Havemercy. Part 13

So Royston had been with me last night, and before head left, head seen fit to cover me.

Wead spent the night together. Iad slept with Royston by my side, a thrilling and awful realization at once. What if Iad kicked him in my sleep, or elbowed him in the stomach? What if Iad snored, or mumbled while dreaming? And where had he gone, leaving me here alone?

There was no clock in my little room. I didnat know what time it was, if I had overslept or imagined everything. For all I knew, Royston was gone already.

I was beginning to doubt myself for a complete raving madman when there were two short knocks against the door.

That was our signal.

My hands froze, and I couldnat help but wonder if perhaps I hadnat imagined the whole thing after all.

A moment later my suspicions were dispelled. aAre you decent?a Roystonas voice called through the doorway, and I could have laughed or cried for gladness, however much the question made me blush.

aI am always decent,a I replied, feeling somewhat impish in my relief. Though that wasnat entirely truea"a few of the b.u.t.tons on my shirt had come undonea"and I was in the middle of fixing them when the door swung open and Royston stepped inside.

Royston stood there, expression inscrutable but his eyes impossibly warm. In his left hand he held my best pair of boots, the leather ones that the chatelain had bought for me when it was first decided Iad be staying at Nevers to teach Alexander and William their basic grammar and histories.

aThose are my boots,a I said lamely, pausing mid-b.u.t.ton.

aYes,a Royston said, not looking away from me. aThey are indeed. Youare going to need them, I should think, if youare to leave with me in ten minutes. Iave settled it all with my brother; I have miraculously managed to convince him that you deserve a finer education than is available to you here.a Without betraying a single emotion, Royston set the boots down just inside the door. aI believe you might also want to change into your weekend finest, though of course once we come to Thremedon Iall have an entirely new wardrobe made for you, should you like it. Theyare terribly obsessed with fashion there, and I think youad look very fine in high-collared blue, unless thatas gone out while Iave been away.a He must have seen my bafflement, for after a momentas pause he continued, aDonat worry. It wonat be any trouble at all. I shall have to have my tailor make up new clothes for me as well if I want to look presentable. I simply thought that I might bring you along and make a day of it.a aRoyston,a I began, then snapped to attention at once. aWhen must I be ready?a aTen minutes, if you can,a Royston said. aIall leave you to it.a He gave me a private smile before ducking out.

I was ready in six.

CHAPTER EIGHT.

THOM.

I began to have dreams of flying.

This wasnat so surprising. Iad never been up in the air before Rook manhandled me onto Havemercy, and it was such an incredible thing I didnat wonder at the impression it left upon me. Yet at the same time, in the course of just one night, Rook had managed to throw off my entire balance, ruin all my equilibrium, and send all my a.s.sumptions into the sort of tailspin head maneuvered at one point over the Cobalt Range. I didnat know what to make of ita"or of him.

The most I knew was that I couldnat stop dreaming about it.

I couldnat get the grease out of my hair or the soot out from under my fingernails, and sometimes in the night I startled myself awake by catching the lingering smell of sulfur still clinging to my skin. Naturally, this meant I spent most of my time weary and also uselessa"for now that the airmen were back in the air, it seemed that the purpose for my presence was obsolete. At any moment I expected to kiss all dreams of a grant from thaEsar good-bye. My one reprieve was, now that all the airmen were doing nightly raids, everything smelled of smoke and ash and grease, so at least Chief Sergeant Adamo wouldnat notice one more man in the Airman who reeked of it.

It was then that the invitation arrived. Or rather, all fifteen of them.

There was one for each of the airmen, and one for me. We were all guests of honor at thaEsaras ball tomorrow evening as a part of the citywide festivities to celebrate our impending victory, which was apparently much closer at hand than anyone had known until now. The few times Iad left the Airman to clear my head, the city had been full of uncertainty, men and women not liking what it meant that the raids had started back up again without warning. Thremedon was too far from the border to see the effects of the war in the city itself, but the people werenat deaf, and those in Miranda especially must have heard the raid siren going off every night. The last thing Iad expected now was a festival. Then again, it would probably do everyone some good, and if the end of the war was truly as close as thaEsar said, then we were all due a little celebration.

