A Change of Heart

Obscenely Early on Tuesday March 9, 1490

Athens was burning with Plague and with Hearth-flame. From a few streets away, Astera called frantically, "Marina! Marina!" Blind panic impelled me towards her, but bonfires leaped across my path and erased her from view. Now Thoren shouted from the opposite direction, "Marina! Over here!" and I whirled to see him battling a fire elemental. It engulfed him in fiery tentacles and I screamed and screamed but no sound came out. "Reckless Criamoni, you've killed everyone," hissed Vanessa's voice from all around me. Suddenly, the bonfires turned into the Bonisagi who had died in the Hearth. "You've killed us all," they crackled, and they surrounded me, ringing me tighter and tighter — my hem caught fire — my skin began to blister —

And I burst awake on a silent shriek, with the conviction that something was horribly wrong. Across the dark room, Ynez was already flinging off her blanket and shoving her feet into her slippers. Giving Timo a frantic pet and command to stay (which he seemed disinclined to disobey anyway at 3:00 in the morning), I pelted after her into the yard, nearly colliding headlong with Tel, who rounded the corner from the library without looking.

Ghallim and the other mice conversed in tense undertones by the entrance to the Hearth, the children huddled in a miserable, terrified clump. When Ghallim saw us, he said flatly, "It's Sy."

My heart stopped for one split second with a physical pang. Oh Sy, mischievous, laughing Sy whose wild imprint lay all over the Forgotten Orphanage — in the kitchen where he sped in and out to steal snacks, giggling as he dodged Mother Doria and Calla; in the laundry room where he stole our dresses to use as costumes in the plays he and Helen organized; in the classroom where he passed around little notes that convulsed us all, even me, with laughter right at the height of Astera's lecture. The orphanage and I could have borne the loss of Ashton, I thought — and hated myself for my bias — but not of Sy. Never of Sy. His absence would be a pain that would never fade.

"Oh, my God, no," Ynez breathed.

A reluctant Gordon semi-detached himself from the little huddle of mice and explained unhappily, "He has to sneak out because he's a street urchin, and to stay here would be a denial of his very nature. We're warned him over and over to be careful...but he must have gotten caught."

"My God," repeated Ynez.

Ghallim told us grimly, "He's not in the mind link anymore."

In a voice that was barely more than a whimper, Lil clarified, "It's like when Ashton broke off." At her words, Helen clung even tighter to Jamie, who looked suddenly ancient. All of the mice bore the faces of those who had been braced for the news of a loved one's death, and were simultaneously devastated and relieved that it had come.

"We'll find him. All of you — hide in the caves," our Prima commanded, and they obeyed immediately, their alacrity betraying their gladness that they need not risk the same fate by searching for him. Once they had vanished, Ynez regarded the rest of us unhappily and said slowly, "I hate to suggest it, but we should start at the Church of Panagia Kapnikarea."

Through numb lips, I squeaked out, "You think the Inquisition got him?" It was what we'd dreaded since the day Zoe and her commandos entered the city.

Ynez only shrugged helplessly, but Ghallim, who had been prowling around the edges of the orphanage tracking Sy, seconded her. "Ashton and I agree. We found signs zat 'e went zat way."

For once without any further discussion, our little rescue mission set off into the city, proceeding at an agonizingly slow pace to match Ynez's limp. If I summoned a wind disk, Mel would probably kill Sy in retaliation, but Cly wouldn't taint her hands by interfering with the flow of history. "Tel, can you speed us up?" I asked.