A Hat Full Of Sky

slept , in a bed. Being unconscious didn’t count. She closed her eyes, and closed her eyes again—
    Someone kicked her hard on the foot.
    “Dinna gae to sleep!” Rob Anybody shouted. “Not here! Ye canna gae to sleep here ! Rise an’ shine!”
    Still feeling muzzy, Tiffany pushed herself back onto her feet, through gentle swirls of rising dust, and turned to the dark door.
    It wasn’t there.
    There were her footprints in the sand, but they went only a few feet and, anyway, were slowly disappearing. There was nothing around her but dead desert, forever.
    She turned back to look toward the distant mountains, but her view was blocked by a tall figure, all in black, holding a scythe. It hadn’t been there before.
    G OOD AFTERNOON , said Death.

CHAPTER 12
    The Egress
    T iffany stared up into a black hood. There was a skull in it, but the eye sockets glowed blue.
    At least bones had never frightened Tiffany. They were only chalk that had walked around.
    “Are you—?” she began, but Rob Anybody gave a yell and leaped straight for the hood.
    There was a thud. Death took a step backward and raised a skeletal hand to his cowl. He pulled Rob Anybody out by his hair and held him at arm’s length while the Nac Mac Feegle cursed and kicked.
    I S THIS YOURS ? Death asked Tiffany. The voice was heavy and all around her, like thunder.
    “No. Er…he’s his.”
    I WAS NOT EXPECTING A N AC M AC F EEGLE TODAY , said Death. O THERWISE I WOULD HAVE WORN PROTECTIVE CLOTHING , HA HA .
    “They do fight a lot,” Tiffany admitted. “You are Death, aren’t you? I know this might sound like a silly question.”
    Y OU ARE NOT AFRAID ?
    “Not yet. But, er…which way to the egress, please?”
    There was a pause. Then Death said, in a puzzled voice: I SN’T THAT A FEMALE EAGLE ?
    “No,” said Tiffany. “Everyone thinks that. Actually, it’s the way out. The exit.”
    Death pointed, with the hand that still held the incandescently angry Rob Anybody.
    T HAT WAY . Y OU HAVE TO WALK THE DESERT .
    “All the way to the mountains?”
    Y ES . B UT ONLY THE DEAD CAN TAKE THAT WAY .
    “Ye’ve got tae let me go sooner or later, ye big ’natomy!” yelled Rob Anybody. “And then ye’re gonna get sich a kickin’!”
    “There was a door here!” said Tiffany.
    A H , YES , said Death. B UT THERE ARE RULES . T HAT WAS A WAY IN , YOU SEE .
    “What’s the difference?
    A FAIRLY IMPORTANT ONE , I’ M SORRY TO SAY . Y OU WILL HAVE TO SEE YOURSELVES OUT . D O NOT FALL ASLEEP HERE . S LEEP HERE NEVER ENDS .
    Death vanished. Rob Anybody dropped to the sand and came up ready to fight, but they were alone.
    “Ye’ll have to make a door oout,” he said.
    “I don’t know how! Rob, I told you not to come with me. Can’t you get out?”
    “Aye. Probably. But I’ve got to see ye safe. The kelda put a geas on me. I must save the hag o’ the hills.”
    “ Jeannie told you that?”
    “Aye. She was verra definite ,” said Rob Anybody.
    Tiffany slumped down onto the sand again. It fountained up around her.
    “I’ll never get out,” she said. How to get in, yes, that wasn’t hard….
    She looked around. They weren’t obvious, but there were occasional changes in the light, and little puffs of dust.
    People she couldn’t see were walking past her. People were crossing the desert. Dead people, going to find out what was beyond the mountains…
    I’m eleven, she thought. People will be upset. She thought about the farm, and how her mother and father would react. But there wouldn’t be a body, would there? So people would hope and hope that she’d come back and was just…missing, like old Mrs. Happens in the village, who lit a candle in the window every night for her son who’d been lost at sea thirty years ago.
    She wondered if Rob could send a message—but what could she say? “I’m not dead, I’m just stuck”?
    “I should have thought of other people,” she said aloud.
    “Aye, weel, ye did,” said Rob, sitting down by her foot. “Yon Arthur went off happy, and ye saved other folk fra’ being killed. Ye did what ye had to do.”
    Yes, thought Tiffany. That’s what we have to do. And there’s no one to protect you, because you’re the one who’s supposed to do that sort of thing.
    But her Second Thoughts said: I’m glad I did it. I’d do it again. I stopped the hiver killing anyone else, even though we led it right into the Trials. And that thought was followed by a space. There should have been another