It was only that, to my eyes, thaEsaras ball was going to be much more like a performance evaluation than a party. I was reminded that the Dragon Corps was especially required at the ball, in order to show off their newly acquired etiquette and manners.

I thought I was going to be sick when I read this final, personal addendum on my invitation. We hadnat done our exercises in weeks, and there wasnat a man in the lot who had any reason to make anything other than a fool out of me for all the torture Iad put them through. Showing them up in front of one another with those role cards had seemed a brilliant idea at the time, but it certainly hadnat done anything to dispel the animosity between me and Rook. I knew that without Rookas support, I would be completely disgraced in front of everyone. It was quite possible theread be another international incident.

In short, I was going to be ruined.

Since there was no way around it, I resigned myself to it. When thaEsar himself sent his personal tailor to fit me with suitable attire for the coming festivities, I held out my arms and let my measurements be taken with a sort of mechanical numbness.

And I was still dreaming of being up in the air, the electric friction and the sheer exhilaration of almost dying, the world falling away beneath me, the wild madmanas cries Rook let out as he dove toward the ground. It was quite obvious Iad lost my mind.

I didnat see much of Rook himself after that night, for it seemed that he was called out most often despite the arrangement of signing up that Adamo had explained to me one day when wead found ourselves both in the common room at the same time with no polite way of excusing ourselves. As for Adamo, he continued to display the same peculiar kindness toward me that he had since the war had started back up, and whether it was simply pity rather than an appreciation of my position or skills, I didnat know.

I had a feeling it was the former, but I would still take what I could get.

Curiosity continued to overwhelm mea"or perhaps it was simply that I could still smell on my skin the evidence of a city being burnt weeks after the fact. In any case, when next I found myself accompanied in the common room by a noisy game of darts that appeared to have no rules to it whatsoever, I let my interest get the better of me.

aWhy is it that Rook goes out so often?a I was combing over my notes in an attempt to gather at least a concise report of what Iad learned in my time here, that I might have something to present to thaEsar when he demanded it.

aWell, heas the best, isnat he?a Niall threw his dart, whereupon it stuck deep into the wall. He punched the air, and gave his companions a condescending look. Whatever their target was, I could only a.s.sume head hit it dead center.

aWell,a said Raphael, aand he signs up for all the extra shifts.a aIs he kind of like a madman?a I said without thinking.

Niall only laughed while Compagnon went to the wall, examining the shapes made by the darts with what I thought looked like a compa.s.s.

aIt doesnat count,a he said at last, and Raphael held out his hand as though expecting to be paid.

Niall ignored him. aThereare the fourteen of us, yeah? Three a night, if we go out every night, then it depends on what you fly because youave got to balance out your attributes.a Compagnon set to giggling over aattributes.a I listened like a student.

aAnything more than that is extra, see? So if the fightingas really bad, and we want a leg up, weall take the girls in twice a night,a Niall went on. aThe extra shifts used to be real necessary when the war was wilder years back and thaEsar didnat want to give them any kind of a chance to rebuild. And itas a volunteer system, see, only no one really wants to sign up for any of those shifts unless theyare a.s.signed to aem proper, since it means that much less sleep, so Adamo used to just put our names up there; didnat even bother disguising his handwriting, just wrote aem up there neat as you please.a I nodded, swallowing the urge to polish his speech. With the ball looming in my mindas eye, I had to be particularly gracious if I had any hope of earning their sympathy and cooperation.

aDonat get me wrong,a Niall concluded, abecause weare all keen on the flying, else we wouldnat be here, you know? But Rookasa"Rookas built like a dragon himselfa"more comfortable in the air than he is on the ground, plus heall blast right through anyone as tries to get in his way.a aAlso,a said Compagnon slyly, aheas made of metal, so that he can go all night long.a Raphael groaned and threatened to stick him with the compa.s.s in what sounded like a not only painful but quite physically impossible feat.

