The Inn District was very different from the other parts of Skye. For one thing, it was full of flowers. Real flowers, not stone. Everywhere, there were flowers in gardens and planters, their blossoms closed for the night. Mayka knew many of them were out of season, but they’d been grown here anyway. Trees with blossoms lined the sidewalks, and their petals coated the hardened dirt street.
By now, the stars were scattered all over the sky, but there were still so many people in the streets that it was easy to blend into the crowd. We need to find the Marble Inn before our luck gives out, Mayka thought. And hope that Ilery is there, not roving around like everyone else.
In Mayka’s arms, Jacklo fidgeted. “Are you sure we can trust her?”
She wasn’t sure of much, except that they had very few options left, in a city full of people who were hostile to stone, with a stonemason actively searching for her. But her instincts said they could trust Ilery.
“I’m sure we need a place to hide for the night.”
The Marble Inn was up ahead. Carved out of white and rose marble, the inn was three stories tall, with pillars sculpted to look like trees. I hope I’m right about her, and I hope she meant her invitation. For all Mayka knew, Ilery befriended everyone she saw and didn’t mean any of it. Mayka hadn’t made enough friends to know what was real and what wasn’t.
Walking up the steps, she stopped at the door, unsure what she was supposed to do.
She didn’t have to decide—the door swung open, and a stone badger stood on his hind legs in the doorway. He was carved out of dust-gray marble, with onyx eyes and claws. But while her friend Badger was an exquisite replica of a flesh badger, this badger was carved with every feature exaggerated: his eyes were bulbous, his claws blunt, his body polished smooth instead of painstakingly carved to resemble fur. “Welcome to the Marble Inn! Rooms available to let.”
Mayka shot a look back to where Risa perched on another building. She’d stay hidden with the flesh-and-feather birds and keep watch, in case Master Siorn showed up.
As they entered, the badger stared at Mayka. “I didn’t know any of the stonemasons had begun making people.”
“I’m a rare case.”
The badger peered closer and noticed Jacklo in her arms. He squinted at the bird, squinching his stone face until his eyes nearly disappeared in folds of marble. “You’re all stone. This is unusual, especially after curfew. Where’s your keeper?”
Slipping past him into the lobby, Mayka pretended she didn’t hear the question. “We’re looking for someone who’s staying here. A girl named Ilery?”
“I can check the guest list. One moment.” The badger waddled inside and hopped himself up onto a stool. He flipped through a ledger and ran his claws lightly over a row of marks.
“You can read?” Mayka asked, watching his lips move as he scanned the ledger. After Garit and Master Siorn’s reaction, she’d thought she was the only one.
“Contrary to the opinion of some, stone creatures can be quite intelligent and capable.” He sounded miffed. “Ilery . . . Ilery . . .” He ran his claw down the ledger. “She is checked in.”
Yes! She shot a look out at the street again. No Master Siorn, and no guards. “Where can I find her?”
He closed the ledger. “I’m sorry, but my keepers do not want me to share room numbers with nonguests. She is at this inn, but that is the most information I’m allowed to give you. You could leave a message for her, if you’d like.”
Mayka tried not to slump. So close! she thought. And it was such a good idea.
The badger was peering at them again, leaning so close that his nose almost touched Jacklo’s tailfeathers. “If you don’t mind me asking, which stonemason carved you?”
Mayka hesitated. Could she trust anyone here? I refuse to think of everyone as an enemy.
Before she could answer, Jacklo piped up. “We were made by our father, Master Kyn, the best stonemason who ever lived.”
The badger blinked. “It was said that all of Master Kyn’s works were destroyed. It was also said that he carved birds who could fly.”
She wondered what else he knew about Father. “You know about him?”
“Everyone knows about him! He was a hero. As the bird said, he was the greatest stonemason who ever lived. I assume you’ve seen the mural? The mural doesn’t tell the whole story—it was done by stonemasons, and they have a skewed view of the past. On one thing we all agree, though: because of him, there is peace in the valley.”
“What is the whole story?” Mayka asked. She glanced at the window again—they were safely inside at least, and Risa was keeping watch. She could take a moment for a story, especially one about Father. And maybe while he talks, I’ll think of a way to reach Ilery.
“A group of stonemasons were working to enslave our kind, make us fight their battles. They pitted us against one another, for wealth, for land, for power. But Master Kyn believed this was wrong. We should not be fighting their wars. We are creatures of peace! And so he carved a giant stone dragon and marched him into Skye to defeat the corrupt stonemasons.”
