He picked her up as if she weighed no more than air. She mumbled. He strode into the house, calling, “Dita! Mikal!”
But it was David who ran down first. “What is it? What is it?” he cried excitedly. Then he saw what his father carried. “Petra!”
“Get your mother,” Josef ordered.
“I’m always being told to fetch people,” David complained. Josef frowned.
David turned and ran up the stairs.
By now, Petra had woken up, though she felt groggy. Her throat was on fire and it was hard for her to swallow. Astro? she thought confusedly. Am I really home?
Yes, but I think you are ill.
“Josef,” she croaked.
He smiled at her. He carried her up the stairs and into her bedroom, where he sat her on the bed. He told her to lie down, but she refused. “I’m all right,” she insisted.
Dita entered the room and paused in the doorway, staring at Petra unbelievingly. Petra braced herself, for she knew Dita’s fury would be fierce. She waited for her cousin’s silence to break. She waited for Dita to berate her.
But, to her surprise, Dita did no such thing. She just walked across the room, pressed Petra’s hair back from her face, gazed at her, and then held her tight. “We thought you were dead,” she said. Her voice shook.
“Is it true?” Mikal Kronos stood in the doorway. David was leading him by the hand. “She’s not really here? Safe?”
“I am, Father!” said Petra. “And I’ve brought back your eyes!”
“You … what?” He let go of David and felt along the wall for a chair, then sank into one. Astrophil darted across the room and climbed onto his knee. Dita, Josef, and David stared at Petra.
“You did not,” David scoffed.
“I did!” Forgetting her sickness, she launched with excited energy into the entire story, from the moment Neel tried to steal her purse to her dream last night. Josef listened, his face impassive. Petra couldn’t see Dita’s reactions, for the woman stayed beside Petra, sitting on the edge of the bed, with her arm around her. David was riveted. He looked tense during the moments that had scared Petra, laughed at the funny parts, and wrinkled his brow when she explained a dilemma that she’d had to solve. But when Petra finished speaking and a silence stole over the room, David just said, “That’s a great story, Petra. But I don’t believe any of it.”
“Maybe you’ll believe this.” She reached into her pocket and pulled out her father’s eyes. They rested on her palm.
“Those are the ones Master Stakan made,” David said.
“That’s what you think. Father will know the difference.” She marched to where Mikal Kronos sat, and put the eyes in his hand.
Petra stood before him, waiting for him to speak. He just sat there, holding his eyes with one hand and his bandaged head with the other.
He closed his hand into a fist, opened his mouth, and then shut it into a thin line. “What have you done?”
“What—what do you mean? I’ve brought you your eyes.”
“You’ve brought danger on this house!” He flung his silver eyes across the room and they rolled on the floor.
“But—”
“You told Iris December who you were! That man recognized you!”
“But they won’t tell. I trust Iris. And they helped me. They can’t tell anyone about me without getting themselves into trouble, too.”
He gave a hollow laugh. “It’s when they are in trouble that they will reveal every detail they can about you.”
Petra felt suddenly angry. “For someone who was stupid enough to be tricked by the prince, to think he was so friendly and nice and smart, you seem to pretend to know an awful lot about what people really think, and how they act, and how they feel!”
“Petra,” Josef said warningly.
“And for someone who’s done the last thing in the world I would have ever wanted, you seem to pretend you know what’s best for me!” Mikal Kronos shouted back. “How long do you think it will take before the prince realizes that a theft from the Cabinet of Wonders by two children has something to do with me? It’ll take about two seconds, Petra. It will take two seconds for the prince to realize that the clock’s heart is destroyed.”
“Lots of people could have wanted to break that heart! I told you what John Dee said. If he knew about it, plenty of other people must have known, too. The prince will think that one of his brothers found out about it, and hired somebody to destroy it.”
“And my eyes? Do you think that he won’t notice that they’re missing?”
Petra was at a loss for words. “Well … so what?”
“So what? A few months ago, I was blind but we were all safe. Now, we are not.”
“You—you think we would have been safe here? The prince couldn’t figure out how to put the heart together, but he wouldn’t have waited around forever. He would have sent for you. He would have made you do it.”
“And that would have involved only me. Petra, don’t you see? I made my decisions. I made my plans. I didn’t ask you to become part of them.”
“But I already was! I know you wanted to send me to the Academy. Oh, yes, I know!”
Mikal Kronos waved his hand. “Well, that will never happen now.”
“Good! I’m glad! Because I never would have gone! You —” Her voice broke. She felt as if something were wringing her insides, as if she were a rag. “What do you want from me? What do you want me to say? I did this for you.”
“Did you really?” He raised his hands and then let them fall to the arms of the chair. Petra stood before him. He shook his head again. “This is the worst thing you could have done.”
This was not what Petra had imagined. This was not what she had imagined at all. And so she said something she could never have imagined she would ever say. “I hate you,” she whispered. Then she ran out of the room.
SHE SPED across the wet snow, which was already melting in the rising sun. She ran until she choked on her own breath. She pushed her way into the woods, sat in the cold mud, and cried. Unless you count several hours of chopping onions, Petra hadn’t shed a tear since her father had been brought home to Okno, even though there were many times when she had wanted badly to do so. Now Petra didn’t think she would ever stop crying.