“All right—yes—good,” stammered Nemienne, and retreated, since she could see Mage Ankennes wanted her out of the way. That unexpected permission to go see your sisters—she would be happy to, of course, but it was also clearly a polite way to say Go away and don’t bother me for a while. She wondered what he could possibly mean to do while she was gone, but couldn’t think of any way to ask. And, anyway, she longed to see Karah again and make sure she was all right. She went out to find the coins and a conveyance.
There was no conveyance handy to the Lane of Shadows, so Nemienne walked on foot toward the more traveled areas of the city. She didn’t mind. It was cold, but she wanted time to think—time to herself, out in the open air.
The image of the Dragon of Lonne kept coming before her mind’s eye, though she didn’t want to think about it. Or at least, not about Mage Ankennes destroying it.
Nemienne badly wanted to tell someone else about the Dragon of Lonne, if not about Mage Ankennes’s plans for it. She felt that if she did, she might find a way to understand it better herself. “Leilis,” Nemienne whispered. She didn’t know why, but she felt that Leilis would understand the dragon—maybe better than Nemienne did herself.
Not that that would be difficult.
Cloisonné House was awake and beginning to be lively when Nemienne arrived in late afternoon. But it was sufficiently early that the flower world still belonged almost entirely to itself. A girl came to the door in answer to Nemienne’s tentative rap, but her faint air of surprise said plainly that it was early for outsiders to arrive.
But the surprise on the girl’s face cleared at once when Nemienne gave her name. “You’re Moonflower’s sister, of course,” she said confidently. “My name’s Birre. You’re welcome, of course. Moonflower is busy dressing for the evening—she’s going to attend a small engagement. Rue will be with her, don’t worry about that.”
“That’s fine,” Nemienne said, wondering what she ought to have worried about. “Actually,” she added, since the opportunity presented itself, “I was hoping I might see Leilis? If she’s free?”
“Oh,” Birre said earnestly, “I’m so sorry. Leilis isn’t in Cloisonné House this evening. She went out early and I know she hasn’t yet returned because Mother was only just asking for her. We really can’t imagine what might have taken her away so long.” She looked a little worried, but then added with more cheer, “But then, Leilis always has good reasons for everything she does, and I’m sure she’ll be back soon. But it is too bad, with first that foreign lord and then you both looking for her. She’ll be sorry she missed you both, I’m sure.”
“Oh,” Nemienne said faintly, and then rallied and asked, with some trepidation, “What, um… the foreign lord? You don’t mean… not the same foreign lord who gave Prince Tepres a set of twin pipes? That the prince later gave Karah? That lord?”
“Why, yes.” The girl looked wistful. “The prince is in love with your sister, everyone in the House says so, and anyway it’s obvious. I saw him when I was carrying platters during his private engagement with your sister—he’s so splendid—and that foreign lord, so gracious, do you know he gave out a gratuity for all the servants? It’s a shame Leilis was already gone when he came by today. She ought to have been the one to accept it on our behalf, really—”
“Yes, I’m sure,” Nemienne said almost at random. “You mean the foreign lord was here today looking for Leilis? But she was already gone then?”
Birre gave her a mystified look. “Why, yes.”
“Um.” Nemienne hesitated. Leilis’s absence seemed important, but she was not really sure why. She asked after a moment, “Well, then, do you know when Karah will be free? In just a little while, you said? I think I really need to talk to her. Could I wait in her room? Or where would be convenient?”
Karah, of course, shared Rue’s room—Nemienne had forgotten. But Rue politely excused herself and left the sisters in privacy, only reminding Karah that she’d expect her to be ready for the engagement in half an hour.
“And I mustn’t be late, Nemienne, though of course it’s wonderful to see you,” Karah told her sister warmly.
Karah looked wonderful herself. She was wearing blue robes embroidered with dusky rose and white, and a strand of beads wound through her hair: black glass and hematite, white and black pearls, with three lapis beads neatly arranged where they would show to best advantage. She had her silver kitten on her knee. The kitten, amazingly, was not batting at the beads. With her hair up, Karah looked all grown up and every bit a keiso. Nemienne, despite the urgency driving her, paused for a moment in astonishment. She had somehow never thought of her sister as really a keiso, and Karah’s glamour startled her.