Folding the Sky

-10-

"She's lived her whole life as royalty," Zuri said, amused. "Do you expect her to be the most selfless person on the planet?"

"No," Aldric said, "but I do expect her to have at least a modicum of respect for other people."

That was a fair expectation. Zuri couldn't argue with that one. "Well," she said, "so long as she's on this mission she doesn't have everyone doing everything for her anymore. She'll learn. She has to."

Aldric paused a moment, ceasing his tapping. He asked, his tone precarious, "Why is she here, anyway?"

"What do you mean?"

"She's the Queen's only child," Aldric explained, raising his eyebrows, "and a Celestial, to boot. The Queen should be wanting to keep her close. So why did she send her to a foreign place with a group of total strangers? That doesn't concern you?"

Unease filled Zuri's veins; she felt it, like a cold, cold river flowing beneath her skin. She could not fight a shudder.

"It didn't," she told Aldric, "but now that you've pointed it out, it's beginning to."

"Is Sinje as abysmally hot as everyone says it is?" asked Kalindi, her brows knitted with genuine interest. "I packed a lot of warm weather garments. So I'd just like to know."

The tailor seated across from her took a moment to answer. The word that first came to Kalindi's mind when she saw Chike was this: simple.

He was a simple man. There was nothing extravagant about his appearance; his close-cropped hair and the nondescript, earthy hues of his clothes suggested he didn't prioritize luxury. His eyes were large and childlike, an unremarkable shade of brown, but warm with intelligence. A row of slightly crooked teeth showed each time his lips parted, and even the way he spoke was simple, to the point.

It wasn't that people like Chike were beneath Kalindi, exactly. There were just some people who were born for greater things, and some who were not. It was the way of the world. Quite simple.

Chike thought about it for a moment, then said, his finger still poised upon his chin, "I don't think I would say it's abysmal. A river runs right through the center of it all, anyway, so you can always cool off somewhere. And in the winter sometimes the temperature will dip enough where you can wear long socks without sweating too badly."

"Long socks!" Jem exclaimed with mock enthusiasm. "Oh, boy."

The actress's daughter was another anomaly. Her outspokenness had peeved Kalindi at first, like the voice of someone in a crowd who was speaking just a bit too loudly. But people like Jem had always lived in the spotlight, Kalindi supposed, more accessible to the public in a way the royals weren't. She was used to attention, and lots of it.

"I'm just answering honestly," Chike said. "You're the one who signed up for this."

"The other option was die, more or less, so no, not really."

Her attention drifted from the conversation for a moment; instead, Kalindi found her gaze lifting towards the door out of which the assassin had just vanished, followed shortly after by the mindreader. The assassin was just that—an assassin. If not for her mother's request he surely would have perished alone in a jail cell. The other one, Zuri, was the one Kalindi couldn't quite pin yet. She was elusive, like a colorful, fluttering insect one catches only a glimpse of in a garden. But was the color indicative of beauty, or danger?

Kalindi wasn't sure yet.

"You know what I don't get?" Jem was saying. Without waiting for acknowledgment, she continued: "The Queen has a fully functioning Royal Militia. Why not send them after this Vernon Schmitt person?"