THREE

JAIL BREAK

Well. Ms. Kostyena.”

Aster glanced up from her doodling to regard the woman in the rumpled gray suit who had just come through the door of the interrogation room.

“I don’t know you,” Aster said.

“No, we’ve never met. My name is Lisa Pierce. I’m your lawyer.”

“Nice to meet you,” Aster said. She wrote the name on the already heavily marked paper in front of her in a script she’d learned from her father’s books. “I was wondering if you would ever show up.”

“I’ve had a busy day,” Pierce said, taking the chair across the table from her. “Not enough public defenders to go around.”

“I’m sure,” Aster said. The lawyer looked young, probably no older than her mid-twenties. Her black hair was cut to her shoulders.

“You mind if I ask you a few questions?”

“I’ve already answered a lot of questions,” Aster said. “But sure, go on.”

“The police asked you questions? In here? Without me?”

“That’s affirmative,” Aster said.

“They shouldn’t have done that. Did you ask for a lawyer right away?”

“Yep,” Aster said. She didn’t point out that that had been more than a day ago, and that she had spent most of the intervening time in a cell.

“Okay,” Pierce said. “We’ll see about that.” She opened a folder and leafed through it.

“Until recently, you lived with your father, is that correct?”

“Yes,” Aster said. She tore the paper from the legal pad and added it to the others.

The lawyer noticed. “Did they give you that to write a statement?”

“Probably,” Aster said.

“Is that Russian you’re writing in?”

Aster shrugged.

“You and your father are from Russia, right?” Ms. Pierce said.

“That’s what Dad said,” she replied.

The lawyer frowned, then returned to her notes.

“It says here you went missing a few months ago.”

“I didn’t go missing. Dad sent me to stay with relatives in Boston.”

“A teacher from your school also vanished about the same time, after he and the school counselor paid a visit to your home. The counselor—Ms. Fincher—called in and requested an extended leave of absence. But nobody has seen her for months. Then you returned, and now your father is missing. Is that all correct?”

“That’s what the police told me,” Aster said. “What they haven’t told me is exactly what I’m supposed to be charged with.”

“You aren’t charged with anything,” Pierce said. “But you’re still a minor. Your father is missing, along with two other people last seen headed toward your house on the day you—went out of town. I think they’re concerned about you.”

“Concerned?”

“There are rumors that your father was involved in the Russian mafia. That he came here to hide out.”

“I see,” Aster said. “So I’m here for my own protection?”

“I think the police see it that way, yes. Is there some other way to see it?”

“Sure,” Aster said. “My father is a sorcerer. He’s under a curse, and he can’t remember anything for more than about fifteen minutes. He still thinks I’m nine. I went off to another world to try and find a cure for him. While I was gone, someone came here, tricked him into believing she was me, and took him away. I guess he took Ms. Fincher with him. Mr. Watkins, the teacher, he was a sort of spook who liked to do nasty things with young girls that wound up with them dead, and he basically got what was coming to him, so he won’t be back no matter what. Does that cover it?”

The lawyer frowned. “There’s no need to be sarcastic, young lady. I’m sure you’re scared, and you’re just acting out, but I’m here to help you.”

Aster leaned forward.

“Can I tell you a secret?” she asked.

“What?”

“I don’t need your help. And you didn’t close the door all the way.”

She picked up the last piece of paper. “Lisa Pierce,” she read.

“What—”

That was as much as she got out. The paper flew out of Aster’s hands and stuck to Ms. Pierce’s face. Aster quickly read the names on the other sheets, standing up as they, too, sailed off. She hurried past the eight employees of the sheriff’s office, including the sheriff, who were all now—like Ms. Pierce—grasping at their faces, their shouts of surprise and panic muffled by the yellow legal-pad pages plastered across their features. She stopped only to collect her backpack from the receptionist and then was out the front in the heat of the evening.

She nearly ran headlong into Veronica.

“This saves me some trouble,” Veronica said. “I was coming to bust you out.”

“I told you to keep out of sight,” Aster said.

“You did,” Veronica acknowledged. “But Errol is gone, and I thought we’d best go look for him.”

“Gone?” Aster said. “What do you mean, gone?”

Veronica looked over her shoulder at the sheriff’s office. The commotion inside was getting louder.

“Maybe I should tell you later?”

“Follow me,” Aster said.

Veronica did explain, on the way. How she had seen Errol the night before, but when she went tonight he hadn’t been there. How she had snooped around and heard one of the guards joking about how some girl on PCP or something had beaten up three guards and a psychiatrist before busting out of the place, taking Errol with her. A crazy girl with a star on her forehead.

“I thought it might be you,” Veronica said.

“Not me,” Aster said. “Dusk. Or another relative of mine, maybe.”

“There was more about it in the paper today,” Veronica said. “It said there was also a break-in at the carousel in Threefoot Park. That’s close to Laurel Grove, and the police think there’s a connection.”

By that time, they were across town and it was well past midnight. Police cars were on the prowl, but it was a simple matter to hide in the shadows and do a Whimsy of Secreting.

“The carousel,” Aster said. “That might be a way through the Pale—to the Marchlands.”

“You mean, like where you found me,” Veronica said.

“Yes. There are lots of ways into the Marchlands, if you have the power. But most of them are dead-ends or go off to pointless places. The trick is finding one that goes through to the Kingdoms.”

“You think Dusk kidnapped Errol and spirited him off to the Kingdoms?”

“It might not have been Dusk,” Aster cautioned. “If she and I have the same birthmark, there are probably others. Maybe everybody from wherever I’m from has one.”

“But why would they want Errol?”

“I don’t know,” Aster said. “But I’m going to find out.”