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Reivaka takes the chair and leaves without waiting for my objection.

The bud at my wrist has opened. I run one claw beneath a petal and let it brush the grain of my skin.

I gather the remaining papers and take the seal back to my chamber, locking it in the chest before I turn into the eastern corridor. Vai has been gone less than ten minutes.

Dinner is hours away. If I leave this until sunset, she may have ordered a tray and closed her door. I walk past the junction without giving myself time to send Reivaka after all.

At her door, I knock against the frame.

“Come in.”

The vines part. She’s sitting at the new ledge, turning a sheet of paper so the light falls across it. I stay at the entrance.

“Will you have dinner with me tonight? We eat at sunset.”

She looks up from her letter.

“In the hall?”

“Yes. I’d like you to sit with me.”

She looks down at the few lines she’s written. Then she puts the pen aside.

“I’d like that.”

VAI

I’ve changed my mind about dinner three times by the time I reach the hall at sunset.

Daurek asked me himself. I said yes. Neither of those facts explains why I’ve spent ten minutes trying to make my hair behave with a comb missing two teeth.

I stop outside the archway and smooth my skirt.

He sees me immediately.

Daurek is sitting halfway down the long table with Reivaka across from him. The place beside his is empty. When I come through the arch, he stands, and conversations falter along the table.

Wonderful. An audience.

“Am I late?”

“No.” He moves the empty chair back far enough for me to sit. “We haven’t started.”

“You may have to start without me tomorrow. I took a wrong turn.”

“Where?”

“The corridor with the little yellow mushrooms.”

“Those appeared this afternoon. They’re covering the mark for the hall. I’ll have it cleared.”

He sounds concerned. I had been hoping for a joke I could answer. Now I have to sit beside him knowing that he means to make tomorrow easier for me.

Reivaka passes me a bowl of roasted onions. “Try these while they’re hot.”

Food moves along the table. Someone asks Daurek about a damaged bridge rail, and he tells the keeper responsible to meet him there in the morning. Reivaka wants three people to help clear fallen branches from the western paths. By the time I’ve served myself, she has found all three.

I begin to relax.