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The h the sun was out--it was full, effulgent afternoon--Nitid had already appeared in the sky, as if Madrigal actually needed a sign Nitid was the brightthe Kirin that when Nitid rose early itto happen Well, this evening soal did not yet knohat
It was up to her Taut within her, her unht
A shadoing-stirred wind, and her sister Chiro eeping down to land beside her "Here you are," she said "Hiding"
"I’ it
"Get up" She kicked Madrigal’s hooves "Up up up I’ve co to tell al sniffed herself "I’m al cleanliness and not sal, Chiro had bat wings; unlike her, she was of creature aspect, with the head of a jackal They were not blood sisters When Madrigal was orphaned by the slave raid that claimed her tribe, the survivors had come to Loraed to hide in the caves, and Madrigal She was seven, and had not been taken only because she wasn’t there She’d been up the peak gathering the shed skins of air elementals from their abandoned nests, and had returned to ruin, corpses, loss Her parents were a time she had dreamed she would find them and set them free, but the Eot harder to hold on to that drearew up
In Loramendi, Chiro’s family, of the desert Sab race, had been chosen to foster her chiefly because, being winged, they could keep up with her She and Chiro had grown up side by side, as good as sisters in all but blood
Chiro’s haunches were cat, caracal to be precise, and when she al, her pose was sphinxlike "For the ball," she said, "I would hope that you would aspire to shining cleanliness"
Madrigal sighed "The ball"
"You did not forget," said Chiro "Don’t pretend you did"
She was right, of course Madrigal had not forgotten How could she?
"Up" Chiro kicked her feet again "Up up up"
"Stop it,"where she was and halfheartedly kicking back
Chiro said, "Tell ot a dress and a otten a dress and a mask? I’ve only been back from Ezeret for--"
"For a week, which is plenty of time Honestly, Mad, it’s not like this is just another ball"
Exactly, Madrigal thought If it were, she wouldn’t be hiding on the roof, trying to block out the thing that loo like scorpion- ready, excited for the biggest festival of the year: the Warlord’s birthday
"Thiago will be looking at you," Chiro said, as if it could possibly have slipped herhis teeth, and waiting for a gesture
"As you deserve to be leered at Coo Don’t tell o--"the White Wolf"--was a force of nature, brilliant and deadly, bane of angels and architect of ial’s flesh was ever unquiet around hih she couldn’t exactly tell if it was arousal or fear He had let it be known he was ready to ain, and who it was he favored: her His attention made her feel warm and skittish, pliant and inconsequential and at the sa presence was soainst, lest she lose herself in the grand, consue his suit or not It wasn’t ro
Thiago was powerful and as perfectly s that changed at the knees not to antelope legs as her own did, but to the huge padded paws of a wolf, covered in silken white fur His hair was silken white too, though his face was young, and Madrigal had once glin tent, and knew it, also, was furred white
She’d been striding past as a steward rushed out, and she’d seen the general being suited in his armor Flanked by attendants, his arms outstretched in the moment before his leather chestplate was fitted into place, his torso was a stunning V oflow beneath the ridges of perfect abdoe of hial’s mind ever since A whisper of a thrill caht of hiiggled The girlish sound struck a false note, and Madrigal thought with a pang that her sister was jealous It o’s choice He could have anyone he wanted, and he wanted her
But did she want him? If she did, truly, wouldn’t it be easy? Wouldn’t she be at the baths already, getting perfu of his touch? A sh her She told herself it was nerves
"What do you think he would do if… if I rejected him?" she ventured
Chiro was scandalized "Reject hial’s brow "Have you eaten today? Are you drunk?"
"Oh, stop," said Madrigal, pushing Chiro’s hand away "It’s just… I al pictured it, she i; it made her want to back into a corner But then, she didn’t have o on by way of experience;about hiine it?" asked Chiro "It’s not like he’d have me" There was no detectable bitterness in her voice If anything, it was a touch too bright
She meant, of course, her aspect--chih such unions were restricted by aspect--but there was h-huo’s other criterion That one was not a al’s luck--good luck or bad, she hadn’t yet decided--to qualify Unlike Chiro’s, her own hands were not nified She had never awakened on a stone table to the lingering scent of revenant smoke Her palms were blank
She was still "pure"
"It’s such hypocrisy," she said "His fetish for purity He isn’t pure himself! He isn’t even--"
Chiro cut her off "Yes, well, he’s Thiago, isn’t he? He can be whoever he wants Unlike soal, which accoal sat up abruptly
"Some of us," she replied, "should learn to appreciate what they have Brimstone said--"