Hide and Seek: The Mad Girl Sees All novel Chapter 26

Chapter 26

Lyra drew four lines across the tile, fanning out from the center toward the four piles.

She tapped the westernmost dot. “This one. Lydia’s.”

Then the southern one. This one. Lina’s.”

Then northeast and southeast. “These two. Mine.”

Once Lina finished translating, Lydia folded her arms and nodded.

Lyra held up one finger. “Listen up. The second you hear the explosion from my side, light your pile. Right then.”

Lina nodded, then hesitated. “Lyra. Light it with what?”

Lyra paused, dug into her pocket for a few seconds, and pulled out three fire starters.

Lina stared at them. “Where’d you get those?”

“Earlier, when I was scouting the garden, I passed a kitchen. There was a stove. I grabbed them.”

Lyra smiled, handed one to Lina, and another to Lydia.

Lydia took hers, turned it over, and even sniffed the cap.

Lina relayed the explanation, and Lydia said something back.

Lina turned. “She says you scouted that garden pretty thoroughly.”

“Of course. I’ve got sharp eyes,” Lyra said.

Lyra tucked the last fire starter back into her pocket and clapped her hands. “Let’s go. Lydia first.”

The three of them moved along the rooftops, Lyra in her red robe leading the way, Lina and Lydia following close behind. careful with every step on the tiles.

Halfway there, a lone Wraith passed below the covered walkway. Lyra stood openly on the ridge of the roof. The Wraith’s ear rotated once, then ignored her.

Lydia’s post was beside a two-story pavilion on the west side. The pile of kindling sat in the open ground in front of it- bamboo segments, shredded straw, and half-torn strips of curtain all heaped together.

Lyra patted the ridge of the roof and pointed down at the pile. “Stay up here. Once you light it, don’t climb down. Don’t

move.

Lina translated quickly.

Lydia crouched on the ridge, glanced down at the pile, and answered.

Lina translated. “She says no problem. She’ll just drop the fire starter from up here.”

Lyra nodded.

Lydia added something else, fast.

Lina continued: “She says if anything goes wrong, she’ll improvise.”

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Chapter 26

Lyra raised an eyebrow. “Fine.”

She set off with Lina, circling south along the rooftops.

Lina’s post was beside a pavilion on the south side. The pile sat on the stone path between the pavilion and the rock garden -several bundles of reed stalks, packed with shredded straw, bamboo segments stuffed with cotton wadding.

Lyra climbed up onto the pavilion roof and gave it a pat. “Same drill. Stay on the roof. The moment you hear my side go off. you light it. Then flatten out and don’t move.”

Lina lay down and looked at the pile below. “Lyra. What if I can’t hear it clearly?”

“You’ll hear it. It won’t be quiet.”

With that, Lyra swung off the pavilion and headed southeast.

Lina watched the red figure disappear around the corner of the walkway, took a deep breath, and tightened her grip/on the fire starter.

Lyra reached the first of her two posts, southeast. The kindling pile was tucked against the base of a courtyard wall-mostly bamboo segments, reeds underneath, with a few scraps of cloth torn from the walkway draped on top.

She didn’t climb the wall.

She raised her hand, flipped open the cap of the fire starter, blew on it, and sparks leapt up. She touched it to the cloth and dry reeds underneath.

The flame caught on the cloth and straw and roared-up.

Lyra capped the fire starter, turned, and ran.

Barefoot on the flagstones, she sprinted northeast toward her second post.

A dozen steps in, she frowned.

Something was off.

The bamboo wasn’t popping.

She glanced back mid-stride. The fire was already burning, black smoke pouring up, the bamboo segments catching too- but no explosions.

Moisture? Or were the walls of these bamboo segments too thin?

While she was thinking, a thin crackle rose behind her.

1

Snap-crackle crackle-

Not the bamboo. The reed stalks.

Reed stalks cracked quieter than bamboo, but in a quiet garden, it was loud enough.

Lyra’s mouth twitched. “Fine. Good enough.”

On the pavilion roof, Lina lay flat, ear pressed to the tiles.

She’d heard something.

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Chapter 26

Like something cracking apart. Soft. Broken up.

Was that it? Was that the fire?

She wasn’t sure. Her palm closed around the fire starter, heart kicking up.

Then she heard footsteps.

More than one.

The scrape of hook-scythes dragging along the ground, coming from a distance-from the southeast. From where Lyra had lit her fire.

The Wraiths were moving.

Lina set her jaw, flipped the fire starter open, and blew the spark to life.

She pressed it under a bundle of reed stalks she’d prepared earlier. The flame leapt onto the dry reeds, dragging the shredded straw with it.

Then she shoved the whole burning bundle off the pavilion.

It hit the pile below. The straw and cloth caught instantly, flames shooting up six feet high.

Lina flattened back against the tiles, snuffed the fire starter, and clapped both hands over her mouth.

On the west pavilion roof, Lydia saw a column of black smoke rising in the southern sky. Then another in the southeast.

But she hadn’t heard an explosion.

That wasn’t right. The plan was to light up only after she heard the sound.

Lydia gripped the fire starter, eyes flicking between the two columns of smoke.

Two were already burning. But no sound was reaching her. Wind direction? Or were the explosions just not loud enough?

She didn’t wait any longer.

Something had clearly gone wrong. The south was already lit. If she dragged her feet, they’d never get all four points going together.

If the noise wasn’t big enough, the Wraiths would all swing toward one direction. Lyra’s whole plan would fall apart-and Lyra herself might be in danger.

Lydia flipped open the fire starter and blew it to life.

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