Page 99 of The Whispering Night
“Erica,” she tries to tell Ms. Morgan. “She’s been taken by a Diana Crow, and we need tofindher.” But of course, that isn’t what crawls off Winnie’s tongue. “The sadhuzag is a rare but massive stag with seventy-four antler prongs and razor-sharp hooves.”
Ms. Morgan stiffens. “Winnie—are you okay?” She slips a hand behind Winnie’s back. “Oh gosh, you’re so cold. Come on. We need to warm up.” She pushes unsteadily to her feet, hauling Winnie with her. Water pours off them.
They are both shaking.
Which is the only reason Winnie lets herself get carted into the Floating Carnival. Her sopping clothes leave a trail through the fairy-lit avenues. Her teeth chatter. Her lungs quake. And her left ankle hurts with each step. It’s the same one she twisted on her first trial a month ago.
As for her hands, they’re so cold, she can’t feel the small gashes scraped across them.
Next to her, Ms. Morgan’s scorpion armor squeaks and drips. “That’s Mason’s gear, isn’t it,” Winnie says. A statement, not a question.
And Ms. Morgan nods. “There are some perks to dating the LeadTuesday Hunter.” She offers a weak laugh, but when Winnie doesn’t return it, she sighs. “Mason told me you were arrested, Winnie, and since then, I’ve been doing everything I could to find you.” She gives a full-body shudder now. Then tugs Winnie along faster. “I’m sorry I couldn’t help sooner.”
Winnie compresses her lips. None of this makes sense. No matter how hard Winnie glares at it, she can’t find a cipher to decrypt it all. “What about Erica? Were you trying to help her too, Ms. Morgan?”
“Leona.” Another nervous laugh. “Call me Leona. And no—I didn’t know about Erica. Was she arrested too?”
Winnie shakes her head. Both as an answer to Ms. Morgan’s question and as a refusal to call herLeona. Because right now, Winnie needs to cling to something familiar.This lady is named Ms. Morgan. She teaches me English at the high school. She moved here from outside Hemlock Falls because she met Mason Tuesday and fell in love. My own aunt vetted her…
Oh god.
“Wait a minute.” Now Winnie skids to a halt. Water drip-drips around her. “My aunt vetted you. I know she did becauseyoutold me that years ago. So how did Rachel not catch that you were a Diana?”
“Oh, she knew.” Ms. Morgan swats a seaweed-like tendril of hair from her face. “Your auntdefinitelyknew. But sometimes Luminaries are willing to look past a person’s origins. After all, it’s not only Dianas who recruit Luminaries. The conscription can go both ways. But look. We can find clothes over there.” She points at the Kelpie Carousel fifty paces away. Its wooden nightmares are wrapped in shadows; only a string of green lights runs in loops around the top.
Winnie can’t decide if the absence of calliope music makes it more creepy or less.
Beyond the carousel is what Ms. Morgan actually points to: a souvenir shop lit by blue bulbs, where—in addition to stuffed toy kelpies—you can also buy T-shirts.
Ms. Morgan grabs two shirts as soon as they scurry in. They’re both long-sleeve and navy blue, with the wordsGone Fishingwritten over a swirly, vortex lake with a massive eye opening at the center.
Whichwow,that’s some peak Luminaries humor, right there.Let’s joke about the sleeping spirit waking up! You know, the one thing we never wantto happen in Hemlock Falls or anywhere else and the one thing Dianas do want!
A Diana like the one standing next to Winnie and stripping off her upper layers of stolen armor. Winnie’s fingers close into a fist around the shirt. “When you say ‘defected,’ what does that mean? That you don’t want this anymore?” She shakes the shirt at Ms. Morgan.
“Yes,” Ms. Morgan replies, her head stuck halfway inside the shirt as she tries to find the neck hole. “It means that I don’t want to wake up the sleeping spirit and free all its magic into the world. Though to be honest”—her head finally pokes through—“that’s notreallywhat Dianas want either. Or at least they don’t want it because they’re wicked and power-hungry.”
Winnie blinks, an old quote coming to mind fromUnderstanding Sourcesby Theodosia Monday:Both carnivores and herbivores are essential for a healthy ecosystem, and this author posits that so too are our disparate societies of Dianas and Luminaries. The question however is: Which society is the predator? And which society is the prey?
Winnie peels off her soaked hoodie, then her soaked T-shirt too. She forgets to remove her glasses; they clatter to the floor—overloud in this horror film.
And Winnie swears she can hear Erica as if she’s right there.Oh Jesus, you looksomuch worse now, Winona. You need a shower.
Winnie swallows. Then sticks her tongue between her teeth so they won’t start clicking. She’s still freezing, even after she tows on the Gone Fishing T-shirt. Ms. Morgan, meanwhile, crooks down and retrieves Winnie’s glasses. She offers them to Winnie, pasting on a smile that can only be described asConcerned Adult.
Winnie takes her glasses, but doesn’t smile back.
Ms. Morgan sighs again. Then shivers. “I… think Archie sells sweatshirts, so let’s go there next.”
And then what?Winnie wants to ask.Then where the hell are we going to go? Where amIgoing to go?Dad’s trail has ended in nothing. No pot at the end of the rainbow; no missing father to jump out of a shadow and say,You did it, Winnie! You won the prize and you found me!
She doesn’t know where the Crow went. She doesn’t know where Erica is. She doesn’t know where the Whisperer will reappear next, or if Jay will again be inside that supermassive black hole that feasts on galaxies.
So Winnie follows Ms. Morgan out of the gift shop. One wet foot in front of the other. Her cracked glasses distort the carnival. They turn the full-moon Ferris wheel into a Wheel of Fortune.Pick your nightmare, spin the wheel! Or you’ll end up as your boyfriend’s meal!
The wheel doesn’t turn at this hour, but it does glow. Carts drift and wobble on the breeze. It is beautiful—which only makes Winnie want to laugh. To clap her hands and say,Oh boy, you sure had me fooled, you liars!
How could she ever believe the lights of downtown were honest? That it was bioluminescence creating photons in the depths?
