Page 31 of Mislaid in Parts Half-Known

And as if Cora’s words had been some sort of invocation, a door that had been standing propped open in a nearby aisle swung open and Vineta stepped through, a wicker shopping basket slung over one arm, greenery spilling out over thesides, and a paper bag that smelled of pastry in her hand. Yulia was close behind her, lugging her own basket, which looked substantially heavier and filled with cheese, apples, and onions. No meat, though.

Given Kade’s guesses about her origins, he wasn’t surprised. Jill had always been an enthusiastic eater of flesh, the bloodier the better, while Jack, for all her squeamishness, had refused to veer from a vegetarian diet until after she’d been allowed to visit the local farm Eleanor bought their meat from. Only knowing for sure that the bacon came from a pig rather than a person had allowed her to relax and stop watching the other students eat with the wary guardedness of someone who had fallen into an entire colony of cannibals. Yulia’s meatless basket was not remarkable.

Judging by the way Vineta stumbled and stopped, their presence was. And that was even without taking into account Sumi, who was now sitting on the counter and smacking her croquet mallet into the palm of her hand, over and over again, making a rhythmic slapping sound.

“You left,” accused Vineta.

“We didn’t close the door behind us,” said Emily. “We were going to find something, and once we found it, we came back.”

Vineta glanced around, eyes widening in apparent alarm. “Is hehere?” she asked.

“Hudson? No. He went to take care of something,” said Cora. “We’re here, though, and we’re going to have a little chat with you about adults who hurt kids on purpose.”

“You would come and threaten an old woman in her home?” asked Vineta. “Nasty children. Wicked children. How dare you behave in such a manner?”

“How dareyouthink that just because you were hurt, it’s okay to keep hurting others? That just because you had to pay, no one ever gets to change the system?” Kade shook his head. “It doesn’t have to work like that.”

“I’m not hurting anyone.”

“Aren’t you?”

Yulia was glancing uncertainly between Vineta and Kade. Emily crouched down and beckoned the girl toward her, taking the basket out of her hands with a soothing murmur and setting it on the floor.

“It’s okay, it’s okay,” she said. “No one’s going to hurt you anymore.”

“I don’t want to leave,” said Yulia. “Please, don’t make me leave. The vampires are waiting for me to come back to where I used to live, and if they catch me, they’ll swallow me up and I’ll be gone forever.”

“We’re not going to make you leave,” said Emily.

“Then the harm you say I’m doing continues,” said Vineta. “She can’t stay here if she doesn’t work, and the people who live in the shop can’t get by without the Doors. Antoinette accuses me of liking my little treats and luxuries, and maybe that’s so—maybe sometimes I’ve gotten a little greedy and brought back more than was absolutely needed in the moment. But we need food and we need drink and we need medicine, and those are things that aren’t often lost when there’s still virtue left in them. We have to be able to travel.”

“We still can,” said Antsy, emerging from behind the curtain at last. “When it’s necessary, we still can. There’s a difference between a Door a week and ten Doors in a day. People shouldn’t be used up for the sake of novelty and not needing to decide today what tomorrow’s dinner is going to be. TheStore needs keepers, and the keepers need Doors to do our job. That doesn’t mean we let people open them willy-nilly without knowing the price.”

“What were you going to do with those days, Antoinette? How were you going to spend them that was so much better than seeing wonders and touching the whole universe? I didn’t steal anything you weren’t happy to give away.”

Antsy scowled. “You know, when I was here and worked for you, I could never tell where the Door I was about to open would lead. And now I can. They evenlookdifferent to me than they used to. They always looked like they were a part of the Store before, part ofthisworld, and now when I look at them, they look like they belong to the worlds they leadto. Leaving and being sure enough that I wanted to come back that I started reallylookingdid that for me. Maybe it could have done it for any of us. Let us stay until we’re uncertain, but make sure we know how much time we’re losing, so we realize that time is short, and we need to be uncertainnowif we’re going to do it at all. Then, when we leave and need to come back, we can find our way.”

“You can’t live a life on ‘maybe’,” scoffed Vineta.

“Why not? Everyone else does.” Antsy looked to Yulia. “I won’t make you leave. You ran away for a reason, and you deserve to be safe while you’re growing up. But you also deserve to decide how fast that happens.”

“And what about me?” asked Vineta. “Am I to stand idly by as you destroy everything I’ve spent my life working for?”

“No,” said Antsy sadly. “Much worse than that.”

And the light dimmed around them as the distant windows were blacked out by the widespread wings of furious birds.

14 MAGPIES HAVE LONG MEMORIES

VINETA LOOKED UP INalarm, eyes going wide and face going whey-white and sickly. She dropped her basket, staggering backward.

“This isn’t right,” she said. “I’ve served long and well! I’ve been shopkeeper throughthreemewling assistants! No one else, not even Elodina, has ever managed to stay forthree! You need me! I’m the one who knows how it all works, and youneedme!”

“The people who own this world have a right to have a say in how it’s used, and you took that away from them,” said Antsy.

“Bad birds,” gasped Yulia, burying her face against Emily’s arm.

“They know we’re notwithher, right?” asked Christopher, as an aside to Cora.

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