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"Maybe Morgan and I should clean her up first," Pen says I don’t realize she’s even descended the ladder until she’s beside me She nods to the stain that’s formed on the skirt of Ao find so else for her to wear"

"A bucket of water and some cloths would be ideal, too," Pen says "And don’t let anyone co a bad enough day as it is without beco a scene"

I stroke Amy’s forehead, which is flushed and warm She leans into my touch, helpless and utterly atenvied her, for thinking she was able to brave the edge without consequence

"Oh, stop looking so serious," Pen says "Really, I’ve cleaned s, let rateful It makes the taskAotten her into an oversize shirt, she’s beginning to stir Shehair

"There are no fires," I assure her

She opens her eyes, as vacant as a doll’s, and stares at ain

"You stay with her," Pen says, gathering the wadded uniforo wash these"

I’m not sure what else to do, so I hold Ah her hair I can’t be certain where this delirium has taken her, butfor her, the way that I could after I’d been poisoned

"Soon," I tell her, "after you’ve awoken, this bird will fly us away The people of the ground will throw us a party bigger than Intern to be wonderful"

A strange thing, words Once they’re said, it’s hard to ih the dirt Judas argued with the professor that Arandchildren weren’t lass, and anye didn’t have the ti back the dead sister," which I thought was especially harsh

Now Judas and I are standing in the doorway to Amy’s bunk room It’s been more than an hour since her episode, and Judas looks as exhausted as if he’d been the one experiencing it

"Poor kid," he says "All she’s got now is me"

"What about her parents?" I ask

He shakes his head "They would have had her and Daphne both declared irrational if they’d known about the bird They wanted perfect daughters and nothing to do with scandal"

It’s happened before that parents have had their children declared irrational The sentence can usually be dropped after the child has agreed to give up the rebellious behavior, such as falling in love with so attraction to the sa, but I still have trouble believing it’s done

"I can’t i me irrational," I say "Even after Lex jumped, they would never have done that to either of us"

"Lucky you, then," Judas says

He sees the hurt in my eyes and adds, "I’m sorry That was stupid of me"

Now, after in to lassy and gray

"Hey," Judas says, back to her side in an instant "Hey, you Welcome back"

She rolls her head to the side, realizes that I’roans with eot you," Judas says "We said it h he see than she does She’s the only thing like fa for Daphne," she says Her voice is hoarse "Listening for her ghost But they cut her throat They took her voice away"

Her eyes fill with tears, and Judas is quick to dab at them with his sleeve "No they haven’t," he says "I hear her all the tiirl She’s in this bird She’s holding all of the bolts in place and she’s begging for us to sail across the sky"

A things

"Those are only echoes," she says "People die, and everything they’ve ever said just echoes around and around There’s nothing new Only the saht

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