carefully shutting the door to Ombri's winter and basking a few more minutes in the perspective that was dawning inside me pertaining to that city. Then I returned home as well, somehow more replete than I had felt in a long time, even considering the fact that the deadline for Tanen was drawing near, and I hadn't a thing to show for it.
Perhaps it was something I'd heard in the voices of the wind, that day, or merely that speaking the part of my stance that Tanen had drawn out had served as a much-needed acknowledgment of the very same idea for myself, centering it in my own mind as surely as it had been intended to offer perspective to Tanen.
I couldn't say for sure where it had hailed from, but there was a sense of peace in it – an irrational sense of peace. Who was to say if it would wear off as quickly as it had settled in, but for the time being I glided through the rest of my duties all amidst its haze, unbothered by the turmoil around me, as if I were truly on to something even more than I had known.
*
The words came two days later:
"Victoria is missing."
It was Enda that spoke, and hers was a wise old voice I would never question. I knew I did not have to ask: Are you sure? Have you checked everywhere? Could you just have missed her?
I rose from my task, caution stirring through me. I did not expect to find any alarming confirmations, but I pressed my palm to the wall of the house briefly nevertheless, just to be sure.
As I suspected: it had not swallowed her like the others.
"Ombri's gone after her," Enda said further, and my eyes went back to her.
"What?"
"Down the road. I would not have taken Miss Victoria for one to care for a venture into the city, but it seems perhaps I've misjudged the girl."
"She won't last an instant in the city," I protested, as if Enda were somehow responsible. "She'll trip over the rubble."
"Why Shifter's been a wise pup and gone after her," Enda confirmed.
I sighed with resignation, wondering what had possessed Victoria, and strode from the room. "I'll bring them back," I said. "The one you call Shifter hasn't been out on the rubble for too long. Things have changed since then."
I left Manor Dorn without further ado and made off down the road to retrieve the two strays myself, a cool breeze lapping at my skirt. A small swirl of dust stirred about my ankles, and then played off through the field. There was no sign of either of my quarry down the road. They must already be in the city.
Hopefully, I thought, Victoria hadn't gone and sprained her ankle. Ombri was much too slight to try to serve as support for the older girl, especially all the way from the city back to our manor.
The shadow of a bird swept across my path, and I glanced at the buzzard that swooped down into the field on the north side of the road. Pesky things. I grimaced at the haggard rustle of feathers and the set of beady eyes that followed me, and moved on toward my destination.
It was not hard to find Ombri and Victoria. I did not even have to use my gifted fingers. I saw them as the city drew near, just within its fallen gates. Ombri stood at the threshold, and Victoria – just a short ways in up a small hillock of rubble. The fair young woman was looking over her shoulder at her dark, faithful little shadow, a haunted look on her face. And it would do that to you – seeing the city for the first time. Having not delved any deeper than the first fringes of the place, it seemed perhaps that was all she had come to do; see it.
I slowed my pace, glad to see them both in one piece. Ombri seemed to be coaxing the other girl back down, now that she had laid eyes on the scene she had come for, and I dismissed the energy that was geared for making an effort where rounding the two of them up was concerned.
But that was when the rubble shifted. With her face to Ombri, Victoria didn't see it. I'm sure the sound of it would have registered, but suddenly Omrbi was crying out, and the sound of her voice served as a bit of an overriding