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Sitting in her private quarters, Payne stared out over the Far Side&039;s landscape The rolling green grass and the tulips and honeysuckle reached only so far before they were cut off by a ring of trees that encircled the lawn Above it all, the arching milky sky stretched from fluffy treetops to fluffy treetops, the lid on the wardrobe trunk

Froe of the forest and penetrated its shadows, you ended up eht where you entered

There was no way out, except through the Scribe Virgin&039;s permission She alone held the key to the invisible lock and she wasn&039;t going to let Payne go--not even to the Primale&039;s house on the Other Side, as the others were allowed to do

Which proved that female knehat she had birthed She was very aware that once Payne got loose, she was never co back Payne had said as much--in a yell that made her own eardrums hum

In retrospect, her outburst had been a victory for honesty, but not the best strategy Better to have kept that to herself, and perhaps been allowed to traverse to the Other Side--and stayed there then After all, it wasn&039;t as if herstatues

Well, at least theoretically

On that note, she thought of Layla, who had just returned fro with a kind of happiness and satisfaction that Payne had never felt

Rather justified the urge to leave here, didn&039;t it: Even if what awaited her on the Other Side was nothing like she remembered from her small slice of freedom, she would have choices to e curse to have been born and yet not have a life to live Short of killing her mother, she was stuck herein, and howeverto take that trail She wasn&039;t sure she&039;d win in such a conflict, for one thing For another she had already disposed of her sire Matricide was not an experience that held any new or particular fascination for her

Oh, the past, the painful, wretched past Hoful to be stuck here with an infinite, bland future whilst burdened with a history that was too awful to dwell on Suspended aniainst this torture--at least in the frozen state, her s she wished hadn&039;t transpired, and things she would never get to do--

"Would you care for some victuals?"

Payne looked over her shoulder No&039;One was in the archway of the room, bended into a boith a tray in her hands

"Oh, yes, please" Payne shook off her s "And won&039;t you join me?"

"I thank you kindly, but I shall serve you and depart" The maid put the provisions down on theseat beside Payne "When you and the king set to your physical conflicts, I shall return to collect--"

"May I ask you soain "But of course How one on to the Other Side? Like the others?"

There was a long silence and then the fei hands, No&039;One straightened the bedding into a precise order

"I have no particular interest in that world," she said fro "I am safe here Over there I would not be safe"

"The Prier skill No harm would e&039;er befall you under his care"

The sound that drifted out from the hood was nonco into chaos and strife there Si Here, everything is in order"

Spoken as a survivor of the raid that had taken place in this sanctuary soht Back on that horrible eve, males froht with them the violence that often existed in their world

Many had died or been hurt--the Primale at the time included

Payne looked back out at the static, lovely horizon--and at once understood the fe, and yet wasn&039;t swayed by it "The order herein is precisely what galls me I would seek to avoid this kind of falsity"

"Can you not leave when you wish?"

"No"

"That is not right"

Payne&039;s eyes shot over to the fe Payne&039;scounter to the Scribe Virgin"

"I love our dearest mother of the race--please do not misunderstand But to be iht I choose to stay herein and ever will--you should be free to go, however"

"I findyou"

No&039;One seemed to recoil under her robes "You must never do that"

" &039;Tis true"

In the silence that followed, Payne recalled her conversation with Layla by the reflecting pool Sae, different twist: Then, Layla had been the one to envy Payne&039;s lack of desire when it came to sex and males Here, it was No&039;One&039;s contentment with inertia that was of value

And &039;round and &039;round we go, Payne thought

Turning her head back to the "view," she regarded the grass with a jaundiced eye Each blade was perfectly forht such that the expanse was less a lawn than a carpet And the result was not gotten by , of course Just as the tulips stood in their beds with everlasting blooms upon their slender stalks and the crocuses were perpetually unfurling and the roses were always fat-headed with petals, so too were there no bugs or weeds or disease

Or growth

Ironic that it appeared to be all cultivated and yet was attended to by no one After all, who needed a gardener when you had a god capable of engineering everything to its best state--and keeping it there

In a way, that made No&039;One a miracle, didn&039;t it That she had been allowed to survive her birth herein and perh she was not perfect

"I don&039;t want this," Payne said "I truly do not"

When there was no comment, she looked over her shoulder and frowned The female had left as she had cos bettered by her careful touch

As a screao mad

Back in Caldwell&039;s farot a shot to have inside the house when the police left at five in the afternoon As they walked out, that bunch of blue unis looked ready not so ain wading through congealing blood for hours&039;ll do that to a guy They locked everything up, put a seal over the front and back doors, andof yellow criot in their cars and drove away

"Let&039;s get in there," she said to the Shadows

De roo to talk, they fanned out, traipsing through the s the humans wouldn&039;t have known to look for

Twentybut dust on the second left them with a whole lot of nada

Darids that were , but they were like reflections in water--and she just couldn&039;t get to the fores

"You hear fro how far up the sole the blood came Onto the leather Great

Trez shook his head "Nope But I can call again"

"Don&039;t bother He otten herdown that license plate already

Standing in the front hall, she looked around the dining room, and then focused on the pitted table that had clearly been used as a cutting board

The O to have to come back for the new recruits They weren&039;t useful hidden like this, because, assu the lockdoorked as hers had with Lash, they couldn&039;t get out of the parallel plane they&039;d been relegated to until they were released

Unless the spell could be called off froer," she said "And see who else shows"

She and the Shadows took up res in the kitchen, pacing around and leaving fresh, bloody footprints on the cracked linoleu to fuck with the level, earnest heads of all those cops

NHP

Not Her Problem

She checked the clock on the wall Measured the es and the liquor bottles and the beer cans Glanced over the tail ends of joints and the talc-y residue of coke lines

Rechecked the clock

Out in the back, the sun seeolden disk was scared of getting skewered by the tree branches