I wanted to ask how many of them had ever flown with pa.s.sengers, but something bid me hold my tongue.

There hadnata"so far as I could seea"been any consequences for Rook having taken me up on his dragon. It seemed odd to think that no one might have noticed, when it had changed something so surely within me. I felt as though the information must have been branded across my forehead in a way entirely different from the ash under my fingernails and the greasy smell of firesmoke still clinging to my hands and hair.

More than once after that night Iad dreamed of the fires in Molly, and woke with my heart pounding to find myself alone, a shaft of moonlight spilling across the floor of the Airmanas common room.

If Rook had known how I felt about fire, then surely he would have done it on purpose, but I couldnat see fit to accuse him of the things that werenat his fault, especially as those occurred so few and far between.

I went for a walk that evening to collect my thoughts.

Certainly, when Iad been put to the challenge of rehabilitating thaEsaras Dragon Corps, I hadnat agreed to anything like exile. The city stretched from the door of the Airman, same as it had from the aVersity, and there was no reason for me to stay locked away like a heroine of fairy talesa"though as luck would have it, the airmen would have paid more attention if Iad been possessed of b.r.e.a.s.t.s and a skirta"and my obstinacy in this regard was faintly maddening. The more time pa.s.sed, the less inclined I was to leave the building; now, when I went for a walk, it was simply up and down the halls, being turned about by my surroundings like a rat in a maze.

Some small irrational part of me knew that if I allowed myself to leave now, even for an hour, some sea changea"some disastrous rolling of the collective minda"would destroy any work Iad managed to accomplish with these men, and they would go back to being exactly the way theyad always been, as opposed to exactly the way theyad always been with an ever-so-slight variation: the occasional kindnesses they afforded me, by habit or by forgetfulness. My only hope was that slight variations were all the fashion this season, and that thaEsar, while not providing me with a grant, would at least allow me to leave in one piece.

Everything depended on Rook. That was the plain hard truth, and mine was not a comfortable position to be in. While the other airmen seemed to have taken to me with a reasonable tolerancea"similar to what one might project toward a neglected family peta"Rook had experienced no such change of mind. In the end he held sway over the othersa"with perhaps the notable exception of Chief Sergeant Adamoa"and I knew that they would follow his lead, both here and at the ball.

In Molly there was a saying that you shouldnat think too hard on the things you didnat want to come to pa.s.s. It was superst.i.tious nonsense, of course, woven by mothers who didnat wish their children to dwell on negative thoughts, as though by merely contemplating something or someone you could draw it from the ether like a ghost from the darkness.

My luck, however, was a matter entirely different when it came to suspicion, and when Rook stumbled from his room, reeking of acrid smoke and covered in ash, as if he hadnat bothered to shower before head rolled off Havemercy and gone right back to sleep, I knew that it had nothing to do with whether Iad been thinking of him or not.

He barely spared me a glance, pale-rimmed eyes bright and awake despite his rumpled appearance.

aI,a I began before I could stop myself, and he halted.

I realized with a fleeting panic that I didnat know what Iad meant to say, that Iad only called out to keep him from ignoring me entirely the way head begun to do of late. Normally this would have been a blessing, to be overlooked after months of malevolent attention, but instead I only felt cut off, alone. I thought it must have been the flying, that in him somewhere there was the evidence that had stripped my theories from me as surely as old bark, and I couldnat let it just pa.s.s by.

I was certainly losing my mind, then.

aIam waitina,a Rook said roughly.

aI, ah, I wanted to thank you,a I said, taken aback at the words coming out of my own mouth.

