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“We can carry him…” my sister says

But we both knoe can’t We wouldn’thim and the children I look at the terrified children, then at my sister

“Children,” I say hollowly, “come kiss Dada for luck”

Ava understands Her calirl ept in her bed when our h she was older

“I don’t want to leave Dada,” Conn cries

“I’ll bring hio on ahead Now kiss hi me, the children rush to kiss my father on the cheek His eyes brim with tears as they dart back and forth My sister bends and kisses hi back Conn holds on to hio till his mother rips him violently away and moves them toward the door “The north watchtower,” she says “Be there soon”

“I will”

“Lyria”

“Yes?”

“Bringskirts, births, and love reduced now to a single second of fear And then our hands are parting and the door closes and she’s sed by the nighth a crack in the plastic, I watch her run, clutching Ella to her breast and dragging her two boys along into the dark I stay behind withbeyond the thin walls Some part of me thinks that if we stay here, the storm will pass us by The plastic will soBlades out I want to tell Da it will be well That I’ll see hi atthis is the last time he’ll see me I kneel so that we are eye to eye, and clutch his face in ht Who would sit lories and pitvipers and fights He was as vast as the sky itself But now, he is a brokenhelplessly as the world ss his children

“I will see you in the Vale,” I whisper to hiether “I love you I love you I love you” Then I throw myself away from him In three steps I am out the door

Leaving hi a part of my body away

My eyes sting with tears, but a cold clarity fills one The ca their houses Flah the black sky The rattling of autoy weapon Screa around h Gamma township to the central infirmary I collide with ahis elbow toa child, then rushes on I know him Elrow, one of my father’s headTalks from years back He doesn’t even look down at me

Struggling back to my feet, I find the infir stained on its fringes by irl in a white dress I hammer on the doors “Let me in! It’s Lyria Let me in!” I kick the doors twice before they unlock from the inside and open Threeheavy medical instruments intended for my skull I hold up my hands

“Lyria!” Janis, a Yellow doctor and head of the infirh!”