Page 42 of By the Orchid and the Owl
Here, dozens of desks sat against the walls, stocked with papers and fountain pens. I grabbed one of each and stared at the blank piece of paper.
What to write him? How to word it so that no one besides Fabian—and Don—could understand what I was asking if it happened to get intercepted?
As I was tapping the pen against my chin, a small voice squeaked,“What are you doing up so early?”
I followed the voice to the windowsill, where a mouse perched on the ledge.
“Writing a letter,” I said, too surprised to think of anything but the truth. Why was I surprised, though? This was my new normal, wasn’t it?
“I wish I could write letters,” the mouse said, rather mournfully for such a squeaky little thing.
“Really?” I couldn’t help but let myself get wrapped up in this conversation. “Do you have friends or family far away? Perhaps I can send a message for you.”
“No,” said the mouse, “all my friends and family live in the walls with me. But if I had hands to write a letter, I’d have hands to grab all the cheese in the cupboards.”
“Oh.” That wasn’t what I’d been expecting. I returned to contemplating my letter, until the mouse scrambled closer, stopping at the head of my paper.
“I could help you word your letter if you get me some cheese from the kitchen.”
I blinked at it. “Thank you… so much. But this is rather a private letter…”
The mouse blinked back at me. “Private?I can’t imagine why you’re doing it so early in the morning, but aren’t you writing to your father Fabian to find out more about your heritage? Or am I mistaken?”
My mouth fell wide open. I dropped my pen.
“How did you know that?”
The mouse cheeped its equivalent of a scoff.
“Wemice hear everything that goes on between every house’s walls. We just don’t sell that information like those horrible eight-legged beasts do.” It shuddered. “But it’s a good thing you told Coen Steeler to communicate with you via mind from now on, because my friends and family can’t be there every time to kill the spiders listening in on your secrets.”
When I continued to gawk at the mouse, its tail twitched.
“We killed them for you,”it said slowly, as if it thought I might be stupid, “three bold jumpers, one woodlouse, and a crab spider. That monster from the Good Council sent them to spy on Mr. Steeler, but they usually never catch anything of importance because he’s always spoken to his other friends mind-to-mind about important matters. Last night was the first night they learned anything of substance. But we killed them before they could scuttle away and report anything.”
Still, I gawked, even as the horrifying realization swelled inside me.
Dyonisia Reeve suspected Coen… of what, though? Did she know he and his friends had come from beyond the island’s shield? Or did she simply suspect him of hiding a deeper magic than his bascite-granted Mind Manipulating one?
And another thing—I’d thought Dyonisia was a Shape Shifter, not a Wild Whisperer. Unless… maybe she had such a tight grip on the other Good Council elites that she’d asked one of them to send spider spies for her and translate their findings.
“What’s your name?” I asked the mouse finally.
“Willa,” it replied promptly. A female, then.
“Well, Willa, I will give you cheese every day of your life if you help me with this letter—and alert me to any suspicious spiders creeping in for a closer listen. You don’t have to kill them. Just tell me if they’re there.”
Willa didn’t even pause to consider.
“Deal.Now, here’s what I want you to write.”
Half an hour later, after finishing the letter to Fabian and sneaking into the kitchen for some cheese, I finally started outside for my morning walk—to the Element Wielder house down the street.
I had exactly three tasks left for today: find a bird to send the letter for me, see if I could talk to Quinn, and catch a crab for my crocodile friend in the swamp (calling him a friend helped with the nerves.)
Three tasks. If I did it right, I didn’t see why I couldn’t merge them into one.
So on my way to Quinn’s house, I threw my head skyward, where gray clouds were stirring. “Hey, you!” I cried to some neon green honeycreepers chasing each other above the rooftops. “Can one of you come down here for a second? I have a question.”
