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I sed, on the verge of a great understanding "Casper, your book The poeain?"

" ‘Leaves of Grass’?"

"No, the other thing"

" ‘Song of Myself’?"

I laughed Just a chuckle at first, but it built to a crescendo He watchedof Myself’ I writeThe words, and the music We all do Every one of us Bludmen and Pinkies And I rite the rules"

He nodded "Whatever satisfies the soul is truth"

I snorted and wiped my eyes "In philosophy, perhaps But we have to best Ravenna before I can start writing that song Until she’s gone, your truth will get you staked and drained ahter and the trills of a harpsichord, and then all our dreams are lost You’ll have to learn the rules and play by theht"

"Tell me your rules, then, darlin’, and I’ll see if I want to play"

I sat back to consider hi into e into one lecture?

"For one thing, Bludive no one any reason to single you out, to bait you, or to fight you Think of a pack of hunting dogs or a pack of wolves With posture and words, the oad you away, but don’t rise to it I need you at , silent, serious That’s what you must be until the deed is done After that, be as loose of limits and artificial lines as you wish"

"I want to follow you around with a pen and paper and just write down every word you say"

"Shh Stop staring at me like I’m edible This is important"

"So’s poetry"

I rolled my eyes at him and went on "Don’t take off your mask, even if someone tells you to And ar Snow has started, don’t stop dancing for any reason"

"That’sRavenna? A dance?"

I pinched the bridge of my nose "This is not just a ball This is a holy rite of the goddess Aztarte, a ritual that ensures the prosperity of the blud race of the dancers will deterers stutter or the dancers stuht not fall At the very, very least, ould spread that soin to search for faults in their world Verusha told us that the snow had not fallen heavily last year, and thatis wrong in the palace In the 1700s, two couples collided and knocked over a punch bowl of bludwine That suht, and the crops wilted, and the Pinkies died, and blood became scarce The people of Muscovy rioted outside the sued out the Tsarina, and diseoddess This dance is very, very serious"

Casper sat up, his playfulness fled, and thank heavens "You didn’t mention that when you offered me the job of court composer," he said

"What, that if you didn’t play perfectly once a year, you’d be drained into the fountain? Oops"

"Oops?"

I sighed and shifted uncomfortably in my dress "To be quite honest, I didn’t think ould make it this far It was the sort of dreaht that I would eventually lose patience and murder you in your bed"

He flicked the hair out of his face, and when his eyesinhow often you threaten to killto you, isn’t it, darlin’?"

I leaned closer, wiggling just a little and lowering my lashes

"I’ll threaten anyone But I only bite the pretty boys"

There suddenly wasn’t enough air in the carriage, and I knew before he had evento attack me in the loveliest way I jerked back out of reach