Chapter 4: The Court on the Lawn

By eight o'clock the church crowd had stopped on the road to watch.

Half of Tamarack Hollow stood along our fence in their Sunday clothes.

The other half of the show was on our lawn, standing on Mom's asters in black coats.

There were thirty Abyss lords and ladies, and they made a ring around the porch steps.

Cassian walked out of the barn in a dead man's overalls and went straight through the middle of them.

Not one of them said a word about the overalls.

A few of them looked like they wanted to.

I came up behind him and stopped at the foot of the steps, because there was nowhere left to go.

Mom stood at my shoulder with the shotgun hanging at her side.

Odile came up through the ring and held out the thermos.

"Coffee," she said to Cassian. "Sweet, the way you like it. You've been out all night."

"Thank you, Odile."

He took it, but he was looking at me.

A lord stepped out of the ring then, tall and gray as old ash, with a silver collar at his throat.

He was the Regent's brother, and the whole court went quiet for him.

"My prince," he said. "We came as soon as the gate told us you were loose."

"You're early," said Cassian.

"We wished to see the creature for ourselves." The lord turned his long face toward me. "The one who sold you."

A murmur went around the lawn.

Mom's hand tightened on the gun, and I put my own hand over hers.

"She has the paper," a lady said from the ring. "Show us her seal."

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