chest at the same time. As was often the case with Aeslin mice, I couldn’t tell whether it was a boy mouse or a girl mouse, and I wasn’t sure it mattered. Not being human, or even humanoid, the mice tend to prefer “it” as a gender-neutral pronoun, and we all go along with that, even as it makes some of us profoundly uncomfortable. Aeslin mice have a casual relationship with human concepts about gender at best. It’s not that they don’t care about our social norms. It’s that once they have an idea in their heads, they don’t let it go easily, and they got all their concepts about how humans think about such things from four-times great-grandmother, who found them in her chicken coop on what I’m sure was a very bracing morning.
“I am to be traded to the temple of the Noisy Priestess when this pilgrimage is done,” said the fawn mouse.
Grandma Alice is sort of weird within the family because she has two separate temples dedicated to her mysteries. One of them observes the rituals created before Grandpa Thomas disappeared, while the other is occupied in chronicling her life as it continues to happen. They’ll switch roles if he ever comes back. It makes my temple’s structure seem simple and easily understood.
“Annie.” James grabbed my arm, white-knuckled. “Annie, the mice are talking.”
“Of course they are,” I said. “They’re Aeslin mice. The hard part is getting them to shut up.” I looked at Grandma. “Just the two?”
“I can’t take a whole colony with me when I’m moving between dimensions,” she said. “It’s too dangerous. Size doesn’t impact the rituals I use, but the number of living things does.”
“Ah.” I nodded. “Three is within your limits?”
“I can’t use rituals that won’t accommodate at least two. What would happen if I found Thomas and didn’t have anything on me that would get us both home? Three is a strain sometimes, but it’s better than asking one of the mice to travel alone with me the way I used to.”
The Aeslin mice are the living history of my family. They remember everything they see and hear, so as long as someone travels with their mice, everything goes into the record. There had been days when I missed the presence of my own mice so badly that it was all I could do to keep from screaming. I’d sent them back to Portland after I burned down the carnival, once it had become clear that it wasn’t safe for them to stay with me while I was running from the Covenant. If I’d died while I was in my self-imposed exile, I would have been the first member of the family since great-great-great-great-grandma Beth to be even partially forgotten. Bemoaning the lack of privacy brought on by having a colony of nosy, intelligent rodents living in the walls is practically a family pastime, but I was going to sleep so much better when I was back with my mice.
“Here.” Grandma held her hand out to me, mice still on her palm, looking at me with quivering whiskers and bright, curious eyes. “You need to take them home with you.”
“Grandma . . .” I raised my hand automatically. The mice transferred from her palm to mine. I pulled them protectively toward my chest as she moved her hand away.
“You are going home, aren’t you?” She frowned. “Your parents are worried sick. So are your siblings. Alex has asked me to go looking for you, twice. Verity’s still in New York, and it’s not safe for me to go see her, but I spoke to Dominic, and he asked about you. You need to show them that you’re still alive.”
“We will Chronicle your journey!” squeaked the brindle mouse, proudly. “We will Recount it to your clergy with precision.”
“This is too weird,” said James. His face had gone pale, and the temperature of the air around him was still dropping. Poor guy kept thinking he’d hit the threshold of how weird the world could be, and then discovering that once my family got involved, that was a well with no bottom. “Talking mice. And this is normal for you.”
“She had two in her backpack when we met,” confirmed Sam gravely. “I took them to the airport when she left me. Which she’s never allowed to do again—it was very distressing.”
“Yes, dear,” I said, patting his arm.
The mice cheered. James jumped, obviously startled by the volume. I smirked at him.