Hollow Dolls

by MarcyKate Connolly

  ALSO BY MARCYKATE CONNOLLY

  Shadow Weaver duology

  Shadow Weaver

  Comet Rising

  with Dan Haring

  The Star Shepherd

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  Books. Change. Lives.

  Copyright © 2020 by MarcyKate Connolly

  Cover and internal design © 2020 by Sourcebooks

  Cover design by Nicole Hower/Sourcebooks

  Cover art © Erwin Madrid/Shannon Associates

  Sourcebooks and the colophon are registered trademarks of Sourcebooks.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems—except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews—without permission in writing from its publisher, Sourcebooks.

  The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious or are used fictitiously. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental and not intended by the author.

  Published by Sourcebooks Young Readers, an imprint of Sourcebooks Kids

  P.O. Box 4410, Naperville, Illinois 60567-4410

  (630) 961-3900

  sourcebookskids.com

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Names: Connolly, MarcyKate, author.

  Title: Hollow dolls / MarcyKate Connolly.

  Description: Naperville, Illinois : Sourcebooks Young Readers, [2020] |

  Sequel to: Comet rising. | Audience: Ages 8-14 | Audience: Grades 4-6

  Identifiers: LCCN 2019024127 (print) | LCCN 2019024128 (ebook)

  Subjects: CYAC: Magic--Fiction. | Families--Fiction. | Friendship--Fiction. | Fantasy.

  Classification: LCC PZ7.1.C64685 Hol 2020 (print) | LCC PZ7.1.C64685 (ebook) | DDC [Fic]--dc23

  LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019024127

  LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019024128

  This product conforms to all applicable CPSC and CPSIA standards.

  Contents

  Front Cover

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Epilogue

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Back Cover

  For Mom and Dad

  Prologue

  For as long as I can remember, I have served the Lady. I have always been hers to control, a pawn in every game she plays.

  Today, that ends.

  The shadow weaver, Emmeline, and her friends have caught my mistress here in her garden filled with giant flowers. I’m trapped, too, bands of the shadow that Emmeline controls holding me back.

  I couldn’t help the Lady even if I wanted to.

  All I can do is watch as their talent taker strips Lady Aisling of her magic as punishment for her crimes. Then something extraordinary happens.

  I’m freed. The invisible hold my mistress has had on my mind, that connection that forces my limbs to submit to her will, is broken. A strange, light feeling rises within me—hope, I think. Lady Aisling’s wicked reign is finally over. I’m far from her only captive, and these rebel children with talents are our saviors.

  Though the shadow weaver’s bonds still hold me down, I feel as if I could float away. The Lady can’t use me or my magic to harm people ever again.

  My talent is mind reading. It’s why Lady Aisling took me. Folks like me were blessed with magic when the Cerelia Comet flew by in the year of our birth, as it does every twenty-five years. There was a time when the comet-blessed were adored and revered, but that time is long past. Nowadays, people don’t look as kindly on the talented as they once did. Many of the lucky ones who weren’t captured by Lady Aisling have chosen to keep their talents hidden.

  The comet came by in the year the Lady was born too. She is—was—a magic eater, someone who can steal another person’s magic in order to wield it themselves. She used one of her stolen talents to create flowers out of other talented people, and she planted them here in her infamous Garden of Souls so that she could assume their powers just by nibbling on their petals. But something didn’t quite work when she tried to transform the first of us with a mind-based talent—like me—into a flower. Still, she found a way to use us. I’ll never forget the feeling of another mind crawling under my skin. Moving my arms and legs. Speaking with my voice.

  But now I’m free. And I’m not alone.

  The brilliant, beautiful garden Lady Aisling crafted from the souls of her magically talented prisoners unravels before my eyes. It’s bizarre and beautiful at the same time. The air hisses with magic while flowers sprout heads, hands, and feet until they’ve returned to their original human form. Bewildered cries ring through the air, and underneath it all is the crush of many minds and their frantic thoughts. Nothing remains now of the flowers that I twirled past so many times—only barren dirt, dotted with hedges and grass. Nothing remains of the only life I can remember.

  For the first time since I encountered the comet-blessed rebelling against the Lady, real fear creeps in. But so does hope.

  Once it’s determined that I and the other talented children Lady Aisling had under her control no longer pose a threat, we’re released. The crowd of people in the garden swells every minute. Joyful reunions surround me. Parents and children, brothers and sisters, aunts and nephews and nieces.

  But for many of us, no one comes. We begin to gather together in the middle of the garden, the confused and disoriented who aren’t fully certain what happened or how. My best friend, Sebastian, finds me and squeezes my hand. Several of the Lady’s other shells—those with mind-based talents who she used as puppets like me—join us. We’re the lost souls of the Lady’s garden, waiting for our past lives to find us.

