Page 10 of Requiem of Silence

“Oh, then happy birthday.” Zeli was very proud to know thatshe was nearly a month older, for all that she still looked like a child, nearly two heads shorter than them.

“You know… our sister is throwing us a party tonight—you should come.”

Her mouth gaped. “Oh, I… couldn’t. I’m not…”

“You are the custodian of one of our dear, departed mother’s prize valuables. You’re practically family now.”

She shook her head, smothering a grin. She had no idea if the figurine she carried had any value other than the sentimental, and she had no desire for the job of custodian. Attending the birthday party of the queen’s brothers was also not high on her list of things to do.

“Well, I’m very busy, I’ll have to see if I can fit it into my calendar,” she said, not looking at him.

“Of course, I know there must be a great many demands on your time, Zeli ul-Matigor, House of Bobcats.”

Was he making fun of her? But a look up revealed a solemn expression. Still, she narrowed her eyes. “For instance,” she said, stopping in the hallway. “Even now I’m on an errand for the Goddess Awoken. I need to find Queen Jasminda and deliver an important message. I’ve been looking for her for close to an hour.”

His brow descended. “No one will tell you where she is?”

“Not exactly. My Elsiran isn’t very good yet. There are some Lagrimari staff who’ve been helpful, but they’re few and far between.” And she hated having stilted, mimed conversations with Elsirans who already looked at her like she was an orphan dragged in off the streets. Which she was.

“Well, I can help you find her.” He waited until she looked at him again. “I can help you with your Elsiran, too, if you’d like.Papa, Roshon, and I have been working at the Sisterhood schools in town, but I could give you lessons… if you want.”

“You will help me learn?” she said in self-consciously stilted Elsiran.

His face lit up like a sunrise. “Absolutely. I’ll have you fluent in no time.” He rubbed his hands together in a way that alarmed Zeli further. He seemed entirely too happy about this.

“Why?”

“What?”

“Why help me? Tutor me? It will take quite a lot of time. Aren’t there balls or garden parties or underground cockfights or something you should be attending with the rest of the Elsiran aristocracy?”

He blinked, his face dimming. Several moments passed before he spoke. “I grew up on a farm in the middle of nowhere. I watched my father and sister be mistreated or ignored by nearly everyone we came in contact with because of their skin and their magic. I spent two years locked in a cell smaller than my closet here, with two other people. I’m not an aristocrat.”

His words weren’t accusatory, they were just a simple statement of facts, but Zeli’s heart sped with shame all the same. She began to sputter an apology, when he stuck out his hand toward her, thumb up.

“We should shake on it.”

She raised her brows in question.

“Our deal. I’ll help you find my sister, and work on your Elsiran with you.”

“How is that a deal? What do you get in return?”

He grinned. “I get to spend time with a pretty girl.”

She rolled her eyes so hard she almost got a headache. If she thought he was actually serious she would have walked away—shewas not interested in the flirtations of an insouciant Elsiran boy—but the glint in his eye made her stay. Coming from anyone else, she’d feel like she was the butt of some joke, but from him the compliment seemed offhand, like the effervescence of his frothy personality. And since the statement was patently ridiculous, she dismissed it, staring at his outstretched hand.

“What is ‘shake on it’?”

“It’s how they seal a deal in Yaly. They grab hands and shake them.”

Why he would want to mimic the habits of the place where he’d been held captive, she had no idea. Yet she tentatively extended her arm in a similar manner. Varten’s warm, dry hand enveloped hers and squeezed, pumping it up and down.

“Excellent. Now let’s go find my sister.”

CHAPTER FOUR

Foundation stones do not bear

---