Page 28 of A Forgery of Fate

“No one’sseen a dragon.”

“Then either you have a very powerful imagination, or you have Sight.” He tipped his head down, studying me. “Perhaps both.”

There was something unnerving about being stared at through a mask. It was his eyes, I decided. Bright and dark at once and utterly unfeeling. For the life of me, I couldn’t place where I had seen them before.

“I will keep this,” he said, rolling up the scroll. “And in return, I will permit you to leave this property.”

The nerve of this man. I was tired, apparently smelly, and running out of hope. But for Fal’s sake, I mustered some entrepreneurial spirit. “If you like it, I’d be willing to part with it. Say, for fifty thousand jens.”

Was that a laugh I heard behind the mask? Or a rude snort? I couldn’t tell.

“Don’t press your luck, thief. Begone before I change my mind about letting you live.”

I wouldn’t budge. “Fifty thousand jens.”

“The scratches on this page aren’t worth fifty let alone fifty thousand.”

“Then I’ll paint you another one. As many as you want. Right now.”

He leaned forward, smelling my desperation. “Pray tell, what does an urchin likeyouneed with such an inordinatesum?”

I considered lying, but there was no point. “My mother owes a debt. I have to pay before midnight.”

“Thus you thought to steal from me.”

“Technically, I thought to steal from Governor Renhai.”

He canted his head. “Then you’d have been caught, and short two hands by the morning. For naught, since Renhai has nothing worth stealing in his mansion.”

“So I made the better choice coming here?”

“That remains to be seen.”

I scowled, filled with loathing for this ogre of a man. What did he want me to do? Beg? My dignity could hardly stomach the thought. But for Fal and Nomi…I fell to my knees, bowing as low as I could. “My mother’s debt is owed to Madam Yargui,” I said. “If I can’t pay, she will take my sisters. Please, if you have any jens to spare…it’ll save my family.”

I heard a sniff. “Your personal matters are of no concern to me.”

He spun to leave.

“Wait!” I cried. “I’ll do anything.”

Too late, I regretted my big mouth. The Demon Prince halted in his step, his dark cloak billowing.

Up to this point, his every word had been a thorn in my side. But now, when he made no growl, no snarl or thunderous roar, it was his silence that was torture, an agonizing counterpoint to the unrest raging inside me.

At last he spoke, “Take this. It should be enough to pay off your mother’s lenders.”

He tossed a ring, the throw so crisp I caught it without realizing. I held it out on my palm, my knees buckling as I recognized what had come into my possession.

It was the ring from my vision, exactly as I’d drawn it:nine black pearls in a circlet around a giant white opal. Even the smudge on the opal was there—a cloudy reddish spot in one corner. At first I thought it was from the light, but it didn’t go away no matter how I angled the ring.

Strange,I thought. With a frown, I looked back at the garden.

Whenever a vision manifested into reality, an uncontrollable tremble came over me, making my teeth chatter. But in this moment, I felt nothing.

There were no larches here, I realized, and the hand I’d foreseen wearing the ring had been human. It couldn’t be the Demon Prince’s. So whose was it?

I tucked away my unease. “This is worth fifty thousand jens? You are sure?”

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