All this occurred to me in the time it took for the room to turn upside down and my knees to go out from under me, and for everything to fade into pulsing, velvety black.
* * *
I awoke on the floor with my hands tied to the cooking range. The girl was pacing nervously and appeared to be having an animated conversation with herself. I kept my eyes most of the way shut and listened.
“He must be a wight,” she was saying. “Why else would he have been snooping around the old house like a burglar?”
“I haven’t the slightest idea,” someone else said, “but neither, it seems, does he.” So she wasn’t talking to herself, after all—though from where I was lying, I couldn’t see the young man who’d spoken. “You say he didn’t even realize he was in a loop?”
“See for yourself,” she said, gesturing toward me. “Can you imagine any relative of Abe’s being so perfectly clueless?”
“Can you imagine a wight?” said the young man. I turned my head slightly, scanning the room, but still I didn’t see him.
“I can imagine a wight faking it,” the girl replied.
The dog, awake now, trotted over and began to lick my face. I squeezed my eyes shut and tried to ignore it, but the tongue bath he gave me was so slobbery and gross that I finally had to sit up just to rescue myself.
“Well, look who’s up!” the girl said. She clapped her hands, giving me a sarcastic round of applause. “That was quite the performance you gave earlier. I particularly enjoyed the fainting. I’m sure the theater lost a fine actor when you chose to devote yourself instead to murder and cannibalism.”
I opened my mouth to protest my innocence—and stopped when I noticed a cup floating toward me.
“Have some water,” the young man said. “Can’t have you dying before we get you back to the headmistress, now can we?”
His voice seemed to come from the empty air. I reached for the cup, and as my pinky brushed an unseen hand, I nearly dropped it.
“He’s clumsy,” the young man said.
“You’re invisible,” I replied dumbly.
“Indeed. Millard Nullings, at your service.”
“Don’t tell him your name!” the girl cried.
“And this is Emma,” he continued. “She’s a bit paranoid, as I’m sure you’ve gathered.”
Emma glared at him—or at the space I imagined him to occupy—but said nothing. The cup shook in my hand. I began another fumbling attempt to explain myself but was interrupted by angry voices from outside the window.
“Quiet!” Emma hissed. Millard’s footsteps moved to the window, and the blinds parted an inch.
“What’s happening?” asked Emma.
“They’re searching the houses,” he replied. “We can’t stay here much longer.”
“Well, we can’t very well go out there!”
“I think perhaps we can,” he said. “Just to be certain, though, let me consult my book.” The blinds fell closed again and I saw a small leather-bound notebook rise from a table and crack open in midair. Millard hummed as he flipped the pages. A minute later he snapped the book shut.
“As I suspected!” he said. “We have only to wait a minute or so and then we can walk straight out the front door.”
“Are you mad?” Emma said. “We’ll have every one of those knuckle-draggers on us with brick bats!”
“Not if we’re less interesting than what’s about to happen,” he replied. “I assure you, this is the best opportunity we’ll have for hours.”
I was untied from the range and led to the door, where we crouched, waiting. Then came a noise from outside even louder than the men’s shouting: engines. Dozens, by the sound of it.
“Oh! Millard, that’s brilliant!” cried Emma.
He sniffed. “And you said my studies were a waste of time.”
Emma put her hand on the doorknob and then turned to me. “Take my arm. Don’t run. Act like nothing’s the matter.” She put away her knife but assured me that if I tried to escape I’d see it again—just before she killed me with it.
“How do I know you won’t anyway?”
She thought for a moment. “You don’t.” And then she pushed open the door.
* * *
The street outside was thronged with people, not only the men from the pub, whom I spotted immediately just down the block, but grim-faced shopkeepers and women and cart drivers who’d stopped what they were doing to stand in the middle of the road and crane their heads toward the sky. There, not far overhead, a squadron of Nazi fighter planes was roaring by in perfect formation. I’d seen photos of planes like these at Martin’s museum, in a display titled “Cairnholm under Siege.” How strange it must be, I thought, to find yourself, in the midst of an otherwise unremarkable afternoon, suddenly in the shadow of enemy death machines that could rain fire down upon you at a moment’s notice.
We crossed the street as casually as possible, Emma clutching my arm in a death grip. We nearly made it to the alley on the other side before someone finally noticed us. I heard a shout and we turned to see the men start after us.
We ran. The alley was narrow and lined with stables. We’d covered half its length when I heard Millard say, “I’ll hang back and trip them up! Meet me behind the pub in precisely five and a half minutes!”
His footsteps fell away behind us, and when we’d reached the end of the alley Emma stopped me. We looked back to see a length of rope uncoil itself and float across the gravel at ankle height. It pulled taut just as the mob reached it, and they went sprawling over it and into the mud, a tangled heap of flailing limbs. Emma let out a cheer, and I was almost certain I could hear Millard laughing.
We ran on. I didn’t know why Emma had agreed to meet Millard at the Priest Hole, since it was in the direction of the harbor, not the house. But since I also couldn’t explain how Millard had known exactly when those planes were going to fly over, I didn’t bother asking. I was even more baffled when, instead of sneaking around the back, any hope of our passing undetected was dashed by Emma pushing me right through the front door.
There was no one inside but the bartender. I turned and hid my face.
“Barman!” Emma said. “When’s the tap open round here? I’m thirsty as a bloody mermaid!”
He laughed. “I ain’t in the custom of servin’ little girls.”
“Never mind that!” she cried, slapping her hand on the bar. “Pour me a quadruple dram of your finest cask-strength whiskey. And none of that frightful watered-down piss you generally serve!”
I began to get the feeling she was just messing around—taking the piss, I should say—trying to one-up Millard and his rope-across-the-alley trick.
The bartender leaned across the bar. “So it’s the hard stuff yer wantin’, is it?” he said, grinning lecherously. “Just don’t let your mum and dad hear, or I’ll have the priest and constable after me both.” He fetched a bottle of something dark and evil looking and began pouring her a tumbler full. “What about your friend, here? Drunk as a deacon already, I suppose?”