"The cold from outside is deep in my bones." I heard the rasp of her hands rubbing her skin.

"I have an idea. Come, my dove."

Elwood and Leda's naked feet came into view. A ropey scar twined about Elwood's hairy ankle. He led her into the washroom, turning on the tap for the bath, but he paused before joining her.

"A moment, my sweet."

His feet grew closer. He paused by his trousers, which were right by the bed. He reached down and I saw his hand, a scant few inches from my face. He rummaged in the pockets of his trousers and found a lambskin prophylactic. We were as quiet as could be, but his hands and feet stilled. He went about the room, opening the wardrobe door and rifling behind his clothing. The Shadow came back toward the bed. He began to crouch. I tensed, ready to fight him, my body thrumming with nerves.

"Sweetling," Leda called from the washroom. "The water is warm. What's taking so long?"

Shadow Elwood paused. He laughed ruefully. "Coming, my darling." He padded to the washroom. As soon as the door closed, Drystan and I were out from under the bed, covered in dust. At the door from the bedroom to the living room, I paused to crouch and grab the notebook, but Drystan's hand stopped me. He shook his head.

"He'll know someone was here," he mouthed.

He'll know anyway, I wanted to say, but I left it.

We darted through the lounge and opened the window, hoping the running bath would cover the sound. Within moments, we were back on the frigid windowsill, stuffing our feet into our boots, and then shimmying down the frozen drainpipe. Drystan took the Eclipse and turned it off. This time, I felt a surge of energy. The street was empty and deserted but for Cyan. She started walking toward home, and we followed her, shadows with secrets.

14.

THE DAMSELFLY.

"Dreams hold the answers, even if the questions are not yet known."

Elladan proverb I was in a garden.

Chimaera strolled along the paths. Most were dragonfly, like me, but several fauns and naiads lounged beneath the trees. The air was thick with a sweet perfume of hundreds of blossoms. Early afternoon lengthened to evening. The small Venglass domes that lined the path glowed in the soft dusk.

I stretched my arms over my head, content in the moment. All was well. I ran my hands over the warm, iridescent flesh of my arms. Blood flowed through my veins, not metal wires. My wings buzzed behind me, swirling my hair about my face. I turned to the Chimaera beside me. My love.

"I like this life," he murmured. "Everything seems to have worked out well this time, has it not?" His voice was as familiar to me as the birds' calls at dawn. The peacock blue and green sheen of his markings glittered in the glowing light of the Venglass.

"It has. It is a welcome respite." Unbidden, the memories of the murdered boy, my dear Nian, came to me. I wished I could forget it, but there are some memories that even dozens of lives will not erase, no matter how much we would wish otherwise. "That death is still a black mark in my ledger."

"We have all the time in the world to make it right," he said, his hand just grazing my jawline. "All the time we need."

I stared at two fauns on the grass, one playing music that drifted through the air like the scent of the flowers. "I hope you are right. Sometimes, I cannot lose the feeling that we do not have as much time as we would like. That there are only so many lives we can live."

"I am always right, when it comes to these things." He held me close for a kiss. He tasted of honeysuckle, his fingertips as light on my face as rose petals. I drew him in for a deeper kiss, pressing against the man as familiar to myself as my own skin. In every life, we found each other, no matter the distance. My Relean.

Above us, the sky blazed. We broke apart, shielding our eyes from the light with our hands. It was as though the sunset returned, lighting the sky with the colors of a forest fire.

It was a ship with furled wings curling over the prow. It landed on the grass, glowing blue. I clasped my love's hand in mine.

The door opened, and two Alder emerged from the ship. It had been years since I had seen an Alder. They were scarcer in the Ven now, preferring to stay farther up the mountains with their own kind. And many had grown tired of this world and left in search of other moons and stars.

They came straight for us, as I knew they would. Relean and I waited. They were so tall. I always forgot how tall they were, the unnatural thinness of their limbs, the blue sheen to their skin. Their large eyes glowed the same cobalt as Venglass.

They inclined their heads at me, and I bowed my head in turn. All the Chimaera were gone, the music silent, leaving the garden private for me, my love, and the Alder. One of them a a female a held a small bundle in her arms. I fought the urge to sigh even as my heart constricted.

"Your newest charge," one said in Alder, the three-tonal voice echoing in my ears and mind. "We trust you will look after this one better than the last."

My cheeks burned at the rebuke, though the death had not been ruled my fault. I held out my hands for the bundle.

It looked like a human child. I saw no iridescence, no scales or feathers. They had never given me a humanoid Chimaera before, usually leaving humans to care for them. I looked up at the Alder in confusion.

"Unwrap this one," the taller Alder intoned.

I did, and nearly gasped with shock.

The Alder inclined their heads at me and turned, walking with their liquid grace back to the ship. Within moments, they were gone. But the spell of the garden had broken. The air seemed colder, the scent of the flowers cloying and suffocating.

