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‘It isn’t egomotivity to tell the truth,’ said Robin.
‘You shouldn’t talk like that,’ said Emily, on a hiccup. ‘That’s how I got relocated.’
‘I joined the church to find truth,’ said Robin. ‘If it’s just another place where you can’t tell it, I don’t want to stay.’
‘“A single event, a thousand different recollections. Only the Blessed Divinity knows the truth,”’ said Emily, quoting from The Answer.
‘But there is truth,’ said Robin firmly. ‘It’s not all opinions or memories. There is truth.’
Emily looked at Robin with what seemed to be frightened fascination.
‘D’you believe in her?’
‘In who? Becca?’
‘No. In the Drowned Prophet.’
‘I… yes, I suppose so.’
‘Well, you shouldn’t,’ whispered Emily. ‘She wasn’t what they say she was.’
‘What d’you mean?’
Emily glanced through the window of the toy shop, then said,
‘She was always up to secret stuff at the farm. Forbidden things.’
‘What kind of things?’
‘Stuff in the barn and the woods. Becca saw it, too. She says I’m making it up, but she knows what happened. I know she remembers,’ said Emily desperately.
‘What did you see Daiyu doing in the barn and the woods?’
‘I can’t tell you,’ said Emily. ‘But I know she didn’t die. I know that.’
‘What?’ said Robin blankly.
‘She’s not dead. She’s out there, somewhere, grown up. She never drow—’
Emily gave a little gasp. Robin turned: a woman in a white top and trousers had come around the corner of the shelves, holding the hands of two boisterous little boys, and Robin knew Emily had momentarily mistaken the mother for another UHC member. The two little boys began clamouring for Thomas the Tank Engine models.
‘I want Percy. There’s Percy! I want Percy!’
‘You’ll really say I felt faint?’ Emily whispered to Robin. ‘In the bathroom, and all that?’
‘Yes, of course,’ said Robin, afraid to push Emily further right now, but hopeful that she’d now established a rapport that would survive, back at the farm. ‘Are you OK to go now?’
Emily nodded, still sniffing, and followed Robin out of the shop. They’d walked just a few steps along the arcade when Emily grabbed Robin by the arm.
‘Taio wants you to spirit bond with him, doesn’t he?’
Robin nodded.
‘Well, if you don’t want to,’ said Emily in a low voice, ‘you need to go with Papa J when he comes back. None of the other men are allowed to touch Papa J’s spirit wives. Becca’s a spirit wife, that’s why she never has to go in the Retreat Rooms with anyone else.’
‘I didn’t know that,’ said Robin.
‘Just go with Papa J,’ said Emily, ‘and you’ll be OK.’
