“Auntie Wind said that some were saying we should entrust him to the mice that we allowed to infest Larfold,” said Umbo.

Loaf nodded slowly. “So. They noticed, and they’re not delighted.”

“I think that even though they don’t till the soil, they still thought of it as their own land.”

“Well, now it isn’t,” said Loaf. “I don’t think we’d have much luck if we tried to gather up the mice now.”

“We could ask them to stay out of a zone near the shore,” said Umbo. “I think they might.”

“Or they might say, Let the Larfolders make us move, if they want us gone.”

“With their mantles, the Larfolders are the only people in Garden who can all spot the mice no matter how they try to hide and make themselves small.”

“And the Larfolders are the only ones who can escape the mice completely, by going into the ocean,” said Loaf. “They’ll work it out, and we should stay out of it. But I can see Auntie Wind’s point. Their mantles are bred to be gentle with children, to grow up with them, so to speak. The child is master of his own body.”

“So you think Square should be given a mantle?” asked Umbo.

“I don’t want to try to raise a son who can hide from me under the sea,” said Loaf.

“So you do plan to raise him?”

“He’s going to know he has a father,” said Loaf. “Even if it’s an ugly old facemasker like me.”

“Why not keep him here?”

Loaf shook his head. “You know we tried it. But caring for the son of the . . . whatever I am . . . Sergeant-at-Arms, maybe . . . it was becoming bad for the women, bad for their husbands, and bad for the boy. Spoiled. I meant to leave him with the Larfolders for only a day or two, but I’m so busy here . . .”

“Auntie Wind isn’t angry,” said Umbo, “and the only person she’s critical of is Leaky, for reasons you can understand even though you don’t agree.”

“I do agree,” said Loaf. “By Silbom’s left elbow, you’d think Leaky would take the boy in for my sake, if not for his own.”

“But she won’t, and you don’t want to fight that war.”

“So I have no choice but to take him back here,” said Loaf, “even if it complicates camp life and keeps Leaky in a perpetual sulk.”

Umbo had suspected that all the other reasons for exiling Square had been a mask for this one—that as long as Square was in camp, Leaky was surly and that made Loaf nervous and edgy, which damaged his ability to work well with the men. It was as if Square were Loaf’s bastard child by another woman. Which he almost was, in a way, but definitely was not, in another.