Judging by Rookas expression, so was he.

aDonat know what for, unless itas not killing you in your sleep.a He smiled then, and I waited for the familiar fear to grip me. It did not. Instead when he looked at me I felt his expression was not unlike my dreams of flyinga"the faint echo of something elusive and strange.

aFor, well, the additional perspective,a I answered honestly, recovering myself as best I could. aAnd for . . . not letting me fall.a aYeah, well. I didnat do it for you.a He shrugged, though whether he was talking about catching my wrist or taking me up into the air in the first place I couldnat guess. His hair looked filthy, almost tan instead of golden, and I wondered how it would be possible for him to be clean by tomorrow night when it had taken me over a week to get to anything near resembling my state before Iad clambered onto that dragon in the first place.

aNo,a I agreed quickly, for no matter how Iad lost my mind, I was quite aware that nothing Rook did was for my own benefit. aI know that. I onlya"I didnat know. I mean I suppose I knew, but not in the same way as, as when we were flying.a aYou mean when I was flying,a Rook cut in. aYou were hanging on and screaming like a wh.o.r.e either done real wrong or real nice.a I drew a deep breath, determined not to allow him to get the better of me so close to this trial set by thaEsar. aI was not,a I said, ascreaming.a aAnd you donat know everything about everything, even with that fancy aVersity education of yours,a he went on as though he hadnat heard me at all. aWe act different acause we are different, not because we never had the right nannies come around to teach us all how to play nice and all that s.h.i.t.a aYouare still human,a I said quietly. aSo I suppose you can act like one.a aThen youad be supposing dead wrong, professor,a he replied, looking down his long nose at me. aCanat be human and fly the dragons. Thatas just the way it works.a It was the most terrible thing Iad ever heard, and truly maddening if that was what all of them believed. Yet somehow I got the sense that this was a notion particular to Rook, though it didnat make me feel any better. aYou must be,a I insisted, with no real idea of what it was that I was so insistent against. aYouare just hiding behind the dragons, using them as . . . as an excuse for whatever reasons you have for wanting to act as though youare completely emotionless. No man is made of metal.a He shook his head, and stepped so close that I could smell the nightas raid on hima"dragonmetal and the burning strongholds of the Ke-Han. I wondered dizzily if it were possible that this man was made of metal. aYou donat listen, and I ainat patient, but Iall say it again: Itas not an act. In the air I canat be thinking about how I feel, much less how my actions affect everything going on around me. You go up, you do the job, you come back. Isnat anything other than that, and if you get it confused, youall die because some other son-of-a was smart enough not to.a aBut you canat spend your life on the ground as if youare still in the air,a I said, clinging to my faint and crumbling resolve. For one wild moment I thought I could smell something below the fire, anger or something sharper. But scenting such human emotions was a particular skill of the airmen and not one I could have learned through propinquity.

Rook swallowed something back, frowning like it nearly choked him to do it, then turned on his heel. as.h.i.t, professor. And you think weare the stubborn ones.a This time I was powerless to stop him as he walked away, my boots planted as though glued to the floor.

aAnyway,a he called back over his shoulder, aI got some cleaning up to do. Have you heard? Seems weave been invited to a partya"and from the looks of it, weare the Ke-Han-f.u.c.king guests of honor!a He had impeccable aim. Perhaps it came from so long a time spent up in the air, or from his skill at the airmenas complicated and seemingly incomprehensible game of darts, but he managed to hit home each time with his sly words. It was obvious that the airman Rook had my number, that for all my aVersity schooling we were on uneven ground, and we both knew it instinctively, in the same way cats know to chase mice or hawks to drop down from the sky upon rabbits with deadly accuracy.

I had the distinct sense that the ball was going to be a disaster. I knew my etiquette better than a single one of the airmena"except, perhaps, for Balfour, whoad been raised in high societya"yet I wasnat so vital to Volstovas success in the war. And any slip I made, no matter how slight, would be on par with the most egregious of Rookas errors.

