![]() ![]() Under its pristine wax shell, alas, the cheese was riddled with worms. It was completely understandable, and it wasĪnd Tess brought out the last cheese. Tess didn’t know what was considered good quigutl parenting, but if Kikiu had been so alone that she was dreaming, Pathka couldn’t have been doing his job. Pathka hadn’t wanted Kikiu, or loved her, or been nest to her. Kikiu, conceived in violence, whose birth almost killed Pathka, would have been eaten if Tess hadn’t put a stop to it. “Mother” had hit her like a slap, and she finally saw what had been there all along: Pathka, her best friend in the world, had been a wholly inadequate parent. Tess stared at the spot where Kikiu had been. “ Exactly as my mother made me.” With a serpentine tail ripple, Kikiu twisted around and leaped from the gates, out of the hospice, and away. “You belong with us, searching for the Most Alone.” “I am the most alone,” hissed Kikiu. “And never will be.” “If you’re dreaming of the serpent, then you’re called,” said Tess, pleading now. ![]() You can still be nest to each other.” “We have never been nest,” said Kikiu. Pathka couldn’t have meant to be cruel, wouldn’t have been if he had known. “ Then Pathka had that dream-that call-and bragged about it, as if it were a miracle and not proof that ko, too, was irretrievably alone.” “But then that’s something you’ve got in common,” said Tess. ![]()
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