* * *
Lynx's shoulders slumped. Axel wasn't in the tapestry-hung room where the egg hunt-she refused to call it a raid-was to commence. Neither, she noted, was Lukan. As usual, Tao waited alone for her and Kestrel to join him.
On the other side of the hall, a mass of celebrating young high-born thronged a wooden archway. Shaped like a golden ostrich egg, it led into the labyrinth.
Tao looked bored. Lynx sympathized. Clearly, treasure hunts were not his pleasure, either. She smiled in greeting as she and Kestrel approached.
He seemed pleased to see her. "Missed you at breakfast, Lynx. Too much ball last night?"
"Something like that," she said dismissively.
Tao offered Kestrel his arm. It took her sister a moment to notice because her eyes darted around the hall.
Looking for Lukan, too?
Clearly not finding the object of her search, Kestrel smiled at Tao-it didn't quite wipe the disappointment off her face-and clasped arms with him. Sadness flickered through Tao's eyes and then vanished.
Lynx motioned to the labyrinth. "So how does all this work?"
"Everybody lines up at the archway, and when the trumpet blows, they take off into the labyrinth."
Lynx raised her eyebrows at the idea of all those people rushing headlong through the narrow entrance.
Tao nodded. "Those who survive the crush head out to find the treasure. Today, it's an egg."
Lynx suppressed a smile; so much for Kestrel's claims that there would be no unnecessary bloodshed.
"Surely our rank will let us go first?" Kestrel asked, staring bright eyed at the archway, her body quivering with excitement.
"No. It's precisely because of our rank we'll hold back. A treasure hunt is one of the few ways we spread wealth to the high-born." Tao cocked a finger at the exuberant youth waiting for the signal to start. "They love these events, even though most of them will be hopelessly lost in the first few minutes. It'll take hours for them to find their way out."
"Sounds awful," Lynx said. "How long does it take for the treasure to be claimed?"
"Expect to be here at suppertime." No wonder Tao looked so unenthusiastic.
Undeterred, Kestrel asked, "How many people will make it to the egg?" She was too busy eyeing her competition to hear Tao saying the hunt wasn't for them.
"Very few, and then they have to fight over it. But there are plenty of other sparkly trinkets hidden in the labyrinth to keep the excitement up. Almost everyone comes away with something." Tao smiled. "It keeps resentment at bay. They think the Avanovs are actually sharing with them."
"That's condemning," Lynx said, wishing she could get behind Tao's façade to read his real thoughts.
"The truth often is." Tao's beautiful blue eyes scanned the crowd, and then he sighed. "Lukan is turning out to be extremely trying." He shot Lynx a grin. "I blame you. Word of advice-hitting a man on the jaw isn't a good recipe for keeping him around."
Lynx cracked a small, contrite smile.
"Thank you, Tao," Kestrel said. "I've been trying to tell Lynx for days now to control her temper."
Lynx waved to the Lukan-free space around her. "And it turns out you are both right. I take my chastisement without murmur."
"That's good enough for me." Tao turned to the boisterous crowd. "Well, we can't wait for him, or we'll end up having a riot." He clicked his fingers to signal to the trumpeter. "Begin."
As the guardsman lifted the trumpet to his lips, Kestrel broke into a run, headed for the lineup. She called over her shoulder for Lynx and Tao to follow. Lynx folded her arms across her chest.
"Hey, come back," Tao shouted to Kestrel over the blast of the trumpet.
Either Kestrel didn't hear, or she chose to ignore him. Lynx suspected it was the latter but could do nothing about it as the crowd stampeded Kestrel through the archway.
Face distraught, Tao turned to Lynx. "How am I supposed to spend the rest of my life with a girl that pays me no mind? She's only interested in what she can get from me."
The rest of us have had to cope. Nice as you are Tao, what makes you different?
Lynx squeezed his arm. "I'm sorry, Tao, but my sister is a Norin. As you have seen, we don't take instructions well."
"‘Not taking instructions well' is an attribute I happen to admire. Being grasping and greedy is something else altogether. Hell, it's not like I haven't already given her some jewelry. And if she thinks I'm going to run after her when I told her it's not for us, then she has another thing coming."
Tao had the measure of Kestrel.
Still, Lynx wasn't going to let him get away with an attack on her family. "She also happens to be my sister," she said. "Please show her some respect."
"Yes," Tao agreed. "And Lukan is my brother. But that doesn't mean I'm blind to his faults. Trust me, he has plenty, as you have also seen."
"Whereas you and I are perfect?" Lynx asked with an arched eyebrow.
Tao snorted a laugh. "Of course. That goes without saying."
Lynx was rather pleased Kestrel had bolted. The rest of the crowd had also disappeared into the labyrinth, and she was alone with the enigmatic Tao Avanov. It was time to see if he could be trusted to get her letter safely through to Norin.
She cracked her sweetest smile and whispered, "I have two questions for you, Tao. Firstly, are we being watched? And, secondly, how does electricity work?"
Without missing a beat, Tao responded in perfect-but accented-Norin, "Watched? Definitely."
Lynx's hand flew up. "Whoa. You speak Norin?"
Tao laughed and said, still speaking Norin, "I look so much like you lot that I figured I'd teach myself the language."
Lynx grinned. "Well, you certainly are a marvel." She frowned. "Anyone else-"
"If you mean Lukan? No. He never bothered. If you can stand my accent, we'll continue this discussion in Norin, if you don't mind."
Lynx laughed, delighted with an ever closer link to Tao. "Your accent is probably as bad as mine, but as long as we understand each other, who cares?"
"My point exactly."
A thought struck. "Were you the ‘friend' Axel used to translate my conversation with my uncle?"
Tao nodded. "Quite a discussion that was." A quizzical smile. "Now, you're asking about electricity. It's like a river of cool heat flowing along special pathways, never stopping, never ending. Open a door to the pathway, and it can energize anything you want. That's the poetic explanation, but if it's technical specifications you need, ask Lukan." He paused. "But I doubt he'd tell you. He's not as forthcoming as me. Another of his faults I was telling you about."
Stunned by his frank answer, Lynx fell against the wall, sending up a cloud of dust from the tapestry. She shot forward, choking out a cough. Tao patted her on the back until she cleared her throat. "Well, that put me in my place."
Tao grinned at her. "Axel danced with you last night. He must like you a lot if he not only spared you the consequences of that conversation, but told you our deepest, darkest secret."
"You have secrets far worse than that." Lynx pointed to the diamond next to his eye.
Tao responded by touching it. "True. But it all starts with power." Despite speaking Norin, his voice dropped. "Care to take this conversation into the labyrinth? We're less likely to be overheard there."
Doubt flared in Lynx's chest. "I thought no one else but you spoke Norin."
"I'm not willing to take a chance on that. Are you?"
He had a point. But Lynx had no love for dark, dank places. "What about getting lost? The last thing I want is to spend the rest of the day wandering around a maze."
"There are enough escape routes to stop it being a spectacularly awful experience."
Lynx followed Tao through the archway into a narrow walkway. The black brick walls and low ceiling had no distinguishing features. Randomly placed candle sconces cast the only light. About fifty paces in, the passage branched, one going straight, another to the right, and the final one to the left.
Tao led her left. The path soon split, with more identical corridors forking off. Again, Tao chose without hesitation. Despite counting their steps, Lynx became disoriented. The passages were deserted, even though shouted voices echoed back at her. After walking in silence for almost five minutes, she noticed Tao watching her with an air of expectation.
"What?"
"We can talk here."
Nothing indicated that this eerily dark passage was any different than the others they had passed through.