gathering_blue_novel-2

said in a low voice. "He won't go anyplace without his dog.
"It's quite small," she added in a whisper.
Jamison looked at her impatiently, as if he were suddenly aware what a
burden she was going to be. Finally he sighed. "Bring the dog too," he told the
guard.
The three of them were led down a corridor. They were an odd trio, with Kira first,
stumbling against her stick, dragging her leg with its broom sound: swish, swish;
then Matt, silent for a change, his eyes wide, taking in the grandeur of the
surroundings; and finally, toenails tip-tapping against the tiled floor, the benttailed
dog, happily carrying a squirming beetle in his mouth.
Matt put the bundle of Kira's belongings down on the floor just inside the
doorway, but he wouldn't step inside the room. He took in everything solemnly
with his wide-eyed, observant gaze and made the decision himself.
"Me and Branch, we'll wait out here," he announced. "What this be called?" he
asked, looking around the wide space where he stood.
"The corridor," Jamison told him.
Matt nodded. "Me and Branch, we just be waiting here in this corridor then.
Me and Branch, we don't go in the room because of the wee buggies."
Kira looked over quickly, but the beetle had been consumed now. Anyway, the
beetle had not been wee. Matt himself had described it as mammoth.
"Wee buggies?" Jamison was the one who inquired, his brow furrowed.
"Branch got fleas," Matt explained, looking at the floor.
Jamison shook his head. Kira saw his lips twitch in amusement. He led her
into the room.
She was astonished. The cott where she had lived all of her life with her
mother had been a simple dirt-floored hut. Their beds had been straw-filled