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"I’ to pretend that you’reon oing to pretend that you’re a child I’nore , but I could hear hioing to do?" I grinned "Seon?"

"Is that an invitation?" The words were playful, but the tone was dark, and he squeezed th than I expected

"You’d have to catch me first" It ca the bones in his fingers rub together He didn’t flinch, but I had made my point How rown, not the child I so reselanced back to find the little rubbier bloody hankie at me So she’d mastered the art of blackh And apparently, she’da shiny yellow apple of such beauty and quality that I knew she could never have afforded it, not even if she had possessed anything worth selling

"Put that away," Casper hissed over his shoulder "The Coppers will beat you bloody, girl"

"Like it matters" By the time Casper had turned around, the hankie had disappeared, and now the apple did, too Instead, she took out the brass sphere I’d seen her juggling earlier To me, it didn’t look gled her eyebrows She must have stolen that, too

Even ath that I had never seen before in a human And I still wasn’t sure if he even was a hueness under wraps A hidden tail, perhaps? I leaned back to check his posterior, but all was exactly where it was supposed to be Orthat hadn’t been included in

I’d learned only the barest history of countries that weren’t under the rule of Freesia or allied against us Although I knew the ice folk of Sveden well, the other nations and races of the world were mostly bedtime stories for a princess whose sphere would be only the Snow Court or the castles of nearby kings Sang was such a large place, and everything was so far apart, and travel was so dangerous and sea reat distances either died or just stayed where they landed

I’d heard of the dai who fed on the emotions of humans I had heard fairy tales of lizard people, bird people, fish people, witches, ghosts, and even people whose blood made Bludmen crazy And I knew of the beastfolk of Almanica who lived as barbarians and rode in chariots pulled by buffalo and bludstags

Perhaps that hat Casper was--perhaps he could change into a wolf or a wild cat, if the feeling took hiely anith, and dislike of restrictive clothing I’d have to provoke him and find out, one day, what he was capable of I could have si

"Here we are," he whispered, startlingon the way his silky copper-colored hair curled over his exposed ear, wondering how his skin would taste in co salesman With his hand still on my elbow, he led us to a lohere people had stopped, piling up their trunks and valises as if waiting for so to happen

I looked ahead, over the top hats and bonnets of the folks in the street I had expected to see the masts of ships and the periscopes of subulped

"Dear Aztarte Surely you don’t ?"

He just chuckled darkly, as if he already kneas terrified of heights

My eyes traced the thick ropes up, up, and still farther up, to where a variety of airships hung suspended a the low clouds I moaned and collapsed onto the wheeled trunk

"Finally found a chink in your arhed "Guess you Bluddies aren’t so perfect, now, are you?"

"Being a Bludhts," I said, my voice barely a squeak "It’s just a deep personal flaw"

I could barely breathe, and led to undo the brass clasps on ently and dropped them into my lap Casper sat down beside ht