The Sweet Far Thing - Page 90/257

Mercy keeps her eyes on her boots. “Wasn’t all bad. M’sister Gracie was right sweet. And I ’ad grand dreams.” Tears come, and she sniffles, wiping her nose.

Bessie crouches low and brings her snarl to the girl’s face. “A bellyache and stiff fingers from the cold is wot you ’ad, Mercy Paxton. Don’t go cryin’ fer it.”

Mae steps in. “We’ve got ever’thin’ here, Mercy. Don’t you see?”

“Mercy, come to me,” Pippa commands. The girl struggles up from the floor and walks shyly to her. Pippa cups the girl’s face in her palm, smiling at her. “Mercy, that’s all done now, so let’s dry our tears. We’re here, and it shall be everything we ever dreamed it could be. You’ll see.”

The girl rubs her nose on her sleeve, and with that one movement, her youth shows. She’s no more than thirteen. It’s terrible to think of her working in that factory from sunup till sundown.

“Who wants to go on a merry adventure, then?” Pippa asks.

The girls erupt in enthusiastic cries. Even Mercy manages a smile.

“What sort of adventure?” Ann asks.

Pippa giggles. “You’ll have to trust me. Now, close your eyes and follow me. There shall be no peeking!”

With Pip at the lead, we’re pulled along holding hands, a paper chain of girls. We’re out of the castle. I can feel the cool of the Borderlands on my skin.

“Open!” Pip commands.

Before us is an enormous hedge, well over eight feet tall. At one end I spy an entrance.

Ann breaks into a grin. “It’s a maze!”

“Yes,” Pip says, clapping. “Isn’t it splendid? Who’s game?”

“I am,” Bessie Timmons says. She runs around the corner, disappearing into the maze’s belly.

“And me.” Mae runs after her.

“I love a good hide-and-seek. Find me, Fee!” With that, Pippa pulls up her skirts, and Felicity, giggling, gives chase. I’m the last in. I don’t know how the others could have gotten away from me so fast. I turn corner after corner, but all I see is a maddening flutter of color and then nothing. The hedge walls are the most unusual I’ve ever seen, made of tightly woven clover and small black flowers, and I swear they shift so that when I look behind me, the passage has changed. The isolation sends my mind into strange corners, and I quicken my steps.

“Ann!” I cry.

“Over here!” she shouts back. The sound comes from everywhere at once, so I cannot be at all certain where to go next. I hear whispering. Is it coming from up ahead?

When I go round the edge, there are Felicity and Pippa standing close, foreheads touching, hands clasped. They murmur in private conference, and I can hear only a word here, a phrase there.

“…there’s a way…”

“…but how…”

“…we could…together…you see?”

“…Pip…”

“…promise me…”

“…promise…”

I step on a downed branch. It breaks with a loud crack. At once, they drop hands and charm me with too-quick smiles.

“You oughtn’t sneak up like that, Gemma,” Fee scolds, but her hand is at her heart, and her face is flushed.

Pippa jumps in, all smiles. “Fee was teaching me how to curtsy for the Queen. It’s hideously difficult, but she can do it brilliantly, can’t you, Fee?”

On cue, Felicity drops to the ground, her arms holding her skirt, her head low. Those cool eyes dart a glance upward at me.

“You were discussing the curtsy,” I repeat dumbly.

“Yes.” Pippa’s smile is a lie.

“It’s no matter. You needn’t tell me,” I say, turning.

“Gemma, you’re being silly!” Felicity calls after me. “It was the curtsy we were speaking of!”

I hear them whispering behind my back as I walk away. Fine. Let them have their secrets. I twist and turn through the maze. The magic swirls and eddies inside me. I could eat the world, devour it whole. I need to run. To hit. To wound and heal in equal measure.

I need, and it is more than I can bear.

On nimble feet, I fly into the forest. Where my hands touch, something new is born. Strange flowers as tall as men. A flock of butterflies with shiny yellow wings edged in black. Dark purple fruit, fat and heavy on the branch. I squeeze one hard in my hand and the juice turns to maggots. I throw it quickly away from me; the disgusting creatures burrow into the earth, and the earth responds with a crop of wildflowers.