Total pages in book: 151
Estimated words: 147649 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 738(@200wpm)___ 591(@250wpm)___ 492(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 147649 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 738(@200wpm)___ 591(@250wpm)___ 492(@300wpm)
We all file into the glass-lined hallway that Callistina dragged me down and we are a very long line. Some quick multiplication tells me we are forty-eight girls, to be exact. Plus the twelve alchemists.
Pia is warm and comforting against my neck. I look over my shoulder at the lion-girl behind me, and she’s shooing her bird away. It flies in circles above her head, like they are magnetically attached.
She does not look pleased about her new BFF. I want to tell her it’s gonna be great. Just wait.
But actually, it wasn’t great. It kinda sucked.
I mean, Pia was the one who got me in all the trouble. It wasn’t on purpose, but still, my life would’ve been a whole lot easier if there was no Pia.
This line of thinking makes me feel ungrateful and ashamed. Because without Pia, I would’ve really gone legit crazy a long time ago.
We leave the glass hallway and file back into the great room where I started this journey. The teenagers are still lined up along the wall and we are told to go join our sisters and be quiet and good while we wait.
I walk straight over to Callistina and she bends down to hug me. “What did you get?”
“A bird.”
“What?”
“Ostanes gave us all birds to bind our magic.”
“What?” Callistina looks appalled. “Why the hell would she do that? Didn’t Father stop her?”
“No. I guess…” I lift up the bag of rings at my waist. “That Ptah guy gave me a bag of rings and—”
“What!” This time, Callistina exclaims it. And it’s so loud, the whole room stops talking to stare at us. She places a hand on my shoulder and turns me around so that we’re both facing the wall and no one can see us talk. “Start over, Pianna. What. Happened?”
So I tell her. I tell the whole story. And all she says is, “Tell me Ostanes’s spell. Exactly.”
“Well.” I sigh. I really don’t remember it all, but then, just like this morning in my real-life world, the words come spilling out. “‘Four girls, a room, some gifts and thrones. Four gods each know their place at home. A mother gives a book of words, locked up tight in the beaks of birds.’”
“What birds?” Callistina seems really upset over this new development. She looks around, presumably looking for the other little lion-girls who were in the throne room with me. “I don’t see any birds.”
Another clue.
Callistina can’t see Pia.
Well, at least it’s consistent. So far, the only people who have been able to see Pia are Pell, Tomas, the monsters of Saint Mark’s, and the entire realm of Vinca.
“Where are the birds, Pie? I don’t see any birds.”
I point to my neck. “She’s right here. Snuggled up against me.”
Callistina shoots me a look. It’s a look I am very familiar with. It’s a look that says, You’re crazy.
And so it starts.
“And what book?”
Well, my first guess is that it’s the book. The source code, or whatever. But it could also be my Book of Debt.
I don’t answer Callistina. I’m over it. I think I got what I need. I’m ready to leave now.
I start looking for doors. There are a lot of them, actually. But then I look at the main door. The one I came through.
Even though, in all my hallway experiences, we have never left a place the same way we came in, I’m starting to think this isn’t a hallway, but an actual magic door.
So it makes perfect sense that I need to go back through that door to get back to Pell in the forest.
And Pia too.
Other Pia. Pia who has been constantly with me for nineteen years. Not the one who just got spelled into existence.
I look around, calculate the distance between where I’m at and the door. I approximate it to be about fifty feet. I’m no track star or anything, but I think I can sprint this, open the door, and get through it before anyone figures out I’m escaping.
The element of surprise is on my side.
And I’m just about to take a first-step mad dash back to my real-world life when the lights go out, music starts playing, and Callistina grips my hand tightly.
Escape thwarted.
Happy future dubious.
Stuck in a slave auction.
Story of my life.
7
“Here we go.” Callistina is still gripping my hand tight. “Don’t be scared. It’s all going to be OK.”
Maybe if I really was a kid her words might placate me. She seems sincere. Which is kind of surprising since she was all bow-down-before-your-queen back in Vinca. I have to remember though—she’s just a kid right now too. There are almost two decades between this moment and that one.
But anyway. I’m not a kid. I’m a grown-up who’s been through a lot and I know what comes next and it’s got nothing to do with being OK.