For a moment, Augusta said nothing. Liesl thought she would deny it—a tiny piece of her almost hoped she would—but then Augusta smiled, and the smile was terrible, like the grin of a wild cat just before it pounces. Liesl felt a cold, sharp blade of terror knife through her. So it was true.
“Yes,” Augusta said softly. “Yes, you’ve found me out. I killed him. Drop by drop, bit by bit, so no one would ever know. It was hard to be so patient. Very hard. But it was necessary.” Her predator’s grin grew slightly wider. “With you, my dear, I fear I will not be so indulgent. With you, I think it must go quickly.”
“Stay away from me.” Liesl could barely spit out the words. “I hate you.”
Augusta regarded her stepdaughter critically for a minute, as though evaluating her. Then she said, “You know, I always thought you were quite stupid. It appears I underestimated you. But it is no matter now.” She moved to the door. “I’ll be back shortly, with a new bowl of soup. I made it especially for you, with extra butter. I promise you won’t even taste the poison. I believe that people should enjoy their last meals, don’t you?”
“I won’t eat it!” Liesl cried. “You can’t force me to!”
Augusta whirled around. “Then you will starve slowly,” she hissed. “It is up to you how you choose to die, but you can count on this: Either way, you will not leave this house alive.”
Then she spun out of the room and slammed the door shut behind her. Liesl heard the key turn sharply in the lock. Then footsteps, leaving. Then nothing.
Chapter Twenty-Five
“THIS WOULD BE FAR EASIER IF YOU WERE A ghost,” Po said for about the thousandth time.
“You’ve made that clear,” Liesl said wearily.
“I’m only trying to help.”
“I know, I know.” Liesl rubbed her eyes. She had been up all night and was very tired. “I’m sorry.”
“Are you sure you can’t dematerialize? Not even a little?”
“I’m sure.” Liesl sighed and sat down heavily on the bed. She had been pacing the tiny room for hours, from the bed to the locked door to the window, but the dimensions of her problem were always the same: She was trapped, with no possibility of escape. The second bowl of soup—poisoned, she was sure—was sitting cold and untouched on the bedside table, and Liesl knew what Augusta said was true. Eventually, she would either have to eat it or starve.
It was hopeless.
Po passed through the table and back, as though trying to show how easily it could be done. “Far easier if you were a ghost,” it muttered.
Liesl stiffened. Then she stared at Po for so long that the ghost began to get nervous and faded to an almost imperceptible shadow-gray.
“Po,” Liesl said, a note of wonder creeping into her voice. “You’re absolutely right.”
“I know I’m right,” Po said, slightly uneasily, thinking that Liesl was behaving in very contradictory ways. One second she lectured; the next second she praised. Living ones were really quite incomprehensible. “But you aren’t a ghost, are you? So it doesn’t help us.”
“No . . . ,” Liesl said. A glimmer of a glimmer of an idea was taking shape in her mind. She struggled to hold on to it. “I’m not a ghost. But that doesn’t mean I can’t pretend to be one, for a little bit.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Po said. The ghost was starting to get irritated. It did not like riddles.
“I’m talking about the Other Side.” Liesl sprang from the bed, eyes shining. “Don’t you see? I can follow you there. I can cross. And then we’ll cross back to the Living Side somewhere different—somewhere safe.”
For a moment there was perfect silence. Liesl held her breath. Even Bundle was uncharacteristically still.
Then Po said, “Impossible.”
“Why?” Liesl demanded. “Why is it impossible?”
“Living people cannot cross to the Other Side. It is unheard of. It can’t be done.”
“It can’t be done or it isn’t done?”
“Either. Both.” Po was having trouble keeping its thoughts together. “It wouldn’t work. It couldn’t possibly work.”
“When you go to the Other Side, you must slip back through some kind of opening, don’t you?”
“Places where the universe is stretched thin, yes . . .”
“And you can choose where to cross back from the Other Side, can’t you? You can find your way here through different tunnels and pathways?”
“Yes, within certain limits . . .”
“So why can’t I do those things? Why can’t you just lead me, in and out?” Liesl turned very serious. She lowered her voice. “Either way I’ll end up on the Other Side, Po. If I don’t find a way to get out of here, I’ll be there soon enough.”
Po was quiet again. The ghost had not thought of it that way.
Finally Po said, “I suppose I could try and . . . enlarge the opening somewhat. So that you could fit through with a body.”
Liesl clapped her hands and bounced up and down excitedly. “I knew it! I knew we could do it.”
“We don’t know if we can do it at all,” Po said sharply. “I said we could try. Once we’re on the Other Side, you’ll have to stick closely to me. It is vast, and some of its places are very strange.”