Siena got Miena off the floor and onto the bed and kept her there with both arms, not gentle, because gentle had just been used against them.
Miena's hands were still trying to be useful.
They plucked at cloth, at Siena's sleeve, at the empty air where the bird had been.
"I can stop if I do not see it, I think I can stop, do not let me look under the bed, if I see the wings I will hear the rest of the sentence."
Siena pressed Miena's face into her shoulder.
"Then you will not look, you will breathe, you will hate me for holding you this hard, I do not care, you are not kneeling again in this room even if the house falls in."
Dolly came back from the side door at a pace that was almost a run and shut the inner latch, then the second latch that nobody used except during drills.
"He is gone, there was never a proper letter, only cloth rubbed to look like a mark in bad light, I opened a door for a rumor with manners, that is on me, it will not happen twice tonight."
