up with the rest of the group in a small, crystal-lined chamber filled with a pale golden light that came from the walls themselves, cast in crystal. Kade exhaled, slow and shaky. Christopher turned to look at him.

“You okay, buddy?”

“We weren’t supposed to go into the caves, because they were goblin territory,” said Kade. “But I did it anyway. They were the only place in the whole world that hadn’t been written in rainbow, and sometimes I just wanted to see things for one color at a time, the way they really were.”

“Ooooo… kay…” said Christopher. “Going to take that as a yes.”

Antsy, meanwhile, was staring at one of the chamber walls, trembling slightly. Emily put a hand on her shoulder.

“Antsy?”

“It’s mine,” said Antsy. “Can’t you see it? You could all see the Door to Prism in the attic.”

“There’s something that could be an outline, I guess,” said Emily dubiously. “Why are you so scared?”

“Because it’s mine, and because Iamsure. It feels different than Kade’s did. It’s not hunting. This Door doesn’t hunt on this world. It’s here because it wants me back,” said Antsy. She stumbled as Sumi pushed forward, shouldering her to the side. “Hey!”

“Touch the door so the rest of us can see it, and I’ll open it up,” said Sumi. “I told you I’d pay to get us out of here. I have the time banked from when I was busy being dead.”

“If you’re sure…”

“I’m ridiculous, not indecisive,” said Sumi. “And unlike Eleanor, I’m not afraid of growing up. Confection wants me no matter when I am.”

“All right,” said Antsy, and reached out, and touched a spire with the tip of her index finger.

It was like a screen had been whisked away. There was no transformation or ripple in the world: it was simply a crystal spike before she touched it, and a plain brass doorknob that could have been found in any ordinary home after she did, round and smooth and slightly tarnished. There was no point to having a doorknob without a door, and so of course a door came with it, wood painted white and ordinary as anything, with a bronze sign hanging at exactly Antsy’s eye level.

ANTHONY & SONS, TRINKETS AND TREASURES, it read, and below that, in smaller but bolder letters, so that they would be impossible to miss:BE SURE.

“I’m always sure,” said Sumi, and opened the door.

9 FILED AND FORGOTTEN

THE DOOR FOUGHT SUMIas she opened it, but she was strong, muscles densely packed under the layer of softness she had cultivated with candy and cakes, and in the end, she won, yanking the door open to reveal what looked like the back room of a thrift store as big as a warehouse. Things were piled in every direction and on every surface, haphazard and threatening to come tumbling down in great cascades of other people’s junk. The smell of aging paper and fabric that had been stored for too long without being worn wafted out to greet them.

“Well, go on,” said Sumi, breaking the silence.

“The Store,” breathed Antsy, and stepped through, face alight with wonder and joy, both tempered by wariness and loss. Emily was close behind her, stepping daintily between the piles on the floor. Christopher went next, pausing to turn back and offer his hand to Cora, who rolled her eyes as she took it, letting go as soon as she was through the door.

Sumi looked to Kade. “Time to go, unless you’ve changed your mind about wanting to stay,” she said. “I still say we’re a better punishment for your crimes than decapitation or whatever weird penance the goblins would come up with, but it’s your call.”

“I never wanted to come back,” said Kade. “If it’s allowed at all, it feels like it’s something that should be the whole point, not something that happens almost by accident whenno one’s looking. This isn’t my world, not really. It was hers, and she never existed anyway, and so I’m not staying here.” He moved past Sumi, pausing before he stepped through the door to kiss her forehead and murmur, more quietly, “Thank you.”

Sumi laughed and waved him away. “Go-go-go. I’m going to be a married woman, so there’s no point to pining over me, not with Ponder already waiting.”

Kade smiled back, then moved into the store, following the others.

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