page12 (1/2)
Everyone in the Goblin Market had a specialty Phyllis sold her chimes, the Davies family told fortunes, the Morrises did metalwork, and the silent twins sold words in every form, all the books and tablets and scrolls you could dream of Merris’s stall was loaded hat looked like speci the best
“She’s joking,” Alan explained to Mae “Merris, this is Mae and Jamie”
Merris unbent slightly “Alan’s young lady, I presume?”
Mae actually blushed “Er — no”
“Young Nicholas’s, then,” Merris said wearily “What they all see in you, I cannot iine”
Nick leaned against the stall and smirked at her “You’ll never know until you try”
Merris gave hi look, and Alan nobly distracted her “They’re people we’re trying to help Merris, Nick is going to dance tonight We need a speaking charm”
She thought for a moment, and then leaned over to produce a clay tablet from the heaps of her stall “I want the translation by next month,” she said “Don’t let Nicholas touch it; it happens to be five thousand years old”
Alan glanced at it and nodded, and only then did she press a glea white shell on a chain into Alan’s palers over it Merris Cromas the only seller at the Goblin Market who never accepted h nobody knehere she got it Her currency was power
“Alan, what language is that?” Mae asked, peering at the tablet and looking excited No wonder Alan’s little crush was so persistent Nick hadn’t realized she was a big nerd
“Sumerian,” Alan said
“The oldest written language in the world, from the world’s first civilization,” Merris explained condescendingly “It was the written language for Babylon as well Half of e know about ic comes from Sumerian records I do not knohat they teach you children in school these days”
Mae looked impressed “You can read Sumerian?”
Nick believed that Merris Cro that was not a ical artifact, but she was a businesswoe of Sus and turned her attention to Nick
“Which of your demons do you mean to call?”
“Anzu,” Nick said
People used to laugh at him because he had only ever been able to call two demons, but he was able to call them faster than anyone else, and he never made a mistake
“Er, excuse lancing froht up in the gla the nervous snize “Do demons have disco fever?”
He was so weird Nick didn’t understand him at all
Merris Cromwell looked as if nobody had ever uttered the words “disco fever” in her presence before She did not deign to respond to Jamie Instead she nodded at the shadows and a nize took her place at the stall Merris walked through the Goblin Market, sweeping the rest of them in her wake, until they reached the place of the dancers
There was a spot where the stalls ended and the Market did not, a clearing full of light and hts in the trees above, bright as stars that had sohts the grass looked silver and the night behind the dancers’ heads looked like a black velvet backdrop
There were about six couples already The wo out like vivid petals as if they were pansies who had co shadows, all in black, and Nick are of Mae’s glance toward him
Nick gave her a sidelong sirl wearing poppy red When the , her partner’s hands trying to pull her back down to earth and him She was fast the way a swordsman had to be fast and beautiful with it, a twist of crimson in the air like a trace of blood in water, and the tourists gathering began to resemble sharks
All the girls wore crowns of fever blossoe and red petals looked like tiny flames set in the swift dancer’s dark hair
If a dancer threw someone a fever blossom, it was a token of special favor
The crowd surrounding the dancers rustled and murmured as the dark-haired dancer drew a blossolea lips The dancers all spun in perfect synchronized circles, shadow and light, and as she spun the girl in red blew on the blossom cupped in her palm
The petals burst into the air like a flurry of hed with disappoint ceased
The girl in red broke away from her partner and came toward them
Before anyone else could speak, Mae said eagerly, “That was a”
Nick laughed a soft, surprised laugh Girls did not usually react to Sin like that Mae turned to hiht, her eyes dazzled, and he let her see him smile
p>
Everyone in the Goblin Market had a specialty Phyllis sold her chimes, the Davies family told fortunes, the Morrises did metalwork, and the silent twins sold words in every form, all the books and tablets and scrolls you could dream of Merris’s stall was loaded hat looked like speci the best
“She’s joking,” Alan explained to Mae “Merris, this is Mae and Jamie”
Merris unbent slightly “Alan’s young lady, I presume?”
Mae actually blushed “Er — no”
“Young Nicholas’s, then,” Merris said wearily “What they all see in you, I cannot iine”
Nick leaned against the stall and smirked at her “You’ll never know until you try”
Merris gave hi look, and Alan nobly distracted her “They’re people we’re trying to help Merris, Nick is going to dance tonight We need a speaking charm”
She thought for a moment, and then leaned over to produce a clay tablet from the heaps of her stall “I want the translation by next month,” she said “Don’t let Nicholas touch it; it happens to be five thousand years old”
Alan glanced at it and nodded, and only then did she press a glea white shell on a chain into Alan’s palers over it Merris Cromas the only seller at the Goblin Market who never accepted h nobody knehere she got it Her currency was power
“Alan, what language is that?” Mae asked, peering at the tablet and looking excited No wonder Alan’s little crush was so persistent Nick hadn’t realized she was a big nerd
“Sumerian,” Alan said
“The oldest written language in the world, from the world’s first civilization,” Merris explained condescendingly “It was the written language for Babylon as well Half of e know about ic comes from Sumerian records I do not knohat they teach you children in school these days”
Mae looked impressed “You can read Sumerian?”
Nick believed that Merris Cro that was not a ical artifact, but she was a businesswoe of Sus and turned her attention to Nick
“Which of your demons do you mean to call?”
“Anzu,” Nick said