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“Are you scared?” Olga asks for at least the fifth time

Vera rolls over onto her side Olga does the same In their narrow bed, they are face-to-face “When you are older, you’ll see, Olga There is a feeling in your heart when youand then co up for air ”

Vera hugs her sister and plants a kiss on her plus out of bed With a small hand mirror, she tries to check her appearance, but she can see herself only in pieces—long black hair held away fros, ivory skin, pink lips She is wearing a plain blue goith a lace collar—a girl’s costume, but it is the best she has If only she had a beret or a pin or, best of all, some perfume

“Oh, well,” she says, and turns to her sister “How do I look?”

“Perfect ”

Vera sirl, some even say beautiful

She goes to her bedroom door and listens No sound reaches her ear “They are in bed,” she says Moving cautiously, she tiptoes over to her hich is always left open in the summer She blows her sister a kiss and clirate With every careful step, she is sure that someone from the street beloill look her way and point and shout out that a girl is sneaking out to meet a boy

But the people on the street are drunk on light anddown fro’s second floor When she jurass, she cannot contain her excitele, which she stifles with her hand as she runs across the cobblestoned street

There he is Standing by the streetla about hiolden: his hair, his jerkin, his skin

“I didn’t think you’d come,” he says

She cannot seem to talk The words, like her breath, are trapped in her chest She looks at his handso her eyes, leaning toward hiasps a little, feels herself start to cry, and though her tears turn into tiny stars and e she can do to stop the

Noill know that she is a silly peasant girl who has fallen in love over nothing and cried at her first kiss

She starts to make an excuse—she is not even sure what it will be, but before she can speak, Sasha pulls her down into a crouch and says, “Be quiet,” in a voice so sharp she feels stung by it “Look ”

A shiny black carriage, drawn by six black dragons, isslowly down the street Silence falls all at once People freeze in their tracks, retreat into shadows It is the Black Knight

The carriagefire When it stops, Vera feels a chill h her “That is where I live,” she says