Midnight Wonders

4.2.3. Infants in Their Cradles

Kay opened the door. He looked at Luc.

"Hello," said Luc. In the ensuing silence, "This is the Sycamore."

"I know." Kay looked at the door as if unsure what to do with it. He glanced at Luc again. "Have you eaten yet?"

That had become a familiar question. "Not since arriving," Luc said. It hadn't felt that long.

"I have food," said Kay. He held the door open.

Luc took the invitation. The layout of Kay's room was almost identical to Luc's, but it looked as if someone actually lived there. The wardrobe was half-open (Luc realized just now that Kay had changed, but he still had Luc's tie around his neck; Luc had tied it properly for him before they'd continued on from the stream, and it was still in a proper knot now) and he could see the ghosts of clothes floating inside. The bed was made, but the covers were wrinkled from use. Kay's pouches were sitting on the dresser.

Kay went and sat on the bed. He looked at Luc, who hovered awkwardly in front of the door, unsure what to do with himself. "You can sit." He gestured beside him.

Luc sat. On the bedside table were a piece of bread (it was new, as they had finished the two from the restaurant on the way—or, Luc had; he couldn't remember Kay eating anything at all besides the hazelnuts) and a bowl of what looked like porridge.

Kay gave the bowl to Luc, who stared at it. "I can't eat all of this."

"It's not that much."

"No, but what are you going to eat?" said Luc.

"I already ate."

Luc frowned. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a handful of hazelnuts tangled with peas. "Eat more, then." He put them in Kay's hands.

Kay wordlessly put them on the table.

Luc swirled the wooden spoon in the bowl. The porridge was watery, still warm in his hands. It was rice, little beans dotting the white mush. "Why didn't you tell me we would be stopping at the Sycamore?"

Kay glanced at him. "I said I was going to help you find Cora."

"Well, aren't you?" Luc tasted the porridge. It was unexpectedly sweet. "Are we waiting for someone? To help us through the Yew?"

Kay looked at him again. "No."

Luc blinked. "Oh."

"I wasn't planning to take you there," said Kay, voice very casual, not sounding at all like he was destroying all Luc's faith in him, which was exactly what he was doing. His expression didn't change, either. "I was going to take you here and leave you. Just to get you out of my hands."

The porridge tasted bitter.

"Sorry." Kay was just staring at him with those green, green eyes, and Luc couldn't possibly have normal, proper thoughts or normal, proper emotions.

"You're rather mean," said Luc. It was the silliest thing he could have said. He didn't know why he said it. He was sounding like Pellam, a child.

"I know," said Kay. "As well as a liar."

Luc thought it was unfair that Kay accepted these titles all too easily. It was difficult to be upset at someone who was being so self-deprecating. Well, it was very easy to be upset at someone who was being so self-deprecating, and in fact it probably made him more upset. But it was difficult to show it. "Why?" he said. "You could have just said no."

"Then you would have found someone else to take you to the Yew."

"Yes?" said Luc. "And you wouldn't have to have been bothered."

"The problem is not that I didn't want to take you," Kay said, seeming to choose his words very carefully. Luc wasn't sure why he bothered, since there was not much else he could say that was worse than what he had already said. "I just didn't want you to go to the Yew. I can't let you go to the Yew. You would get lost there, just like your sister."

"That's why you are supposed to be there with me," said Luc. Were? The way things were going it seemed Luc was going to grant Kay's wish for him by going with Emma instead. He would be out of Kay's hands.

"It doesn't matter who you're with," Kay said, finally sounding annoyed. "It matters that you're you. Think about why Cora might be held at the Yew and think about what she has in common with you."

"We're...from outside?" Luc remembered what the pea-pickers had said about the Queen of the Yew and her possessions. "She collects...people from outside?"

"She's the Queen of the Yew," said Kay. "If you go there, do you think she'll let you leave? What could I possibly do? I'm just a knight. Even I have to bow to a queen."

"So...Cora..." Luc could hardly think. "There's no way for her to leave?"

"I couldn't think of one." Kay twisted Luc's tie around his fingers. It couldn't have been a better indicator of a lie.

"But Emma—"

"Emma?" Kay said sharply, looking at him.

"Yes, Emma." Luc figured it might be confusing that he knew Emma when he was from outside and she was not. "I met her. Outside. We have the same commute. Anyway, she knows Cora, too. I told her Cora was missing, and she's here right now to help look for her too. She says she already has a plan; she's just waiting for someone to come."

Kay blinked. "Oh," he said.

"So," said Luc. "I think you must be lying again."

Kay sighed. He stretched out his legs, and Luc stared at his worn boots. They were even more tattered than Luc's old shoes, the threads fraying all over. The laces were threatening to snap, and the leather was so discolored it was hard to tell what it had originally looked like. Kay had gotten Luc new boots but none for himself. "Yes," Kay finally said. "You can do anything if you are clever enough. Emma certainly knows how to slip under the Queen's nose. But..." He paused and sighed again. "I just don't want you to go, and I don't want to go either."

"You said you grew up in the Yew," said Luc.

"And I left it for a reason," said Kay.

The porridge was going cold in Luc's hands. He didn't want to eat anymore. "Then," he said, "you can stay here. I'll go with Emma. You won't stop me, will you?"

"Why would I," said Kay, voice flat. He just sounded...tired. "You will do as you will."

"Then I owe you nothing?" said Luc. "You don't have to help me anymore?"

"You never owed me anything."

"Tell me, then," said Luc.

Kay didn't seem to get it for a moment. Then he said, "All free. It's always been so. And now I am free of you, and you are free of me."

There was a knock on the door. Kay glanced at Luc, then got up and opened it. Luc couldn't see who it was, but he recognized the voice of the man who'd greeted them at the door of the Sycamore. "Is he with you?"

Kay looked at Luc again. "Yes."

The man stuck his head into the room to look at Luc, too. "The King will see you now."

Luc looked at Kay. "What for?"

"For being here," said the man. "Come on, now."

Luc didn't know if he wanted to see the King. But it didn't seem too wise to cross a king, so he got up and went over to the door. He handed Kay back the porridge, which the man looked at curiously. "Thank you," Luc said to Kay, and followed the man out the door.

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