ThaEsar had no reason to be so lenient when punishing me as he did when punishing his elite Dragon Corps, scourge of the skies, heroes of the bastion.

I hardly slept at all that night, and spent the day before the evening of the ball trying once again, however futile the endeavor was, to cohere my notes into some semblance of an order. Surely I must have learned something vital in all my time spent sleeping on a couch in the Airman and enduring the cruelest of the corpsa insults. Surely I must have in turn imparted some learning of my own. Yet the more I read over my notes, the more I noticed how uninformed I was. If the riders of the Dragon Corps were incapable of understanding the rules of the rest of society, then it was equally true that the rest of society was incapable of understanding the rules of the Dragon Corps. Each was governed by vastly different principles; the motivating factors for behaving politically were like the structure of outlandish foreign grammar to the airmen, and I was at last beginning to understand why. Still, it was no excuse for them to behave as pigs to their fellowmen, or for them to treat women as objects to be bartered and discussed like horses, or to look down upon all of Arlemagne for doing their best to stay out of our war. The airmen didnat have to agree with other opinions, and they certainly didnat have to follow other menas rules all that often, but they did have to acknowledge that these things existed.

I couldnat imagine what they would do once their services were no longer required.

This was always the trouble with learning, I remembered from my first few courses at the aVersity. The more you were informed, the less you realized you knew, and the point between grasping new knowledge and abandoning the old was as precarious as straddling a great divide, being torn in both directions and terrified of falling between with neither side to support your theories.

I wished Marius were close by to tell me I was overthinking the issue and should take a deep breath and confront, as simply as possible, all the things I knew. If I were to do him proud, I would gather my results without any preconceptions and allow them to shape their own conclusion. This was the mark of a true scholar, if not a great one.

Yet there was no real time for such intellectual pursuits. Sometime after midday the tailor brought my clothes for their final fitting, and meanwhile all of the Airman was gradually being filled with the sound of new boots being broken in before that eveningas dancing. While the tailor adjusted the inseam of my trousers, I managed to catch bits and pieces of a lively story Magoughin was telling about the daughters of the new Arlemagne diplomata"the other one, presumably, had been asked to cool his heels for a while, and was perhaps mending his now-tenuous relationship with his wife. I even caught, tacked on to the end of the story almost as an afterthought, Magoughinas realization that: aNow weave been trained to act like proper gentlemen, though, I donat suppose we can take them back with us afterward and show them a thing or two about Volstov?a Compagnonas giggling nearly obscured Jeannotas wry reply, which was, as far as I could make it out, aA thing or three, knowing your tastes.a aIad rather be at Benoiteas party if allas said and done,a Ghislain admitted, abut I guess a man canat turn down thaEsar when heas invited somewhere, and heas thaEsar anyway, so chances are heall have the best wine, if not the friendliest ladies.a After that, all was drowned out by a chorus of laughter, whereupon the tailor said I was twisting around too much, and in order to make his job less impossiblea"and to avoid being stuck in the thigh by any needlesa"I stopped trying to eavesdrop on their conversation and consigned myself to my thoughts once more.

By the time my suit was finished, the Airman clock had tolled six hours past noon, and the members of the corps were beginning to gather in the common room, each one of them dressed in Volstovas most recognizable uniform.

I myself was wearing the sort of fabric I never had the cause or the money to purchase for myself while I was a student. It was soft and heavy at once, and fit slim where it needed to, rather than bulking up as a less expensive grade would. The collar and lapels of the jacket were wide after the latest fashion, the sleeves long. The tailor had decided that the best color for my eyes and my complexion was a sort of bottle green, and the outfit had even come with handsome, tall leather boots, heavy buckles at the ankles, and stiff white gloves.

It was safe to say, as the airmen came in to wait and laugh and joke with one another, and lounge easily in their finery, that Iad never felt so out of place in my entire life.

