Dragon Pearl(14)

I was taken aback for a moment, because normally I wouldn’t have been allowed anywhere near a gambling parlor. Then I remembered that I looked sixteen in my current disguise.

I embarrassed myself by sneezing all over her. I wasn’t even able to cover my mouth in time. Normally I didn’t sneeze in reaction to my own magic, which meant—

The woman’s smile froze. “You’re . . .”

I stared at her, silently begging her not to say it out loud. If I wasn’t mistaken, she was a fox, too—one I didn’t know. Which made sense, since my mother never would’ve let me near anyone involved with gambling.

“My name is Kim Bora,” I said rapidly. “I’m just here to talk to one of your, um, guests.”

“I see,” the woman said, her eyes narrowing. “Come with me. Quickly, now.”

I followed, somewhat reluctantly, but I needed to find Captain Hye.

The woman led me past tables of gamers rolling dice in cups, and others where people were playing with flower cards that had distinctive red backs. In another room, an audience watched in intent silence as a pair of opponents played janggi. The player with the grumpier face moved a cannon to capture a piece. I couldn’t tell who was winning. I wouldn’t have minded lingering, but the woman shooed me into a cramped back office. My palms began to sweat. Maybe this hadn’t been the brightest idea. What did she want with me?

To calm my nerves, I surveyed the room. Despite its small size, it was crammed with luxuries. One wall displayed a painting of a starship shooting over an ice planet’s horizon, with highlights picked out in luminous gold and silver. The desk was made of real wood, with grain so deep and lustrous I could have lost myself tracing it with my eyes. A small shelf unit even contained books, the old-fashioned kind, heavy with the sooty smell of ink and aging paper. I thought of the rickety dome dwelling I had left behind and wished I could live surrounded by such wealth.

“You have the look of Areum and her sisters,” the woman said without inviting me to sit. She didn’t sit, either.

Oh no. She knew my family.

And she wasn’t done. “But your magic smells most like Seonmi’s.”

This was a wrinkle I hadn’t considered. I’d never realized that someone would recognize the scent of my family’s magic. “I’m sorry, I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said, looking the woman squarely in the eye.

She snorted. “Don’t play games with me. You’re that daughter of Seonmi’s, aren’t you?”

A pit opened at the bottom of my stomach. She’d figured out who I was. Was she going to turn me in? Maybe my best move was to run—

The woman shook her head. “You don’t have to worry about me,” she said with an odd bitterness. “I’m the cousin they never talk about—Nari.”

“I have no idea who you are,” I said with perfect honesty. Still, I couldn’t resist sniffing the air. She did smell a little like my aunts, now that I was paying attention. There wasn’t much physical resemblance—she had an exaggerated prettiness that I’d never seen in Mom or my aunties—but with a fox, that didn’t mean much. Why hadn’t Mom ever told me about her?

“Your mother and aunts and I all grew up together,” the woman said. She pointed toward a chair. “Sit, sit.”

Now I did. “I’m sorry about whatever happened,” I said, wondering what could have gone so wrong.

“Well, you didn’t come here to discuss old history, I’m sure,” Nari said. “So, Min—did I get that right?”

I started. I hadn’t told her my name. She couldn’t be completely out of touch with my family if she knew it.

“You must be . . . how old beneath that Charm of yours?” She sniffed the air, and I wondered what my scent revealed to her. “Not old enough to follow Jun into the Space Forces, or you’d be gone already.”

So she knew about my brother, too. Perhaps Mom still talked to her once in a while, even if they were estranged? I could only imagine that she’d kept Nari a secret from me to protect me from a “bad influence.”

Nari smiled at me, her teeth glinting. I was forcibly reminded that we were both foxes, and foxes were predators. “I’ve been keeping track,” she said, “in case I can ever repay your mother the favor I owe.”

That sounded promising. “Favor?” I asked before I could stop myself.

She gestured toward the doorway and the cards, the dice, the excited chatter of gamblers. “She and I started this business together. After she met your father, though, Seonmi wanted to leave it behind and start a family. She gave me full ownership and wished me well.” Now she sounded resigned rather than bitter.

My eyes prickled, and I blinked away sudden tears. I had asked my aunties about my parents’ past on a few occasions, but they’d always looked so sad that I hadn’t had the heart to persist. And after trying in vain a few times, I’d learned not to ask Mom herself. Never had I imagined, though, that my mother’s background had involved a gambling parlor. I couldn’t envision her in a place like this.

“The rest of the family disapproved of our business, of course,” Nari went on. “They didn’t care how profitable it was. In fact, they considered the money tainted. They cut all ties to me and it took so long to forgive Seonmi that they never really got to know your father before he . . .” She trailed off. “Well, you know how that story ended, and you have the look of someone in a hurry.”