Chapter 14 Where the Living Meet the Dead #2
Talia, meanwhile, produced a silkworm cocoon from inside her pocket and began to carefully unwind it, producing an impossibly long piece of silk.
She walked over to the door and leaned up onto her tiptoes, beginning to pack the silk around the top of the doorframe.
Once that was covered, she worked her way down the side, until she reached the bottom and Sumi’s layer of well-chewed gum.
The cocoon didn’t get any smaller until she had less than a foot to go, at which point it seemed to unravel all at once, leaving her with exactly enough silk to stop the gap.
She straightened, turning back to the Lord of the Dead. “Will that do, sir?” she asked.
“Yes,” he said, sounding genuinely impressed. “It will.”
THE LADY OF THE DEAD was waiting for them in the library. She gasped when she saw Nancy cradled in her husband’s arms, not moving. “What happened to her?” she asked.
“The ghosts took her into the void and kept her there as leverage to have their demands fulfilled,” the Lord of the Dead said brusquely.
“We retrieved her, and their door has been sealed until their strength bleeds away sufficient to let them through the walls. We need to pay more attention to Our statues. This began because one of them died, and his lover couldn’t stand the thought of life without him. ”
“We understand love,” said the Lady.
“No one understands love, but We should be empathetic toward it,” said the Lord. “We’ll do better.”
He stretched Nancy out on one of the library tables.
She lay there silently, eyes closed, chest rising and falling in a way that was paradoxically more worrying than anything else about her.
For her breathing to be that visible—that normal—she had to be so deep into unconsciousness that she could no longer keep herself still, no matter what her training told her.
Her body was in command now, and all it cared about was breathing.
“How long was she in the void?” asked the Lady.
“About an hour,” said Kade. “I don’t understand. We all went into the void, and we’re all fine.”
“But you didn’t stay there,” she said. “The void … it drains the living, given time to do so. Especially if they’re not doing anything to fight it.”
“Which Nancy wasn’t, because you taught her to hold still to get away from her problems,” said Sumi, scowling. “Is she going to get better?”
“We can hope so,” said the Lord of the Dead. “She’s outside the void now, and back where she belongs. We’ll bring her pomegranate juice and sugar wafers, and she’ll have all the support We can give her as she recovers.”
“Thank you,” said the Lady. “Thank you for letting her bring you here, and thank you for saving the rest of our statues. They didn’t deserve that death.”
“How do we go home?” asked Christopher.
“These are My halls, and My Halls,” said the Lord of the Dead.
“I command them—within reason. I couldn’t seal that door without a physical barrier, and I cannot command the stone to turn to fog or anything of the sort.
But if I request a door, one will be opened for Me.
We will care for Nancy, and you will go. ”
“What about my moths?” asked Talia.
“Their share of the fruit is still theirs,” said the Lady of the Dead. “Send them back to the groves, and I promise we won’t harm their caterpillars or seek to drive them from the trees.”
Talia moved to the window, murmuring to the moths that accompanied her. She pushed the window open, and they flew out, wings bright against the sky as they fluttered off into the distance. Talia sighed, watching them go, only looking back when Sumi put a hand on her shoulder and squeezed lightly.
“You did a good job,” said Sumi. “Your turn will come. There will be other moths.”
Talia sighed again and walked with her back to Christopher and Kade, who were watching the Lord of the Dead with sharp, wary eyes.
He put a hand on the door out of the library, pausing a moment before pulling it carefully open to reveal the basement at the school.
Kade looked back at Nancy, motionless on the table, then stepped through. The others followed him, only Talia hesitating.
“I promised the moths I would sing their verses of the Great Song to the rest of the eclipse,” she said, looking to the Lord of the Dead. “Can I stay long enough for that?”
The Lord of the Dead paused, saying nothing. The Lady turned and gave him a hard look. After a long moment he sighed and looked away.
“The door will remain for another hour,” he said. “You may sing your songs.”
“Thank you,” said Talia, voice dripping with relief. She left the room then, leaving the Lord and Lady behind.
“The living are so demanding,” he said wearily.
The Lady only laughed.
An hour later, Talia returned, leaves in her hair and contentment in her eyes. She walked straight to the door and through. It swung shut behind her, popping like a soap bubble, and she was back in the basement, back in the familiar air of school.
Christopher, sitting on the bed, looked up from his flute practice and smiled. “Sumi said you’d be along. We decided to trust her, because it was better than trying to get back into the Halls of the Dead when we didn’t know how. Come on. Let’s go tell Miss West you’re back.”
He slid easily off the bed, heading for the stairs. Talia didn’t argue.
She just followed.