this time than degradation and filth. When Stephen came back, one of them said blandly, "He tried to escape." Stephen knew it for a lie; he did not pursue They shoved me up onto the horse again and started for the walls of Mélusine.
By noon, we were in sight of Chalcedony Gate. Stephen reined in at the end of the causeway through the St. Grandin swamp, held up a hand. "He walks from here," he said, and Esmond dragged me off the horse.
Stephen intended me to walk to the Mirador.
I wondered if I could, and I was still wondering when we passed beneath the arch of Chalcedony Gate.
Mildmay
In the dream, I'm a kid again, like maybe a septad and two, septad and three. Keeper and me are standing outside the Boneprince's gates. It's past the septad-night.
In you go , Keeper says and shoves me forward, so that I'm in the Boneprince before I'm ready for it. I'm scared out of my mind, but proud. We all know what the Boneprince test means.
I start walking, not too fast, not like I'm scared or nothing, along the Road of Marble. Behind me, the gates swing shut with this horrible noise, like screaming and laughing and puking all at once. Even in the dream, I know them gates were welded open back in the reign of Laurence Cordelius, cause he was sick to death of people breaking the lock or being found in the morning hung up on the spikes.
And that's kind of worrisome, you know, them gates closing when I know they can't. I turn around.
Keeper's still there, on the other side of the gates. She smiles at me. Things are okay, then. This is just part of the test, and I can take anything she throws at me.
I turn back and keep walking. I can hear my footsteps and my heart beating. It's dark, not just like the night being dark when the moon's gone in, but dark like being shut in a room with black walls. I can see the Road of Marble, and that's about it.
And then there's a voice beside the path, and it whispers my name.
I stop in my tracks, looking from side to side, even though it won't do me no good. There's nothing to see. Just blackness and more blackness. Is… is somebody there?
Mildmay , another voice calls, from someplace else.
I spin around, but I can't see nothing. There's just the path, gleaming white, and all that blackness.
Mildmay, Mildmay, Mildmay . Lots of voices now, and I know who they are. They're the kept-thieves, the kids that got the sanguette 'cause Lady Jane didn't know no better way to deal with her city.
Come play with us, Mildmay , they call. We're lonely. You're one of us.
No ! I say, too scared to keep my mouth shut.
It's true. It's true. You belong to us, Mildmay. You know it.
I'd run if I knew which way to go, but the voices are all around me. I can see things on the path, like shadows.
Then something tugs my hair. I yelp and try to dodge, but I'm fenced in now, with bone, all their skeletons, some of 'em still hung about with bits of rotting cloth and bits of rotting flesh. They catch hold of me with their fingers like brambles, crowding around me, and I know they can feel my body heat. The eye sockets of their skulls are dark, like they've got all the night inside their heads.
You are ours , one says, close enough to kiss me. I pull back, fighting their grip and the things they say, and wake up.
It was near the septad-day. Ginevra was still asleep on the daybed. I was tangled up in my blankets like they had a new career coming as an octopus.
"Powers," I muttered under my breath and unwrapped myself. Standing up was hard—I ached all over from that crazy run through the Boneprince—but I did it anyway and went to the window. There ain't much happens on Persimmony Street in the daytime. I saw two cats fighting over a fish head and a girl scrubbing the steps of the Hourglass. The sky was dark and kind of far-off-looking. There'd be more rain soon.
I couldn't settle. The dream was in my head. So I pulled on my boots, still damp from last night, and left. Persimmony Street's
By noon, we were in sight of Chalcedony Gate. Stephen reined in at the end of the causeway through the St. Grandin swamp, held up a hand. "He walks from here," he said, and Esmond dragged me off the horse.
Stephen intended me to walk to the Mirador.
I wondered if I could, and I was still wondering when we passed beneath the arch of Chalcedony Gate.
Mildmay
In the dream, I'm a kid again, like maybe a septad and two, septad and three. Keeper and me are standing outside the Boneprince's gates. It's past the septad-night.
In you go , Keeper says and shoves me forward, so that I'm in the Boneprince before I'm ready for it. I'm scared out of my mind, but proud. We all know what the Boneprince test means.
I start walking, not too fast, not like I'm scared or nothing, along the Road of Marble. Behind me, the gates swing shut with this horrible noise, like screaming and laughing and puking all at once. Even in the dream, I know them gates were welded open back in the reign of Laurence Cordelius, cause he was sick to death of people breaking the lock or being found in the morning hung up on the spikes.
And that's kind of worrisome, you know, them gates closing when I know they can't. I turn around.
Keeper's still there, on the other side of the gates. She smiles at me. Things are okay, then. This is just part of the test, and I can take anything she throws at me.
I turn back and keep walking. I can hear my footsteps and my heart beating. It's dark, not just like the night being dark when the moon's gone in, but dark like being shut in a room with black walls. I can see the Road of Marble, and that's about it.
And then there's a voice beside the path, and it whispers my name.
I stop in my tracks, looking from side to side, even though it won't do me no good. There's nothing to see. Just blackness and more blackness. Is… is somebody there?
Mildmay , another voice calls, from someplace else.
I spin around, but I can't see nothing. There's just the path, gleaming white, and all that blackness.
Mildmay, Mildmay, Mildmay . Lots of voices now, and I know who they are. They're the kept-thieves, the kids that got the sanguette 'cause Lady Jane didn't know no better way to deal with her city.
Come play with us, Mildmay , they call. We're lonely. You're one of us.
No ! I say, too scared to keep my mouth shut.
It's true. It's true. You belong to us, Mildmay. You know it.
I'd run if I knew which way to go, but the voices are all around me. I can see things on the path, like shadows.
Then something tugs my hair. I yelp and try to dodge, but I'm fenced in now, with bone, all their skeletons, some of 'em still hung about with bits of rotting cloth and bits of rotting flesh. They catch hold of me with their fingers like brambles, crowding around me, and I know they can feel my body heat. The eye sockets of their skulls are dark, like they've got all the night inside their heads.
You are ours , one says, close enough to kiss me. I pull back, fighting their grip and the things they say, and wake up.
It was near the septad-day. Ginevra was still asleep on the daybed. I was tangled up in my blankets like they had a new career coming as an octopus.
"Powers," I muttered under my breath and unwrapped myself. Standing up was hard—I ached all over from that crazy run through the Boneprince—but I did it anyway and went to the window. There ain't much happens on Persimmony Street in the daytime. I saw two cats fighting over a fish head and a girl scrubbing the steps of the Hourglass. The sky was dark and kind of far-off-looking. There'd be more rain soon.
I couldn't settle. The dream was in my head. So I pulled on my boots, still damp from last night, and left. Persimmony Street's
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