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So o ho stones, and when Mo dragged away the soldier who had been holding her, the man’s eyes still seemed to stare at her Was she sorry for him? No

But it sent a shiver down her spine to hear her daughter, too, speak so casually of killing And what did Mo feel about it? Did he feel anything any the blood off his sith one of the deadher way Why couldn’t she read his thoughts in his eyes now, as she used to?

Because it was the Bluejay she saw there And this time she had summoned him herself

The walk to the dye works see up the sky, and they twice had to hide from a troop of drunken soldiers, but finally the acrid smell of the dyers’ vats rose to their nostrils Resa covered her mouth and nose with her sleeve when they came to the strearating in the city wall, and as she followed Mo into the stinking liquid she felt so sick that she could hardly take a deep enough breath to plunge down under the grating herself

As the Black Prince helped her to the bank she saw one of the dead guards lying a the bushes The blood on his chest looked like ink in the starless night, and Resa began crying She couldn’t stop, not even when they finally reached the river and washed the stinking water out of their hair and clothes as best they could

Two robbers aiting with horses farther along the bank, at the place where the river-ny on the flat rocks by the waterside Doria was there, too, without his brother, the Strong Man He put his shabby cloak around Meggie’s shoulders when he saet she was Mo helped Resa into the saddle, but still said not a word His silence made her shiver more than her wet clothes, and it was the Black Prince and not Mo who brought her a blanket Had Mo told the Prince what she had gone to do in Ombra? No, surely not

How could he have explained without telling hiie knehy she had ridden to Ombra, too Resa saw it in her eyes They atchful--as if her daughter ondering uneasily what she would do next

Suppose Meggie learned that she’d even asked Orpheus for help? Would she understand that the only reason had been Resa’s fears for her father?

It was beginning to rain as they set off The wind drove the icy raindrops into their faces, and above the castle the sky glowed dark red, as if Sootbird were sending a warning after them Doria fell behind on the Prince’s orders, to obliterate their tracks, and Mo rode ahead in silence When he looked around once his glance was for Meggie, not her, and Resa was thankful for the rain on her face that kept anyone fro her tears

CHAPTER 20

A SLEEPLESS NIGHT

"I‘m sorry" Resa meant it

I’ain, but Mo sensed what she was really thinking behind her words: She was a captive again Capricorn’s fortress, his village in the ht, soher prisoner, the same book that had imprisoned her once before And when she’d tried to escape, he had brought her back

"I’m sorry, too," he said He said it as often as she did and knew that she aiting to hear very different words Very well, let’s go back, Resa We’ll find a way soave rise to a silence they had never known, even when Resa was h the sky was growing lighter outside, exhausted by the fear they had both felt and by what they didn’t say to each other

Resa fell asleep quickly, and as he looked at her sleeping face he reed to do just that: see her asleep beside hiht him no peace now and at last he left Resa alone with her dreaht, passed the guards, who ribbed hi to his clothes, and walked through the narrow ravine where they had set up cah, the Inkworld would whisper to him and tell him what to do