I was a plain-looking sort of persona"neither ugly nor handsomea"and though, as the tailor said, the color of the suit did hint at the green in my eyes, whenever I caught sight of myself in the mirror I felt startled by how different my usual perception of myself was from the present reality. When compared to the airmen, each man striking in his own way, I felt even more ridiculously common, like a little boy from the Mollyedge dressed up but nevertheless revealed for what he really was.

I wasnat one of these men, part of their brotherhood. Never before had I felt so much of an intruder on their comfort, their rituals, their way of life.

I sat on the arm of my couch-bed with my gloves held in my hands, waiting with the rest for our carriages to come, and yet not with the rest at all. When Jeannot came in, he was called over to talk with Ghislain, Ace, and Balfour; likewise, when Niall made his entrance, he was beckoned to the smaller group of Raphael and Compagnon. All the men were dressed in their Dragon Corps uniforms: dark blue jackets and silver b.u.t.tons, gold epaulettes, slim white trousers, and high black boots. Grouped together, the airmen reminded me of a collection of gems, each one cut differently, but all of them polished so brightly they shone.

The last man to make his arrival was, of course, Rook; it wasnat because I was looking for him that I noticed this detail, but rather the ubiquity of his presence in any room. In that way he was exactly like a dragon: mythical, enormous, surreal.

He entered in grand style, kicking the door open and immediately engaging Ivory in some heated discussion about what had been done with Rookas favorite earrings, and how they f.u.c.king werenat lying around just so some son-of-a could give them to his lady friend. They were apparently the finest Ke-Han gold, fashioned into Ke-Han loops, and I wondered, not for the first time, at Rookas decision to wear his hair in Ke-Han braids and pierce his ears with demarcations of Ke-Han warrior status, when he was known throughout Ke-Han as a murdering G.o.d, capricious, merciless, and cruel.

In the spirit of the eveninga"and perhaps to match the royal blue of the Dragon Corps jacketa"head redyed the blue streaks in his golden hair, and his eyes were bright in the candlelight.

There was a moment when I felt as if he were watching me, but all at once there was a commotion from without, then everyone was rushing toward the door.

aThatall be the carriages,a Balfour told me, adjusting his white gloves one last time before he, too, followed the crowd.

I soon saw why they were all so quick to scramble for their carriages, for those left behind had no choice in where they sat, and everyone was shoving in every which way like children who didnat want to be left behind. Since I brought up the rear, I was stuck in with Rook and Magoughina"three men to a carriagea"with them telling lewd jokes the entire way and occasionally looking over to me with quite pointed expressions, leaving me no need to wonder if they were doing it on purpose.

And then, we arrived at the palace.

It was lit up with countless glittering lightsa"the spires aglow, no doubt with magica"onion domes the color of the crown, golden and pearl white and midnight blue. It was a scene Iad viewed only distantly over the years from my various rooms along the aVersity stretch, which was, I realized now, too far away from the palace to do justice to the sight.

I felt all my breath leave me at once. Yet, though I waited for Rook to mock me about my wide-eyed aciva wonderment, he said nothing at all, although he did shove past me with no more than a grunt as he made his way out of the carriage and onto Palace Walk.

It, too, was alight with the shimmering of countless paper lanterns. They lined the pathway and the narrow flight of stairs up to the palaceas main doorway. The whole palace itself, while dark and spindly in the daytime, had taken on new life. To say I was overwhelmed would be something of an understatement.

The airmen had no reason to wait for me and so they didnat, filtering off ahead in chattering groups of threes and fours. I stood frozen, admiring the colored lights like a common child as the sharp sounds of their new boots against the ground faded off into the distance.

Then it occurred to me that it would be much worse to enter alone than in the wake of the airmen, where I might be able to escape attention entirely, and I moved quickly to catch up.

aPalace Walk ainat for running,a Adamo said to me as I came up to him. There was something strange about his face, I thought, and I couldnat place it until I realized that head shaved.

aIsnat,a I corrected him automatically, and slowed to the leisurely pace the other men were walking at.

