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hear.
    â€˜You can tell me, don’t be afraid,’ she said, running a comb through her long black hair. ‘ I’m not the one who reports on you. ’
    The hollow-eyed face bunched like it might cry, the others looked pained. ‘We’re sorry, Aziel. But that was long ago. Have you not forgiven us?’
    She kept Ghost in brief suspense. ‘Oh, fine; yes, I have. I know you can’t lie to him. And I’m glad you’ve come. I wish you’d visit more often.’
    â€˜Why didn’t you wail today, Aziel?’
    The screams from the room next door echoed loud in her ears again. She hurled the comb. Its metal handle made short work of the window. On the largest shard, two of Ghost’s faces jostled for position, until the hollow-eyed face won. ‘We’re sorry. You’re crying! We’re sorry, Aziel. We just—’
    â€˜Why do you care about whether or not I sing for him? Why must you remind me of it? You said you felt sorry for me, having to do that every day.’
    â€˜We do! We do!’
    She dabbed at her nose and eyes. ‘Today was worse than when I was sick and lost my voice, or the day that old man—’ She quickly bit her tongue, not daring speak of the peculiar visitor she had since wished would return. ‘It’s horrible. The noises: so horrible. What do they do in there? And Nanny at the door, saying those awful things she says…’
    â€˜We wish he didn’t make you wail for him, we do,’ said Ghost. ‘But he has to find a part in you that’s troublesome and make you put it aside for good. That’s why he does it. Don’t you see? The part that makes you want to stop them doing those terrible things, to save their lives. That’s the troublesome part. That’s what you must get rid of.’
    â€˜You’ve told me before and I still don’t understand. I don’t think I want to.’
    â€˜Aziel. We came to tell you—’
    She threw herself on the bed, voice muffled in the mattress and so distorted by sobs that Ghost could not decipher a word: ‘Today and yesterday. A little voice inside me just said not today! Don’t do it, no matter what happens. It’s him, not you. So I didn’t. I held it inside and had to bite down on my sleeve and pretend it was just animals being killed for the kitchens. Just like yesterday. Oh, I don’t know what I’ll do if they start it again tomorrow, I don’t know.’
    â€˜We came to tell you today was the last day. Vous told them so, told your nanny and the guards. We heard their talk. Oh how he frightened them! Aziel, he thinks you’ve done it.’
    â€˜Done what?’ she said into the mattress.
    â€˜Got rid of it. The trouble part of you. Aziel! He thinks you’ve learned.’
    â€˜Learned what? ’
    â€˜How to be more like him, and less like … like subjects. Your silence was what he wanted all along, don’t you see? No matter what you heard being done next door, he wanted you to let it happen. On purpose. He knew that on the day he didn’t hear your voice cry out from your window, you’d have done it!’
    One of the other faces fought its way into the largest glass shard, displacing the other. ‘And that’s why we’re here,’ it said in a deeper voice. ‘Something about you – about you learning has changed him. Shocked him, it seems. We don’t know why.’
    She sat up, her heart beating faster. ‘It’s not – it’s not the change? What Arch talks about?’
    â€˜We don’t know. We watch the Arch – but we don’t understand what he – wait, he comes!’
    2
    â€˜Stay! Come back, won’t you, Ghost? Please, come back later?’
    But the window’s shards, and the oblong mirror in the corner, showed only their normal reflections.
    Tap-thock, tap. Tap-thock, tap. Arch’s staff and withered leg,