Summer in Orcus

by T. Kingfisher

One day in spring, when she was playing in the back garden, a house walked into the alley.

Summer’s mother believed that books were safe things that kept you inside, which only shows how little she knew about it, because books are one of the least safe things in the world.)

“I don’t think it’s a chicken coop,” said Summer. “There’s a lot of stained glass.” “Perhaps they’re very religious chickens.”

1. Don’t worry about things that you cannot fix. 2. Antelope women are not to be trusted. 3. You cannot change essential nature with magic.

“All really old trees are magic,”

“What are you looking for?” she asked, annoyed. “I was hoping you might have an egg.” “I don’t carry eggs around in my pockets!” “Then there’s not much point in having pockets, is there?”

“The witch’s house lays eggs sometimes,” said the weasel. “I tried to eat one.”

She told herself this sternly several times and then wanted to cry, because it doesn’t help to yell at people who are cold and wet, even when the person yelling at you is you.

I’m riding a wolf. I’ve never ridden anything scarier than the carousel and now I’m riding a real wolf.

“If I kill you,” said Glorious. “I can claim that the moon made me do it, or the sun, or a man in another land whom I have never met. But it is my teeth that have blood on them.”

“No fruit!” barked the Clerk, discarding another pen. “No dangerous animals?” Glorious grinned. “One,” he said. The weasel muttered something in Summer’s pocket.

Tell me about your journey, and start a little before the beginning, because we are usually wrong about where things begin.”

“Now,” said the Forester. “Saving a single wondrous thing is better than saving the world. For one thing, it’s more achievable. The world is never content to stay saved.”

There were too many sorrows in the world. She thought that if she felt any one too deeply, she might drown in it.

Perhaps you should not have that skill at your age, but the world is unfair, and sometimes we must use that unfairness to our advantage.” She rocked back and forth. “It would be a good day for the world if I could not find a child who knew terrible adult things. But I will be a great deal older before that day comes, I think.”