Kingdom of Cages(122)

She felt like she could have floated all the way up to the house. As it was, she settled for running. By the time she threw open the door, she was completely breathless, but still grinning.

“Nan? Teal?” she called as she passed through the workroom. “You are not going to believe what almost happened—” She pushed through the door to the living room and froze.

Nan Elle sat alone in the room on a padded stool. Her wrinkled hands rested on her stick. Her face was grim, somewhere between sorrow and anger. All Chena’s triumph drained out of her.

“What happened?” she croaked.

Nan Elle lifted her chin slowly, as if she were just making up her mind to speak. “Your sister’s gone.”

“What?” Then, the words sank in and made sense in her mind. “No. How? She didn’t get sick?” Nan Elle shook her head. The only other possibility dropped into Chena’s thoughts. She took one shaking step forward. “You didn’t let the hothousers take her! You said we would be safe with you.”

“No,” said Nan Elle, shaking her head again. “The hothouse did not take her. She’s run away.”

Chena tried to say, That’s ridiculous, or She’d never do that! She’d never leave me! But all the words jammed in her throat.

“I tracked her to Stem.” Nan Elle snorted. “That wasn’t hard. Where else is there to go from here?” She muttered this more to herself than to Chena. “But from there?” The old woman shrugged her skinny shoulders.

“But she can’t have just… run,” stammered Chena. “I mean… why would she?”

In answer, Nan Elle held up a piece of paper. It had been folded in half. Chena snatched it out of her fingers and flipped it open.

Inside, in Teal’s shaky writing, was scrawled, I’M GETTING OUT.

“No.” Chena’s knees shook and she groped for a stool. “Teal, you idiot! You terminal idiot!” She screamed the words, as if they could reach her, as if she knew where Teal was.

The paper crumpled in her hand. “Okay, okay.” Chena took a deep breath, gesturing to cut Nan Elle off although she hadn’t said anything. “We’ve got to find her. Farin knows everybody in Stem. She’s—”

“No,” said Nan Elle softly.

“What?” demanded Chena. “She’s my sister! I’m responsible!” She thinks she can make Dad come back and care about us. She’s sixteen! How can she still believe that shit? How air-brained is she?

“She is gone, Chena.” Nan Elle took the paper from Chena’s hand. “She wanted to go and she left. We must let her go.”

“No!” Both her hands knotted into fists. “She is my sister! I am not letting her go!”

Nan Elle took a deep breath now and gripped her stick a little more tightly. “You are going to have to, Chena. She left the day after you did. I have been searching for her for over a week. She could be anywhere in the world, especially if she went to that tailor the way she had planned. She may even have really managed to get back up to your station. I cannot find her.” Chena heard the bitterness in her voice, anger at her own failure.

Chena felt her chest clench. Her eyes stung and she couldn’t seem to hear properly. Her mind filled with blood, blood and loss and fear.

Nan Elle looked up at her. “I swear to you, I did try.” For a moment she looked a thousand years old. “I was afraid she might simply run, so I took what I could find of her money to keep her here. But it did not work.” She rubbed her forehead. “I even contacted Administrator Tam, but I have had no word from him.”

The words broke a dam inside Chena and she began to cry: huge violent sobs that shook her whole body and drove her to her knees. She curled in on herself until her head rested on Nan Elle’s lap. Teal was gone. Teal had left her all alone. She had tried so hard. Everything she had done, and Teal, stupid, vapor-brained, selfish, precious Teal, had still gone away and left her alone.

“That’s right, Chena.” Nan Elle stroked her hair. “You cry. You cry, and let her go.”

She heard the words from a distance. Ringing in her ears, she really heard Teal’s voice, saying, We have to go get Dad now. Why can’t we tell Dad?

Teal, I’m so sorry, she thought with all the strength she had, trying to force the thought out into the whole wide world. I should have tried harder. Please, come back and let me tell you I’m sorry.

But there was no answer.





CHAPTER THIRTEEN





Discovered





TEAL TRUST HAS FOUND A NEW TAILOR IN STEM.

Tam ran his palm across his hand display, wiping out the message instantly. The walls of his private alcove seemed to have grown eyes and it took him a moment to shake that feeling. At the same time, he silently thanked Nan Elle for taking the risk of using the convoluted web of communication connections they had mapped to get the message to him. News of a new tailor in Stem meant a new lead in his long search.