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"So you’ll help me, then? You’ll take me back to Freesia?"

The naive hope rose in my voice Maybe that hat finally tipped his scales

"Anything is better than this" He nodded once and stor the blood before his bare feet slapped down the stairs

I had guessed right--he was a fool And I knew exactly what to do with fools

5

I couldn’t sleep There was too ive Casper the satisfaction ofat the low ceiling, the ht of what I had lost My parents had not been war--how could they, predators and royal to boot? And ha, had been even worse But they had been my family, my anchor, the structure around which one, and I was alone and distraught

All that, and the stupid cat keptnoise fro I had never done before

I snooped I tossed drawers, rifled through pockets, hunted for loose floorboards, and even turned over the rin And I wasn’t sneaky about it, either If Casper wasn’t going to play nice, neither was I

The infuriating man appeared to own very little His clothes, a hidden bottle of wine sealed ax, and a sible handwriting Angry slashes e said "Leaves of Grass," which seerass,to understand what appeared to be a very angry and scattered e, each ritten in block letters with a heavy pen

I, now thirty-seven years old in perfect health begin,

Hoping to cease not till death

Fuck you, Walt Whits arrayed beforethe servant I would pretend to befriend for the sake ofout of time Improper and aard as it was, I flopped onto the dusty floor and stuck razed soainst the wall, and I withdrew from the shadoith the object in my hand and a scratch from Tommy Pain for my trouble

It was a little box of polished ith a sile copper coin and a deep red feather

"Trying to kill the Maestro wasn’t good enough Now you’re stealing from him, too?" someone said from the door

I slammed the box shut and threw it back under the bed, where it hit the mad cat with a hearty thwack He shot out of the darkness and curled up in the corner to lick his nethers in an extreht was never going to , I still stood before I faced h the successive layers of griles, I couldn’t tell what it was A girl, a boy, a child, a youth Only one thing I could tell fro to drain it

"I lost a hairpin under the bed," I said crisply "It’s notthe dustle into claws The figure smirked and showed me a knife

"Lesson one Don’t kid a kidder, kid You suck on me, and Casper will turn you in for a thousand well-earned silvers unless I can gut you first I’rel child "Greetings, Keen I am Ahnastasia, princess of the Great Snow Court of Muscovy, crown capitol of the Tsarina of Freesia"

"Yeah, and I’ly white teeth for what I had to assu To and twined around Keen’s feet When the stained brown gloves began to scratch under his chin, he ruine

"What do you care about that oddaet that a lot here"

"That’s because poor people like us hate rich people who try to make us feel like crap," Keen answered with slitted eyes

"Do I look rich to you?" I held my hands out to show my ruined, blood-spattered dress

"Maestro told me you’ve been stored in a suitcase for four years, so of course your frock looks like a handkerchief soh gold to feed , like I should be bowing and kissing your feet That’s never going to happen"