Sure enough, he looked stymied, even rattled.
“Your Highness?” Fie asked, hating the Peacock girl’s satin-sleek tone.
A frown tugged at his mouth. “I… need you to tell me about the servant you saw.”
Another dilemma. If she accidentally described a real Sparrow servant, she’d be bringing a hell down on their heads—
You little fool, the Peacock spark scoffed.They’reservants.
“I must apologize, Your Highness,” Niemi said through Fie. “I do not pay them much attention.”
“Nor do I.” To Fie’s horror, Tavin’s dark eyes roved over her rigidly blank face and seemed to like what he saw. He let go, but calloused fingertips grazed her upper arm, brief but shocking. A jolt went through Fie’s gut.
Anytime he’d reached for her in the last moon, his hands had lingered just so, as if to delay letting go just a heartbeat longer.
She missed it.
She hated it.
She thought it had been only forher.
“Forgive me,” Tavin said with a bow of his own, blissfully unaware that she wanted to tear his heart out with her bare hands. Howdarehe lay hands on her again, while she wore a stranger’s face. “I’ve been atrociously rude. I’d introduce myself, but…”
Fie didn’t need a Peacock’s help to say, sweet as poison, “I know who you are.”
He smiled as he righted himself. Howdarehe forget her so swift. A dagger hung at his belt. If she was fast enough—no. She’d seen how fast he could move.
Fool!the Peacock girl scolded again.Pay attention! He asked for your name!
Already Fie was doubting her choice to callthistooth. Yet she had an answer that would serve her purpose,andvex the ghost in the bone, a victory on every front.
“I am Niemi Navali szo Sakar,” Fie lied.
The spark in the tooth sputtered with rage. Tavin extended a courteous elbow. “It’s a poor apology, but I insist on escorting you back to the gardens. Or would you rather return to the guest quarters, Lady Sakar?”
“To the gardens, if you please, Your Highness,” she said hastily. They had to be coming up on the hourly bell, when it would be time to send a signal to Viimo. “I was trying to find the amber-pods.”
She twined her arm through his and tried not to shiver where they touched, fear and anger not quite stifling the part of her that still leapt at the contact.
“You must have just missed them,” Tavin said. “They’re on the west side of the guest quarters.”
Keep playing the fool, Niemi commanded.You’re adept enough at it.
Fie rankled, but the dead girl had a point, and Niemi had guided her this far. “I must have,” she agreed. Behind them, Barf let out a quiet, grumpy mew as she trotted to catch up. Tavin started to look behind him.
“Are you nervous?” Fie blurted out, capturing his gaze once more. “I mean… for your coronation ceremony.”
He smiled thinly at her, steering them out the entrance she’d snuck through to begin with. “You could say that. It’s been a… difficult time.”
Fie smiled with empty sympathy as they exited the Divine Gallery, mind racing. Getting lost was only a half lie; she still had no sense of where she was in the palace. This was a chance to map more of the grounds for herself if she could light an Owl tooth for memory…but when she’d called on two teeth or more, they’d always been of the same Birthright. The glamour itself wasn’t the problem: once she woke the witch-tooth and told it what to do, they more or less sustained themselves until the tooth burned itself out. The problem was that she needed the dead Sakar girl tokeepwhispering in her skull, and for that, Fie had to keep her spark singing.
Say something!the Peacock girl hissed, even now.
“I can’t imagine taking the throne at your age,” Fie fumbled. Not her best, but at least it was Tavin’s move now.
Each step was an opportunity lost. She couldn’t lose her guide to this dreadful, glittering world. But they didn’t have time for her to sort out the lay of the palace.
Fie gritted her teeth and called an Owl tooth to life.
