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"Build what, Coriane?"

"Airjets, airships, transports, video screens--ovens! I don’t know, Sara, I don’t know I just want to--toin a sli of yourself, you mean Don’t you, Cori?"

"I didn’t say that"

"You didn’t have to"

"I can see why Julian likes you so ht away, and she was asleep soon after But Coriane kept her eyes open, watching shadows on the walls, wondering

Now, on the bridge, in the htly colored chaos, she did the same Nobles, citizens, merchants seemed to float before her, their skin cold, pace slow, eyes hard and dark no reed, a quenchedat water while others died of thirst The others were the Reds, of course, wearing the bands thattheh House they served Theiron their errands and orders They have purpose at least, Coriane thought Not like rab on to the nearby lamppost, to wrap her arms around it lest she be carried away like a leaf on the wind, or a stone dropping through water Flying or drowning or both Going where some other force willed Beyond her own control

Julian’s hand closed around her wrist, forcing her to take his arht, and a cord of tension relaxed in her Julian will keep me here

Later on, she recorded little of the official funeral in her diary, long spattered with ink splotches and cross outs Her spelling was i of Uncle Jared’s body, his skin whiter than theprocess She did not record how her father’s lip quivered, betraying the pain he truly felt for his brother’s death Her writings were not of the way the rain stopped, just long enough for the ceremony, or the crowd of lords who came to pay their respects She did not even bother to ’s presence, or that of his son, Tiberias, who brooded with dark brows and an even darker expression

Uncle is gone, she wrote instead of all this And somehow, in some way, I envy him

As always, she tucked the diary ahen she was finished, hiding it beneath the mattress of her bedchamber with the rest of her treasures Nauarded, taken froardener’s shed back home Two screwdrivers, a delicate hammer, one set of needle-nose pliers, and a wrench rusted almost beyond use Almost There was a coil of spindly wire as well, carefully drawn from an ancient lamp in the corner that no one would miss Like the estate, the Jacos town house in West Archeon was a decaying place And da the old walls the feel of a dripping cave