He raised his eyebrows at me.

aAh,a I said, beginning to worry at my gloves the way Balfour did. aIam sorry about that.a He shrugged. aCanat help being the way you are.a I nodded, offering him a shaky smile of truce. It felt uncomfortably as though he were trying to make a point, and I was too nervous to be taught any more lessons by the very men Iad been charged to teach.

Up ahead tinkled a distinctly feminine peal of laughter, and I saw that Rook had been enveloped by a group of fashionably dressed women, their hair curled and pinned, gowns voluminous in gold and cream, as if theyad planned them to match the palacea"which in a way I supposed they could have. I didnat pretend to understand the minds of women, or at least these women. I knew that if Iad been female, the story of the Arlemagne diplomatas wife would have kept me as far away from hanging off Rookas arm as possible, and I would never have smiled so brightly at him, with teeth like rows of pearls.

Then Rook and his entourage of attractive young ladies disappeared, swallowed up by the light spilling out from the palace, and I was left frowning at the open doors with little reason or understanding.

aHeas doing very well,a said Adamo. I waited for a moment, to see if anyone else responded. Then, since I was still the only person next to him, I had to a.s.sume he was speaking to me.

aIa"who?a I asked. aRook?a He nodded, finding it perhaps harder than head antic.i.p.ated to hide his amus.e.m.e.nt without a full beard. aNone of those women are even anyone elseas wives.a HAL.

The city was alive.

That wasnat to say that there were more living things in it than in the country, for all during the carriage ride away from Castle Nevers, Royston waxed enthusiastic about the lack of small winged insects, and sheep, and ducks, and trees, until I was forced to aska"with impossible fondness, and not at all the exasperation Iad aimed fora"what it was they did have in the city, if not these things.

I should have known better.

My curiosity was rewarded with a sermon that approached the zeal of a man deeply religious or deeply in love; it spanned the length of our ride into Thremedon, transporting me out of our b.u.mping carriage where my elbows jostled against Roystonas. (The proper way to ride in a carriage I knew was to sit opposite your companion, but I found after the first mile or so, I was opposed even to this small distance between us, and had wedged myself quite firmly between him and the little window. I shouldnat have demanded so much, but he at least seemed untroubled by it, and was too caught up in speaking about the city to notice how I clung to his every word, or peered out the window like a child each time we turned a new corner.) He spoke of the Crescentsa"a district filled entirely with magiciansa"and the structurally unsound homes they built for beauty and kept aloft with magic. From his descriptions, I constructed in my head some approximation of their long, crooked towers and crabbed iron spires, with staircases that spiraled within as well as without and balconies on the rooftops. Most magicians, he explained, liked to be high up; it made them feel important. He laughed, and I imagined the buildings, crowding in on one another like children huddled together to keep out of the rain. Royston said that the enchantment set in place to hold the houses in the air was older than his grandfather, though the technology was in some ways a precursor to the dragons themselves. It had been the first Esar whoad gathered all the magicians with related Talents to place a lasting magic on the district, so that he would always know exactly where his most powerful magicians were living.

aHe likes to have all his chickens in one coop, so to speak,a Royston explained, a fleeting stoniness in his eyes and around his mouth. aIn case he is ever feeling less than favorably disposed toward them.a I nodded, wishing I hadnat asked in the first place.

Just off from the Crescents was Moon Street, he said, which was a bit of a step down as far as magic went. The people on Moon Street dealt in charms mostly, smaller Talents that could be bought or borrowed for a fee. They werenat true magiciansa"though their ancestors had been oncea"but the Wellas influence in their blood was long diluted over the years. When Royston first spoke of Moon Street it was clear that he didnat think much of it, but after a time he paused, traced the outline of his mouth with long fingers and beseeched me not to be influenced by his sn.o.bbish prejudices.