“Why wouldanybodyeat sand?” Helen wondered.
“Because they’re hungry?” offered Russ.
Levana: “We’ve been having the same argument for the fifth time.”
“Notfifth—third,” said Helen.
“At least thirteenth,” said Anika.
Erith wrinkled her nose. “That’s a dirty word.”
I was actually kind of entertained. It was so much better than the conversations inmyhead, so I listened some more.
“You’ve said that…thirteen times already,” Levana told her, and you could just hear her grin.
“Tick off, Heart,” said Erith, and in my mind, I saw her rolling her eyes.
“I wonder how much time has really passed out there,” said Cook again with that same slow voice.
Erith: “I swear, if one more person saysthirteenagain?—”
“Thirteen!”Russ, Anika and Mimi said at the same time, then burst out laughing when Erith groaned.
I stifled my smile.
Then March said, “Okay, new rule. No one says the dirty word anymore.”
His voice sent shivers up and down my body. My ears could never get enough of the sound of him.
“Who put you in charge of rules?” Russ said.
“I did. I put myself,” said March without hesitation.
“But seriously—maybe I can find that spider to eat. I was so, so afraid of them, I swear…” Mimi.
“I wonder what he was like,” said Cook.
I stopped drawing.
Everyone stopped talking and looked at him where he lay on his back in front of the Fourth Hour, hands raised as he traced imaginary lines somewhere in the air with his fingers.
“Silas.”
His name seemed to echo to eternity in the darkness that surrounded us.
“I know that name,” Helen whispered reluctantly.
“I knew his face, too,” said Seth.
“Tell us about him, Cook,” said Levana.
“I already did.” Cook stopped drawing imaginary pictures in the air and folded his hands over his chest. “He was quiet. He kept to himself. He rarely played with the rest of us. It’s been years since he moved away. Nobody really talked about where he went or why. All we knew was that he didn’t have a father.”
He didn’t have a father.I knew kids in our court could be very mean to orphans. They didn’t get that nobody actually chose if their parents lived or died, and they could use that to bully people relentlessly. I’d witnessed it in school countless times, but in the very first years. Before they knew any better.
Somehow, I knew for a fact that this had bothered Silas.
“I wonder how he could even exist. I mean, a Spade and a Timekeeper…” someone said, but my mind was spiraling down again. I couldn’t help but think about something thatwasn’t thereanymore, but the imprint of it was still in my mind, like the wheels of a carriage that remained on the mud long after horses dragged it away.