She thought of Master Siorn’s version of this story. “I heard he used an obedience mark, and that the stone creatures were attacking the flesh-and-blood people.”
“Bah! You’ve been talking to stonemasons. No, Master Kyn was a friend to stone. He’d never compel our kind to obey. Such a mark is a myth, and certainly nothing he needed.”
Jacklo chirped. “See! I never doubted Father.”
She felt as if her stone knees had weakened. I knew it! Father wasn’t like Master Siorn.
“He was noble, but many stonemasons were not. Unbeknownst to him, the evil stonemasons had kidnapped his wife and daughter and placed them in the city. When the city was destroyed in the great battle, so were his wife and daughter. He was, unwittingly, responsible for their deaths. It was a terrible tragedy.”
Poor Father. She wished he’d told her about them. He’d hid his sorrow inside.
Si-Si sniffled. “Oh, that’s so sad!”
“But he was victorious nonetheless. The evil stonemasons were stopped, their work destroyed, and everyone—stone and flesh—was saved. Master Kyn himself helped write the laws to keep stonemasons from ever achieving so much power again. All was not perfect, of course. He could not eliminate all his enemies, and before they were at last caught, they destroyed every bit of his work they could find, including his great dragon, and he was forced to flee for his life. There are tales that say he destroyed his creations himself to keep them from falling into the wrong hands, but I don’t believe that for a moment. He’d never destroy the creatures he loved.”
I don’t believe it either, Mayka thought.
“But all tales agree he left the valley. Some say he died. Some say he lives on.”
“He did die,” Mayka said quietly. “But not for many years.”
“You truly knew him?” the badger asked. “He was the greatest hero we’ve ever had, among both stone and flesh. What happened to him?”
“He made himself a new family,” Mayka said, “and he was happy.”
The badger sighed. “That’s lovely. If I could cry, I would. Thank you for sharing that with me. In return for that news . . .” Lowering his voice to a whisper, he said, “Room thirty-three. Up the stairs. Third floor.”
“Thank you!” Mayka said.
She climbed the stairs two at a time until she reached the third floor. Sconces on the wall had already been lit, and she read the numbers on the doors easily. “Here it is.”
“Are you sure about this, Mayka?” Jacklo whispered.
“Yes,” Mayka said. “There are good humans. Father and Garit prove that. Don’t let one bad man make you scared of people. Don’t change that much, Jacklo—your story isn’t about distrust.” Cradling Jacklo in one arm, she knocked on the door with her other hand. She waited, listening, and heard footsteps shuffling toward the door. Si-Si ducked behind her.
“One minute!” a cheerful voice called.
The door opened to reveal Ilery. She was grinning as widely as she had when they first met, but she’d changed clothes. She now wore billowing purple pants, a blouse with a star on it, and several strands of necklaces. If it weren’t for the smile, Mayka wouldn’t have recognized her at all—she’d forgotten that flesh people could so easily change their outsides.
But the second she spoke, it was clear this was Ilery. She flung her arms open, as full of enthusiasm as before. “Oh! Mayka, Si-Si, you came! And you found your friend!”
Mayka smiled. “We did. May we come in?”
“Of course! I’m so glad you’re here. It’s been so boring cooped up here while my parents work—they’re looking for more help for the farm this year, but our budget is limited, so it’s tricky.” She waved them inside and then shut the door.
The room was tiny, with flowers everywhere: painted on the walls, in vases on the tables and dressers, sewn into the quilt on the bed. A trunk was open on one table, and it overflowed with dresses and other clothes—clearly all Ilery’s.
“We . . .” Mayka began, then stalled, unsure how much to explain or how to ask if they could hide here, but before she could say more, Ilery was talking again.
“Aw, look at you!” She leaned in and touched Jacklo’s chin. “You’re so cute! And wow, those look like real feathers.”
“I know,” Jacklo said. “I was perfectly carved.”
“He’s modest too,” Mayka said.
Ilery laughed. “He has no need to be.” She plopped onto the bed. “Are you excited for the festival? Two days until it begins! What do you think of Skye so far?”
“It’s nothing like what I expected,” Mayka said truthfully. “Ilery . . . we need a safe place to spend the night. Stone creatures aren’t supposed to be out after dusk, and there’s someone . . . We seem to have made an enemy, and we don’t want him to find us.”
Ilery sat up straighter. “A dangerous enemy?”
“You’re not in danger,” Mayka said quickly. I hope. It depended on what the stonemason told the guards. If he was smart, he’d continue his story that they’d run away . . . but then Ilery will look as if she’s stolen us. “Or maybe you will be, if we’re caught.”