  But as the day marches on and night falls, our hopes begin to cool.

  Where are our families? What about our loved ones? These thoughts circle me in a lazy loop.

  But I’m not surprised. Only sad.

  I pull a little sheet of paper from the pocket of my dirty white dress. I have several copies of this list, one always on my person, the others tucked away in different parts of my little cell inside the Lady’s manor. If I lose one, I don’t want to forget. On the paper is all that remains of my family. Four names and a location: Wren. Their faces are long lost; Lady
Aisling’s memory stealer took care of that. I cling to the paper, hoping against hope until the crowd begins to thin, leaving behind only those without families to claim us.

  I slide the paper back into my pocket. I may have my freedom, but nothing more.

  TWO WEEKS LATER

  When Lady Aisling’s captives were freed, everyone eventually found their home. Relatives waiting for them. Some for weeks, months, years, even decades.

  Waiting for everyone but me.

  There is no trace left of my family because the village of Wren does not exist.

  At least, that’s what I’ve just been told.

  The wind here in the garden where I sit—a very different, more modest one—tosses wisps of hair in my face, bringing me back to the conversation at hand.

  “I’m sorry the network hasn’t been able to figure out what happened to your family, Simone,” Sebastian says, his curls twisting around the scar on his cheek like dark shadows. The network was formed in response to Lady Aisling’s abduction of so many talented folks. The loved ones of the comet-blessed began to keep records and help each other evade the Lady’s clutches. But that began long after I was taken.

  Sebastian shifts uncomfortably on the bench. “Would you like to stay with mine?” His eye twitches. It does that sometimes. While the Lady no longer uses us, the effects of her magic linger. The people who freed us have yet to find a talent that can fix it. Without the Lady to give us a purpose, even one we hated, we’re little more than hollow, broken dolls.

  I tilt my head to gaze up at the white puffs of clouds, letting Sebastian’s words make their way through my mind. Then I listen harder, waiting for the real meaning behind them.

  I know you can hear me—please say yes. Please say yes.

  I laugh and leap to my feet, suddenly fidgety. Staying too long in one place isn’t good for me. Not until I find where I belong.

  “Thank you. Yes.” I like Sebastian’s family. They’ve tried to help me locate my own family. His older sister, Jemma, is kind, and I can wander through the woods beyond their village whenever I please. Once she was only a couple years older than Sebastian. But the Lady held him captive for more than a decade, and now Jemma is all grown up and can be our guardian. One thing does give me pause though. “Your village is close to Lady Aisling’s prison. I don’t like that much.” The village is in the territory of Parilla, just over the border from Abbacho. I’ll stay with them for a while, but eventually I’ll have to continue the search for Wren. I just don’t have a clue yet where to start.

  Sebastian’s hand trembles on the garden bench. I don’t like that much either, he thinks. “She can’t trouble us anymore. We can pretend she doesn’t even exist.”

  I know why Sebastian really wants me to remain here. He watched over me while we were under Lady Aisling’s control in the Zinnian territory. He even took away the memories of the terrible things the Lady made me do. But he was acting out of guilt. His talent is memory stealing, and he’s the one who took my memories of happier times in the first place.

  I shiver, and Sebastian frowns.

  “We’ll keep searching, Simone. I promise.”

  I smile at him, but I don’t think it comes off quite right, because he doesn’t seem relieved.

  “I know,” I say. But I’m not sure there’s anything left to find.

  Chapter One

  Restless. That’s how I feel every day. The need to wander and explore burns in my veins right alongside my blood.

  This morning as I peer out the window of my little room, the sun shines on the woods behind Sebastian’s village. I can never remember the name of it for long. He always reminds me, but then it slips away like dandelion puffs on a breeze. But the woods I adore. A maze of little streams wind between the trees, and I’m determined to follow every one of them to their destination before the end of summer.

  My wandering helps me think through the problem of my vanished family. It doesn’t hurt that the woods happen to be on the side farthest from the Lady’s prison.

  “Simone?” Sebastian stands in my doorway, that look on his face again. The one he always gets when he has to call my name a few too many times. I climb off the bench by the windowsill sheepishly, as I feel the weight of his thoughts.

  He’s worried about me.

  Many of Lady Aisling’s other servants seem to be nearly their old selves again now that they’re no longer under her spell. We’ve heard from old friends like Kalia the dream eater and Natasha the illusion crafter. They were nearly able to pick up their former lives where they left off. But not me. I’m not even sure what the old me was like.

