Dropping to her knees, Viv sorted through the startlingly hot earth beneath with her scorched fingers.
There was, of course, nothing there.
* * *
When Viv returnedto the street, she moved as though underwater, weightless, sound distorted and far away. She stared bleakly at Tandri, then stumbled toward her.
Before she reached Laney’s stoop, Viv was surprised to see Lack shoulder past the people fringing the street. He carried folded sets of clothing and two pairs of cloth shoes. He said nothing when he passed the bundles to Viv and Tandri, but Viv saw the flash of a fine gray dress between a few of the folk behind him. The Madrigal caught her gaze, nodded solemnly, and then walked away down the street, stately and unhurried.
“Thank you,” managed Tandri in her cracked voice, but it was all Viv could do to reach out and take what Lack offered without dropping it.
Lack murmured something to them that Viv didn’t register, and then she stood staring at the clothes with only dim comprehension.
After that, Viv didn’t remember sitting, but she must have done so at some point. She stared dully ahead, vision blurred as her eyes watered from the smoke.
A familiar voice whispered, “Oh no....”
Viv blinked in recognition. She turned her head and squinted at the unfocused shape of Thimble. Tandri knelt before him in quiet conference, with Laney’s blanket puddling around her.
Viv closed her eyes, and when next they opened, he was gone, and she didn’t know how much time had passed.
Tandri was suddenly beside her again. “He’s here.” She gently put a hand on Viv’s shoulder and turned her, and there came Cal, again, with the pony and the wagon. Tandri led her to it and gently urged her into the back, where Viv lay with feet dangling off the boards, staring up at the sky and the black ribbon of smoke that bisected it.
She distantly heard Cal and Tandri speaking on the buckboard as the cart clattered away over the cobbles. The smell of the burnt shop receded a little—but never completely. Viv reeked of it. The ashes fluttered away from her in the breeze of their passage like snow blown upward.
At last, the wagon stopped, and someone guided her up some stairs, and then she was inside Tandri’s room. The woman sat her in a wooden chair that creaked under her weight. Tandri disappeared, only to return with a wet towel. She scrubbed Viv as gently as she could manage, although the nap of theclothwas like sandpaper where she was burned, which was almost everywhere.
Afterward, Tandri managed to get her undressed and into the clean clothes that Lack had provided, and then she settled her into the lone bed in the room.
Viv resisted closing her eyes, resisted letting go of consciousness, but the next time she blinked, she was gone into a dreamless black.
* * *
When she slowly woke,Viv felt more present in her own body, but her bleakness had redoubled. Her eyes flickered open, and the blanket of Tandri’s bed rasped against her skin, painful on her burns. At first, she closed her eyes again, craving the oblivion of sleep, but it eluded her.
“You’re awake,” said Tandri.
Viv turned her head, and the muscles in her neck ached.Allof her ached. Her feet sizzled with pain.
Tandri was seated in the chair with a blanket pulled up to her chin. Her eyes looked bruised, hair singed. The tracks of tears were still clear on her smudged cheeks.
The smell of the fire filled the room. They were both still redolent of it.
“Yeah,” whispered Viv. She didn’t think she could manage more than that. She realized how parched she was, and that was something tangible. She needed water.
Tandri seemed to sense it. She stood and shuffled in her blanket over to the vanity and brought a full pitcher.
Viv managed to prop herself up and drink it all, greedily, in a few enormous gulps.
“Thank you,” she said, not even bothering to wipe the wetness from her chin. It was icy relief on her tender skin. And then, because she felt it needed to be said, “I’m sorry.”
“For what?” Tandri frowned at her in a tired way. “Saving me from the fire? The one I was such a big help in preventing?”
“I guess we should both be thanking the cat.”
Tandri chuckled soundlessly at that, although it looked like it hurt.
“I have to go back,” said Viv.