“Then we won’t get caught,” Ilery said firmly.
Mayka smiled and exchanged glances with Si-Si and Jacklo. I knew we could trust her. We’ll be safe here tonight. “Thank you.”
Si-Si inclined her head in a bow. “Yes, thank you.”
“What happened to you?” Sliding off the bed, Ilery squatted to examine Si-Si, frowning at the gouges in her torso. “You look half carved. Who did this to you?”
Si-Si lifted her head proudly, though her mouth quivered. “It was necessary, in order for all of us to escape.”
Not all, Mayka thought. They’d left Kisonan and the other stone creatures.
“Escape from who? Who’s your enemy?”
“An evil stonemason,” Mayka said, thinking of the badger’s story. Checking the door to make sure it was safely latched, she told Ilery everything: why they’d come to Skye, how they’d lost Jacklo, what had happened with Garit and Master Siorn. Then she plunged on and told her about the obedience mark, and she was relieved when Ilery gasped in shock.
“But that’s terrible!” Ilery cried. “Stone creatures work for their keepers in order to pay back the fee for being carved, and so that their keepers will pay to have their marks recarved. It’s a working relationship. Not . . . not . . . He can’t just . . .” She was waving her arms so emphatically that Mayka had to hop backwards to avoid being accidentally swatted.
“Exactly,” Si-Si said. “Even when we serve a keeper, we have choices about what we do. With a mark like this . . . a stone creature could be ordered to do horrible things.”
“Like in the Stone War,” Ilery said. “But, Mayka, how did you escape?”
“We had help. And the stonemason had tools.” She told Ilery how she’d removed the obedience mark from Jacklo—and how she’d promised to return to remove it from the griffin who had helped them.
“We can’t return,” Risa said, from the windowsill. Mayka turned to see that the bird had swooped down from the roof and now perched on the sill, next to a vase filled with marble flowers. “If you go back to the Stone Quarter, you’ll be caught.”
“Two birds!” Ilery clapped her hands together in delight. “And you really can fly!”
Risa didn’t seem interested in being admired again. She fluttered her wings, ready to launch from the window if necessary. “Who’s this?”
“My friend Ilery,” Mayka said. “Ilery, this is Risa. And the bird you already met is Jacklo.” To Risa, she said, “I know it’s impossible, but I hate leaving knowing the mark is out there. It’s not just wrong; it’s dangerous.” As the words left her mouth, she realized, with growing horror, how true that was. She’d been so busy escaping that she hadn’t thought through the consequences, not really. If she left the obedience mark on Kisonan and the others, Master Siorn would demonstrate its power at the Stone Festival—and all would know stone creatures could be compelled to obey flesh-and-blood people.
And then the freedom of every stone creature in the entire valley would be at risk.
I can’t leave.
But Risa was right—it wasn’t safe to go back. Guards could be looking for her, thinking she’d run away from Master Siorn. Still . . . I wouldn’t have to go near any guards to find Garit. At some point, he was bound to be in the square preparing for the demonstration—she remembered that Master Siorn had said he was needed to finish preparations. If she could find him there, ideally without Master Siorn, he could help her sneak back into the Stone Quarter.
There were a lot of maybes in that plan.
But it wasn’t terrible.
“You could disguise yourself!” Ilery hopped off the bed and hurried over to her trunk. “Borrow some of my clothes! Then the only thing that will look stone is your skin, and if you don’t get too close to people, they won’t know.”
“You don’t mind?” Mayka followed her to the trunk. They were about the same size. She could put on a fabric dress over her stone dress. Ilery pulled out one, and Mayka held it in front of her—it seemed like it would fit.
“Here, you could wear a scarf too! Hide your stone hair.”
“What about Jacklo?” Risa asked. “He still won’t be able to fly until the glue finishes hardening.”
“Ooh, I have an idea! Mayka can carry him in a basket. If you cover him with a cloth, everyone will think you’re carrying food from the market.” She clapped her hands together. “It’s perfect! If you’re disguised, you’ll be able to go anywhere you want, including the front gate of the city whenever you’re ready to go, even if that stonemason or any of the city guards are looking for you.” She pawed through her belongings until she found a basket, then held it up proudly.
It was more than just an idea; it was a good idea. “Thank you.” Mayka impulsively hugged Ilery. She hadn’t hugged a flesh person since Father, but it felt right.
At dawn, she’d free Kisonan and the other stone creatures, and then while the gate was still wide open, they’d leave Skye and never return.