The Midnight Lie (The Midnight Lie #1)(66)

It was for nothing, the silver dress I wore, the fringe of whispering glass beads that drifted over my bare arms like tiny bubbles.

Sid was still frowning. “I am not going to sleep with Lillin.”

“She clearly thought otherwise.”

“Well, I did bed her once. But it was so long ago.”

I made a sound of helpless disgust.

“Are you—?” Sid stopped herself. Slowly, she said, “I didn’t think it would bother you if I talked with her.”

“It doesn’t.”

“All right, it doesn’t.”

“You don’t think it’s wrong to lead her on?”

“Is that it? I was quite clear with her that I wasn’t interested.”

“You kissed her.”

“Just a little bit.”

“How does that show a lack of interest?”

“It was a sisterly kiss. A good-bye kiss.”

“You are impossible.”

“I could say the same about you.”

The number of partygoers in the courtyard had dwindled. Almost everyone had gone inside.

Sid rubbed the nape of her neck, studying me. Then she stuffed her hands into her pockets, hunching her shoulders. Quietly, she said, “You are my favorite impossible person.”

“Me,” I said, uncertain.

“You are the only one I want to be with.”

“Tonight.” I didn’t know what was worse: that she had seen my jealousy, that she was trying to soothe it, or that I knew—just as Lillin or any woman Sid had ever been with should have known—that nothing Sid said or did would last.

“Any night.” She offered her arm like a man would. “Will you come inside with me?”

I took her arm. The fabric of her jacket brushed my skin. I wanted to turn in to her, to press my face against her neck. I said, “We’ll look like a couple.”

“Do you want that?”

Truth can demand so much bravery. I did not feel brave. I would not have been brave, if her question hadn’t sounded a little hopeful. Yes, I wanted everyone to think she belonged with me, that I belonged with her. Yes, even if it was only for one night. My voice was small. “I do.”

Her mouth twitched with surprise, then curled with inquisitive pleasure that I loved to see. Maybe this was a game to her, but it felt so good to be her game. “Nirrim,” she said, “I am really sorry that I am not late. May I tell you all the things I will do to make you forgive me?”

I smiled as we went inside.





38


THE FOYER WAS OVERGROWN with branches. They twisted around oil lamps with green flames blazing in their glass cases. The ground was soft with dirt. I realized that the house wasn’t covered with vegetation: the branches and flowers and leaves were the house. “Someone grew this?” I said. “Who?”

“No one knows. It grew overnight.” We turned down a hallway paved with acorns. “It will wither and fade soon enough. The magic always does.”

“So you do think it’s magic.”

“I think ‘magic’ is convenient shorthand for a mystery we haven’t solved.”

“Why were you not late to the party?”

“I couldn’t get into the Keepers Hall. It was too heavily guarded and, somehow, my ample charms weren’t working on anyone. So that didn’t take as long as planned. But Lillin’s brother is a councilman, and she thinks she can get me maps of the hall. You see why I had to be friendly with her.”

“Do I?”

Sid smiled. “Not too friendly, of course.”

We passed a room shaped like an enormous bird’s nest, the kind mud larks make, spherical and entirely enclosed, with an oval entrance. I heard a joyful cry, accompanied by a crowd’s roar. I peeked inside. The entire interior of the round room was felted with thousands of little woven twigs. A table made of hardened mud occupied the center of the room. A woman with her skin dyed in butterfly patterns was scraping a pile of gold toward her while the other people at the table slapped cards down in irritation. Onlookers cheered. “They’re playing a card game,” I told Sid.

“Oh?” she said, interested. She glanced inside. “Oh,” she said again, her interest gone. “They’re playing Pantheon. I already know that one.”

“How do you play?”

“There are one hundred face cards, one for each god. Each face card has a value, with Death being the highest and the Seamstress the lowest, since she was mortal before Death made her a god. God of games reverses the order of play. God of thieves is wild. And then there are the blanks. I don’t know what they represent. No one does, or if they do they won’t tell me. The dealer decides how many blanks to shuffle into the deck. Blanks don’t have value of their own but can augment the power of your hand or diminish your opponent’s if you play one against him.”

Sid continued, describing the best combinations of cards and the most effective lines of strategy.

“Do you want to play?” I asked.

She shook her head. “Too boring. I always win.”

Gently, she guided me down the hall toward the ballroom where Middling musicians played and High Kith were already swirling across the floor in dancing pairs.

The ballroom was papered with birch bark. Tree frogs clinging to a bramble chandelier burbled along to the music. The ceiling above the chandelier was a gray mist. Two men stood close together in a corner of the ballroom. One stroked a finger across the other’s mouth.