Page 134 of Heartless

She scrutinized him, unblinking, for a heartbeat too long, before she allowed a close-lipped smile. ‘How much longer will you run from Time?’

‘For as long as I can.’

A third voice sang, ‘Time would never find you here.’

Cath spun again. The third girl stood beside the wall of hedges, again a mirror image of her sisters, although her shining hair had grown all the way to her ankles. Huge, bottomless eyes watched them across the glen.

A door was now set into the hedges behind the third Sister, an enormous wooden structure with black iron hinges. Tillie stood beside it, digging her bare toes in the dirt and gripping its enormous handle.

‘You could stay with us, you know,’ said the third girl.

Hatta shook his head. ‘I’m sorry, Lacie, but I can’t.’

‘What about them?’ asked Tillie, pointing her chin at Cath and Jest and Raven.

Cath was glad when Jest answered, as she didn’t think she could speak. ‘I’m sorry, but we must go back to Chess. We have a role to play.’

‘Oh yes,’ said Elsie. ‘Two Rooks, a Pawn, and a Queen. That’s how the riddle begins, but howsoever shall it end?’ She started to laugh.

Cath shivered.

‘We shall see what role you have to play,’ said Tillie.

‘Once you reach the other side,’ added Lacie.

Tillie pulled open the ancient door. Its iron hinges creaked and the wood grated against the moss-covered stone. Cath could see nothing beyond but more hedges.

In unison, the Sisters murmured, ‘We will all greet fate, on the other side.’

Cath took a hesitant step forward, with Jest gripping her hand and Hatta a mere step away. As they approached the door, she saw that there were stairs on the other side, a short flight of crumbling stone steps that dropped down into another forest meadow. Overgrown hedges pushed in on either side, making the stairwell too narrow for her and Jest to walk side by side.

She followed Hatta through, lifting her skirt to keep from tripping on the uneven stones. Leaves clung to her hem. Shadows pushed in from the sides.

The moment they passed through, the massive door slammed shut, making Cath jump. Jest squeezed her shoulder and his presence alone warmed the chill from her bones.

They reached the bottom of the steps and Cath paused. Her brow furrowed.

She glanced back, but the stairs were gone. She was staring at the empty wall of an enormous hedge, with no doors and no exits.

She turned again, her heart pattering against her sternum. They were still in the same forest glen with the same treacle well.

But this time, the Three Sisters were already waiting.

CHAPTER 43

ELSIE, LACIE ANDTILLIEsat on the edge of the well sipping from porcelain teacups. They still wore their plain white dresses, though the meadow seemed colder than before and Catherine thought they must be freezing in such flimsy fabric.

The oddest thing, though, was that the three girls were now wearing masks. An owl. A raccoon. A fox. The masks were tied to their heads with ribbons and only the girls’ enormous eyes could be seen through circular cutouts – so black and fathomless it was like looking through the holes into nothing.

Catherine was grateful when Jest’s hand found hers again, lacing their fingers together.

It was a strange thing, to stare across a peaceful forest glen at three little girls and feel that she’d stepped on to a battlefield.

‘Hello,’ said Hatta, with a calmness that was offset by his tense shoulders. ‘Tillie. Elsie. Lacie.’

The girls did not move. They held their teacups in one hand and their saucers in the other, their pinkie fingers pointing at matching angles.

‘We’ve been practising,’ said the Owl.

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