‘Now, Thief.’ The Bloodcat came forward. She knew that he had moved away from her. There would be no more passing of images. But he let her place her hand on his head, and he rubbed himself once against her thigh. ‘Goodbye, Thief. You don’t have to have a name any more.’ The Bloodcat lay down in front of Soona and Aenlocht.
‘He’ll stay with them a while.’
Nick and Susan walked up to the rim of the basin. When they looked back Soona and Aenlocht were by the trees, breaking open a rotten log for grubs. Thief was drinking at the spring.
‘They’ll be all right.’
‘Yes. Come on, Susan. It’s getting late.’
They went up through the hills on to the mountain, and all afternoon climbed to the plateau. Now and then Birdfolk dipped in their flight to call goodbye. Silverwing and Yellowclaw landed and embraced them.
It was dusk when they came to the cave.
‘We’ll go back to the day we started from.’
‘Nick, do you remember when we went home before? We got a story ready.’
‘Why our hair was longer. Why our clothes were torn.’
‘And nobody noticed. We didn’t need to say anything.’
‘We’re different people.’
They took out their Shy flowers and held them on their palms.
‘This time we’ll tell the truth.’
‘They won’t believe us.’
‘We’ll tell them anyway.’
They joined hands and approached the cave, and turned there, and stood a while, for a last look at O.
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