“I wanted to talk to you. It’s important. I need your help.”
“Is this about Luca von Raske? You told me you would tell me how the investigations were going, but you haven’t said a word.”
“It’s not about him. It’s about my investigation with Villiam.” As we walk, I am careful to keep my voice low as I explain what I have learned over the past two weeks to Nicoleta. “Chimal wants Hawk involved in the wedding that is happening in two weeks.”
“Absolutely not. Honestly, I’m shocked that Villiam would stand by Chimal’s suggestion.”
“He gave me a day to think it over, at least,” I say.
Nicoleta turns the copper coins over in her hand as she thinks. “They don’t have any evidence to support their claims that this so-called Alliance is responsible. I’m worried that Villiam is simply pulling you into his political affairs.”
“Whether or not the Alliance is responsible, these affairs will one day become my own. I want to help him. I just don’t want Hawk involved.”
Nicoleta ponders this. “Why is he so set on Hawk?”
“He said the Up-Mountainers will be prepared for normal forms of jynx-work. Obviously, Hawk’s abilities are unique.”
We approach a small vending cart, only now opening its shop. The vendor, a young man with a birthmark on his cheek, smiles as Nicoleta approaches. “I gave you some extra licorice cherries this time. I know how you like them.”
“They’re for my brothers, actually. That’s very kind of you.”
Nicoleta fishes in her pocket for some extra coins, but when she hands them to the man, he shakes his head. “They are a gift.” He smiles a second time, and Nicoleta does her best to appear gracious. He must not know that she has never been inclined toward men.
She takes them, looking more than a little uncomfortable. I wonder if she still misses Adenneya. Their relationship ended nearly a year ago, and, unlike Venera, Nicoleta avoids all discussion of her private life. I should ask Luca how well he knows Adenneya. And if she misses Nicoleta, as well.
As we leave, I realize with mild annoyance that the man never paid me a moment of attention, not even to inquire who I am. I suddenly feel very much like the ugly sister.
“He always gives me gifts,” she says. “He won’t let me refuse. I’d go elsewhere, but he’s the closest vendor in the neighborhood...” She shakes her head. “Petty problems. We need to figure out what to tell Villiam. I don’t want Hawk learning of this. She would jump at the opportunity for a little thrill.”
“We could find someone else.” I think of Narayan, the so-called ghost-worker. But even if his abilities would be extremely valuable to Chimal, he’s a drunk. We couldn’t possibly trust him with the importance of this mission. Luca wouldn’t be much use, either. Faking his death won’t help us sneak in and out of the event.
“What about me?” Nicoleta asks.
I pause. Is she serious? “Chimal might be interested. But your abilities aren’t that reliable.”
“It’s worth a shot,” she says strongly.
“It’s going to be dangerous. That’s an awful lot to gamble on.”
“I don’t know whether the Alliance is responsible for what happened to Gill and Blister—I don’t have any idea what happened. But I want to help you. We’ll tell Chimal that this is your best offer.” She holds her head higher, as if readying herself for a battle, even if she has never been in one. I don’t know what Chimal will think of commanding our show manager, but I, like Nicoleta, figure it is worth a shot.
“We’ll talk to them tonight.”
*
“The medicine is working, sweetbug,” Kahina says, resting her purple-veined hand against mine.
“You don’t seem better,” I say, swatting one of her plants out of my face.
“I’m not worse.”
I avoid looking at the sickness crawling across her skin. Not worsening isn’t progress. I try not to think about how we might be only stalling the inevitable, but the thought remains, whispering at the edges of my mind.
“Nicoleta tells me that you’ve been going out at night, that you sometimes return later than Venera,” Kahina says. “Now, I love Venera dearly, but I don’t like the idea—”
“I’m not partying,” I say, though I don’t tell her the truth, that I’ve been sneaking out to question suspects with Luca.
My memories of last night send flutters through my stomach. I have the urge to squeal like a child, and an equal urge to bury myself in a mountain of blankets and hide from the world. And to smack Hawk and Unu and Du silly. I humiliated myself. How am I going to face Luca in a few hours?
“Is the investigation with Villiam too pressing for you? I didn’t want you involving yourself with his work until you were eighteen.”
“Villiam and you decided that?” I say.
“When you were young. Villiam wanted to start you earlier, but I didn’t think it was the best idea. He eventually relented.”
When I was younger, I remember Kahina and Villiam consulting each other, but now they speak so rarely. It isn’t so much that they had a falling out, but they no longer need to discuss me like they did when I was a child. I’m really the only thing they have in common, after all.
“If you’re not partying, may I ask what you are doing?” Kahina says.
“I’ve made a friend.”
“A nice friend?”
“Yes. A nice friend,” I say, smirking. I begin the story with the truth, that I met Luca in Villiam’s tent that night in Frice. The story quickly transforms into a jumble of lies about how I sought out Luca’s show, how we spend our time learning the secrets people tell him. The words taste oddly sweet on my tongue. It’s a pleasant story. Much more pleasant than the truth, that we spend our time searching for a murderer within Gomorrah. That I spend all my time finding justice for my family.
“You say Luca is an Up-Mountainer?” Kahina asks, a bit warily. “Sorina, you cannot trust new Up-Mountainers in Gomorrah. They come to take advantage of people here and then they leave.”
“I don’t think he has any intentions of returning home.”
“They always say that, in the beginning. Until they grow tired from moving city to city. Until they travel below the Mountains and are confronted with the evil of their people face-to-face.”
It’s true that Luca has not traveled with Gomorrah long enough for him to reach the Down-Mountains. It’s difficult to picture him wearing anything but his structured, crisp Up-Mountain clothes. I smile at the image of him roaming the Forty Deserts in his velvet vest.
Nevertheless, I also cannot picture him leaving, and I don’t feel like continuing this discussion with Kahina. “I was wondering if you’d do a reading for me,” I say.
“About your new friend, perhaps?”
“Yes.” It was only a week and a half ago that Kahina saw nothing in my romantic future, but that seems to have changed. Would she see Luca’s name written in my tea leaves now?
“I’ll grab the coin pot,” she says, though it’s across the room on one of her shelves.
“No tea leaves?”