  Sebastian worries that I’m broken. It worries me too.

  “Simone.”

  My eyes snap back to his, picking up the thread once again. “Good morning, Sebastian.” I move toward him, momentarily distracted into a twirl. He puts his hands on my shoulders to stop me. I grin.

  “My sister just received good news. There are people coming here tonight who might be able to help you.”

  I can’t help peeking inside his mind. The words are a jumble—something about libraries—but I can feel excitement fizzing in every one.

  “Who?”

  “They’re from the Parillan Archives. It holds historical records going all the way back as far as anyone can remember. If there’s a trace of your village anywhere to be found, it will be there.”

  “The librarians are coming here?” My hands sway my skirts, even though I try to tell them not to.

  Sebastian nods, and his mind begins to clear.

  They heard about Lady Aisling’s garden and what happened to us. “They want to interview us both in order to record the incident. That’s what they wrote in their letter.”

  The swell of hope subsides. “Then they’re not coming here to help me.”

  “But they might be able to all the same. We can ask.”

  I shrug, trying not to let my disappointment show too much.

  “They’ll be here tonight. Jemma wanted me to tell you to be sure you’re home for dinner.”

  And not muddy, Sebastian can’t help but think.

  I’ll do my best, I think back, sending my response into his mind, and he smiles.

  Jemma gave up on making me useful weeks ago. I tried, but the tasks she gave me just couldn’t hold my attention for long. There are too many minds, too many conversations, too many voices. It is loud and distracting, and I forget what I’m doing sometimes. The best she hopes for now is that I remember to come home after wandering in the woods or the village. At least I haven’t forgotten that yet.

  “I will, I promise.”

  “Are you going to the woods?” Sebastian asks, just as he does every day. I give the same answer too.

  “Yes.” I pause, already knowing what he’s going to say next. “And I think I’d rather walk alone today.”

  He means well, but I go there to feel the quiet. Bringing him with me would defeat the purpose.

  Sebastian and Jemma are kind to let me stay with them, but they are not quite mine. It doesn’t help that I can hear their thoughts. Mind reading may sound like a wonderful talent—Lady Aisling certainly thought so—but the reality is less fun. In a village like this, full of people and lives and little red-roofed houses, all those minds are a constant dull roar. Sometimes when Sebastian is talking to me, I don’t hear him over it at first. I have to work to block them out. Actual silence is a rare thing.

  I slip out of the house, breezing by my friend, my head already full of silent leaves and babbling streams.

  • • •

  I trace the lines the streams make throughout the woods for hours until I finally sink onto the edge of a bank. The water doesn’t think; it just gurgles and moves cheerily on its way. Every day is the same. There are no surprises for it, and even if there are, it simply flows around easily.

 
I am not water, though sometimes I wish I was.

  I tuck my knees up to my chest and close my eyes, letting my magic reach out to my surroundings. Mind reading gives me a different sort of sight, almost like a new sense. I can feel any nearby minds. I’ve never measured the range, but the closer I am physically, the louder they are. There’s a rabbit burrow nearby, hidden by a thicket, with a mother and three little ones. Mice and squirrels roam the underbrush, and every now and then the slippery thoughts of a silver fish swim past.

  No one can sneak up on me, not even the curious rabbit poking her head out of the burrow. It’s a young one, and I know that if I stay still, she’ll come closer.

  It’s all right, little one, I tell her. It startles her back at first, but then she inches closer until she nudges my foot with her long whiskers. May I pet you? Rabbits don’t have words. They think more in feelings and instinct, and hers are warm and welcoming. I reach out a tentative hand, all the while sending her reassuring thoughts. Her fur is soft, and she nuzzles up next to me.

  As I pet her, my mind wanders. I don’t have a lot of memories since Sebastian took them. It’s like a thick, dull fog hovering in the back of my brain where those memories should be. But while I don’t always remember the details of my service to the Lady, I do know that I’m responsible for expanding her garden, ferreting out those who tried to stay hidden while she crawled around under my skin. And even when she wasn’t actively using me, I was still only half myself, trapped under the spells she used to keep her victims compliant. The thought makes me want to curl up in the hollow of one of these great trees and never leave.

  Perhaps my family, my home, doesn’t want to be found.

  With any luck, the librarians coming to visit tonight will have answers. But what will I have to give in return? Reliving my time with the Lady is unpleasant. And tricky with all the gaps in my memories.

  When the sun begins to flee the sky, I finally head back to Sebastian’s home. The afternoon spent with the uncomplicated minds of squirrels and earthworms and the occasional curious fox and rabbit has smoothed the edges of my worries. I bid my new woodland friends goodbye and get to my feet, steeling my spine.