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Hawk and Pine move to escort us away Mula looks up at me for direction, and I nod assurance Once we’re reunited with Mara and Belén, we’ll figure out what to do next

As we crunch across the shattered glass, back toward the tapestry and the tunnel leading to Crooked Sequoia House, Stor his too-elegant neck But a glih his thin linen shift coht with power

He leads us back to our holding room The door squeals behind limpse of Storm’s unfazed countenance before it slams shut and a deadbolt thuds into place

"Hector! Where is she?" Mara demands

I s hard "They’ve taken her There was a trapdoor, and--"

Grief slams me, so hot and hard that I double over Elisa How , pouring sweat, frorips et her back," Belén says "I swear it Now" He pushesthat happened," he orders

Get control of yourself, Hector I take a deep breath and say, "First, you should know that Storasps "I don’t believe it"

Mula climbs up into her lap and wraps scrawny arms around Mara’s neck "The co Mara cries a little as Mula strokes her hair Belén hits the ith a fist

Then wewith us, she would pace She would bite at her thuo back and forth until everyone was dizzy fro her In her absence, I pace instead It’s better than doing nothing And so about the physical movement frees my mind to h, our tiny rooht, when I hear footsteps, followed by the scrape of the bolt being lifted

We rush to get in position--Belén and I to either side of the door, Mula in clear view of the opening as she pretends to sleep on the cot, Mara slightly off to the side with her bon

I shift to the balls of er This is it

The door creaks open

No one moves No one breathes

Just a little wider, I pray Just a little farther

So, and Belén dodges to avoid it It clunks against the leg of Mula’s cot A water skin Two s

The door slams shut; the bar thuds into place

I utter the foulest oath I know

Mara opens the bags "Jerky," she says "And a loaf of bread At least they don’t plan to starve us"

I’rabs my arm "It orth a try," he says "But next tiht our way out"

I nod We agreed to try to capture soe and keep casualties to a i, we shouldn’t start off by killing their people But I won’t hesitate if it’s the only way out of this rooht all the oil laest in her hand when she startles, al it Hesitantly, almost shyly, she looks froain

I have a guess about what she’s thinking I’ve coirl She is as pesky as acolt But she can be calculating Determined She’s a little bit like Elisa

"Skinny Girl," I say, using Belén’s na myself to call her a mule

When she looks up at me, panic flits across her odd features as quickly and naturally as if frolare "What?"

"It’s a good idea"

She looks down at her la to try it"

"We should break thefirst," I say "Give the slance They’ve been sitting side by side on the cot, their shoulders brushing, but they separate to look around for soh it?" Mara says

Belén reaches for her bow, propped up against the wall, and hands it to her

Mara draws an arrow froainst her cheek as she sizes up theShe draws, holds, releases

The arrow zings through the air, cracks against the , glances off, and whirls end over end to the ground

Mara frowns "Bad angle," she mutters "I need a more direct hit"

I step forward "Can you shoot froht work! You’d have to stand firive me an accurate shot"

She clis into the crook of ht I plantin front of the other, to find a new center of balance Belén hands the bow and an arrow up to Mara

Her weight shifts as she notches the bow and draws I’s; theexplodes Shards of glass fall like water and crash onto the floor

Belén steadies Mara as she climbs down from my shoulders

Mula holds the oil lamp aloft, a question in her eyes

"Try it," I say

She pulls the still-burning wick from the clay base, then upends the contents onto the thick wooden door Sassafras scent fills the roorain The drips never reach the floor; the thirsty wood soaks it up

Mula steps back as far as her reach will allow Turning her face away, she touches the burning wick to the oil slick on the door

I holdhappens, and I reach for another la in a nearby alcove--maybe we need reat whoosh of air and heat

Mula ju wildly

The fla and insubstantial as a desert e or blue The heat singes ainst the far wall We raise our cloaks to cover our noses, and together atch the door burn

The fire weakens and dies

It leaves a shiny black crater, but it’s shallow and sive up Three oil laht with four oil lale room would have served double watches for excess and recklessness Now I’d give rabs the nearest and repeats the process of re it

Again, we step back to watch, growing chilly now that theis open to the winter air Again, the fire dies

Mula’s shoulders slu "We need to scrape off the char," I say