It didn’t matter that I’d only just met these people—tonight, they’d fully accepted me as one of them. They were always quick to grab my hand for a spin, or offer me the first taste of our latest treat, or point out the marvels of the festival around us. And that included Ivo, who seemed to forgive me for my associations with his perceived rival. He was a man of few words—even now, when he was in a good mood—but when we heard the parade approaching, he tapped me and indicated that I should climb up on his shoulders.
I readily agreed. And Talon lifted up Ary beside me.
The drums announced the parade long before it turned onto the street where we stood—there were dozens of them, beating a rhythm that echoed through the town. Then the horns rose over them, and by the time the procession was close enough to see, the music was loud enough to drown out the cheers and shouts of the crowd.
I’d been to parades back home, of course. But this was different. Colorful sparks of light glittered through the air, shimmering over floats that featured tumbling acrobats and fire eaters that blew clouds of orange flame into the evening sky. Puppets so large it took half a dozen people to man them chased women in gowns that appeared to be made of nothing but leaves and petals. Horses with silver manes pulled carriages with intricate scenes painted on their sides—these seemed to inspire the loudest cheers.
“The pageant players,” Ary explained to me, her voice raised to be heard above the crowd.
Someone—I didn’t see who, but it was a member of our little group—handed a drink up to me. I took it and sipped it without thinking, thirsty from all the laughter and salty food, and it wasn’t until the tartness hit my tongue that I realized it was Ruby Nectar.
I froze. Iknewbetter than to accept random drinks from people—even people who seemed perfectly nice—but I’d been caught up in joy and energy and wonder. I braced myself for the worst as the sweet liquid slid down my throat.
But nothing happened. If I focused, I could feel a littleshiverinside me, quivering in recognition of the essence around me, but it was so faint and unobtrusive that I honestly wasn’t sure if it had been there all along. The pearls were probably the biggest reason for that, but I also wondered if my body hadn’t already started adapting to this world—I didn’t notice every littleshiverthe way I once did.
I took another experimental sip of the drink. I wasn’t willing to test my theory by removing the pearls from my wrist, but in the meantime, theshiverinside me wasn’t unpleasant—it was the same dancing, pleasurable sort ofshiverI’d first experienced that night at the masquerade, the sort of sensation that was easy to mistake for arousal.
“Goldie!” Ary yelled over the noise of the parade.
When I twisted my head toward her, she had her arm outstretched to me, her own drink raised in my direction.
“To new friends!” she toasted.
I grinned, raising my drink to meet hers. “To new friends.”
I took another sip of the Ruby Nectar, if for no other reason than to prove once and for all to myself that not everything in Therador existed simply to hurt me.
No, there are beautiful, wondrous parts of this world, too, I thought, tipping my head back to look up at the evening sky. The sun had set, and now the stars had started to appear, twinkling to life like sparkling dust. The three moons were there, too, each in a different phase, another mystery in this world of exquisite mysteries.
And for the first time since entering Therador I felt nothing but deep, breathlessawe.I was in another world, one of magic and wonder and marvels beyond my imagination, and my blood flowed with a great power I hadn’t even begun to understand. In a matter of days—ablink—my life had changed, and now that I wasn’t in imminent danger, my trepidation had given way to something else, something that twisted around my heart and called my name on the wind.
When the procession had passed, Ivo lowered me back down. I raised my cup to my lips again, but this time I found it empty.
I need to be more careful, I thought, licking my tart, sticky lips. It would be all too easy to get drunk and stupid, especially when I already felt so strange and floaty just from the wild, joyous energy around me.
“It’s time to go dancing!” Ary declared, and no one had any objections.
She led the way, dragging me along beside her, and we followed the road along the base of the Hill until we came to the far side, closest to the river. Here, there were steps carved into the side of the slope leading up to the mound’s flat top.
“Come on!” she said impatiently, bounding up the steps and pulling me with her.
My legs were still sore from last night’s mad escape through the fields around Far Meadow—which felt like forever ago—but despite my protesting muscles, my feet were just as eager as hers. In no time at all we were at the top of the Hill, looking out over a grassy sea of dancers.
Ary wasted no time. She pulled me into the current of people, twirling me around with her. Now that we were up here, I could hear the music that guided the dancers' steps—and over by the base of the great tree, a small orchestra played a song that made my feet want to fly.
We spun around the grass, following the flow of dancers as it circled the wide trunk of the tree like a living eddy. The twisted branches above us were hung with glittering lanterns, mimicking the stars in the night sky beyond, and when I tipped back my head to admire them I noticed that the platforms in the tree were full of more people, watching us from above.
Ary and I had made it nearly all the way around the top of the Hill, almost back to where we’d started, when the song shifted to another. In the space between the strains, a couple of men appeared beside us, handsome and smiling, and asked for a dance.
Ary looked pleased, but she glanced in my direction and waited for my encouraging nod before she accepted her suitor’s offer. I was just about to do the same when a form appeared at my elbow and a deep, rumbling voice stopped my hand.
“This dance is mine.”
I looked up to find the tall, broad form of Octavian standing over me. Someone had found him a new shirt—this one was cerulean blue, and fit him properly—and he also wore an olive hat that gave me Robin Hood vibes but also looked shockingly attractive sitting slightly askew above his square-jawed face.
My heart skipped in my chest before I remembered I was still sort of peeved at him.
“Come to check up on me?” I asked in a tone that suggested what I thought ofthat.“I promise, I can manage without you for a few hours, even if that requires making decisions for myself.” I didn’t mean to sound so petulant, but I stood by my words.
