Call Forth the Waves by L. J. Hatton Page B

“Tell them they can stay. They can, can’t they?”
    “Of course. Of course. There are no closed doors for Magnus’s girls here.”
    “Winnie, too?” Dev asked eagerly.
    “Wi—” Baba startled. He stretched his free hand out, looking for her. Winnie backed up, but Dev wasn’t having it. He pulled her closer.
    “Dev, no,” she whispered, but he ignored her. He placed Baba’s hand against her cheek.
    Slowly, the old man outlined her face from top to bottom and side to side, rolling her hair between his fingers where her scarf hadn’t contained it. He lingered at the scars on her mouth, trembling when she flinched in pain and cried out.
    “You favor your father, too,” he said in a weak voice. He embraced her awkwardly, falling forward off his toes to wrap his arms around her neck. Winnie was so surprised that she didn’t reciprocate at first. He was so fragile looking, she could have shattered him. “I didn’t think I’d live to see this day. Welcome home, child.”
    “Baba, you can’t!” Nola had been quiet during her grandfather’s introductions, but his emotional outburst broke her. She snatched his arms away from Winnie’s neck and made sure he couldn’t touch her face again, effectively removing Winnie from sight. “They didn’t use Magnus’s coat to get here; they flew in plain sight, knowing they were being hunted! What if they were followed?”
    “We weren’t,” Anise said.
    “And we’re supposed to risk the safety of everyone in this outpost on the word of an outsider?”
    “Magnus was not an outsider, and neither are his daughters. Winifred certainly isn’t.”
    “The warning hasn’t changed, Baba.”
    “Worrying about portents and signs has cost us enough already. I’ll not throw a gift in the garbage for fear of what’s inside.”
    Still shaking, he looped one arm through Winnie’s.
    “Do you remember where the kitchen is, child?” he asked. I guess he’d been blind long enough to forget about the window between the kitchen and the living room.
    “Y-yes, Baba.”
    “Good. I was just about to start breakfast, and I’d appreciate the extra hands.”
    “The others saw them,” Nola argued. “They won’t stand for—”
    “Bah!” The old man cut her off, stabbing his crutch into the air dismissively. “This much discord before eating isn’t healthy. Too many words and there won’t be room enough for food!”
    “This is not going to end well,” Nola warned us. She resumed her crossed-arm stance and stomped into the kitchen.
    “Am I the only one who thinks we should watch to make sure she doesn’t slip any mysterious powders into our food?” Birch asked. “Because I’m thinking that’s where we’re headed, based on the face she just made.”
    Birdie slipped one hand into mine and hung onto Jermay with the other, implying that she agreed.
    “We don’t have anything to worry about.” I gave her hand a squeeze. “Nola’s part of Winnie’s family, and family helps each other, right?”
    “Right,” Birdie said.
    We were both good enough at performing under pressure to act like we believed that.

CHAPTER 6
    The first neighbor knocked before we reached the kitchen.
    It was a small room with narrow sides, and the ceiling was low enough that Klok could touch it without straightening his arm. The walls had been painted an orangish color that was too weak to cover the corrugated alloy underneath. Factor in the four-seat table, the stove, and the counters, and we barely all fit with enough space to breathe. How did Baba expect us to sit down?
    Dev squeezed through to open the back door for a pinch-faced woman who seemed permanently perched on her toes. Her blue-black hair curled at the bottom of a loose braid that twitched over her shoulder.
    “Good morning,” she said absently. She’d stepped forward automatically when the door opened, but couldn’t find a place to stand, so she stayed outside.
    “Good morning, Esther,” Baba said. How he’d known it was