The child gurgled in my arms. I looked at Relean. He touched my face with his hands.

"All will be well, my love. All will be well." I drew him into another kiss in the silent garden, the child a barrier between us.

"Little Kedi..."

I awoke, every nerve of my body on alert, memories of the strange dream echoing in my mind. It was only a remnant of the dream. Nothing to fear. I closed my eyes and willed my racing heart to stop.

"Little Kedi..."

No. I was not hearing voices. I was not.

"The time has come."

I found myself climbing out of bed. I clutched the warm damselfly disc. It hummed like an Augur. I shrugged into my coat and stepped into slippers, almost as if I were sleepwalking. I climbed to the roof. Small snowflakes danced along the wind. I stared at the small disc in my hand. As if in a dream, I flicked the switch and set it on the ground. Backing away, I hugged my arms around myself as the wavering image of the Phantom Damselfly appeared.

In the sideshow Pavilion of Phantoms in the circus, she had a loop of actions she performed, walking in a circuit, looking up overhead. She had frightened the visitors of the Pavilion so much that the tent closed down, the disc returning to the safe with the other Vestige pieces the ringmaster collected. She had returned to the stage of the pantomime of Leander & Iona, becoming a monster that Leander must battle. She had not been a frightening monster. Not until she broke her normal movements and glanced over her shoulder, directly at me, before she disappeared.

There was no pretense of those motions, now. She shook her head as though awakening, and then she gazed at me with intelligence and sadness.

"Little Kedi," she said, and sighed soundlessly, snowflakes falling through her transparent dragonfly wings. Her features were almost Alder proportions a bigger eyes, cheekbones that could cut glass, and a wide, thin mouth. Strange tattoos traced her hairline, following the long line of her neck, and disappeared under her gossamer dress.

My tongue stuck to the roof of my mouth.

"I know what you want to know, little Kedi. Of the many things I have been, and the many names. You may call me Anisa."

"Anisa." I pulled free my tongue from the roof of my mouth and rolled her name on it.

She shook her head sadly. "You wonder why I speak to you and no one else."

I nodded, terror stiffening my muscles.

"I can speak to so few, and you are the first in such a very long time. There are others who would also hear me. I feel them, flickering like a candle flame, just here." She tapped her heart. Through her torso, I could see the glow of a gas lamp, as if her heart were aflame. "Some are closer than you know."

"Why...?"

She shook her head. "Because we are alike."

I took a step backwards. "We are not alike at all. You're a ghost. Or a mirage. Vestige trickery."

She moved closer to me, her feet trailing a light leading back to the disc. "I have lived thousands of years. I have seen marvels and horrors you cannot even fathom. You have lived but a few scant years. Sixteen years is but a blip of time in the span of the world." She held her hand to my face, but I could not feel a thing. "Tell me, then, little Kedi. Which of us is more real?"

"What do you want of me?" I whispered.

"I have waited so long. The time is not yet right for the other chips to fall, and I still see little of the pattern."

"You speak in riddles."

She smiled. "I speak more plainly than you know. One day, you will see."

I was tempted to tell her she was only proving my point, but I stayed quiet.

She turned out and looked over the dark skyline, the yellow windows of far-off buildings like stars. "The world is so different, now."

The dream came back to me a the verdant fields of green, the Penglass buildings glinting in the sun. "I remember."

Anisa swept a transparent hand toward the city. "You already know more than all of these people do about what happened long ago."

I did. In a few scattered dreams, I knew more about the Alder Age than those who have spent their lives studying Classics and Antiquities.

"What do you want from me?" I asked, the fear blooming again in my chest.

"Do not fear, little Kedi. Nothing you cannot give. You will help me when the time is right. You will know what to do."

I pressed my lips together to stop them from shaking. This was too much. "Can... you tell the future?"

"I can see possibilities, and which are more likely, no more. Sometimes, it feels as if I know less than anyone else."

"How?"

"They're written on the wind, in the stars and the sunlight. In dust motes swirling through the air. The world knows what has happened, and what may happen. You need only to look for it. You could learn, if you wanted to."

I pinched myself to make sure I was not still dreaming.

"You do not believe me. You will in time. Do you recall the night you first arrived in this place? The seance?"

"Yes." How could I ever forget?

"The magician said more than he knows and yet has no memory of the saying of it. The woman in the red dress. She is important to you, though I do not yet know how. The two of you are linked."

I held my hands to my temples. I remembered how strange I felt when I suggested Maske teach us magic. Had that been her? I should grab the disc and throw her from the roof to smash upon the pavement below. But I knew I would not. She looked at me as if she knew all I thought. Perhaps she did.

"Do you know who chases us? The second client of the Shadow?"

Her eyes unfocused. "I cannot. I can see the shape of the person, but not their face. It is blurred like the reflection of a puddle."

How conveniently unhelpful. I backed a little further away from her.

"Little Kedi, you need not fear me. You are my charge. As I am yours."

I shook my head. "I am no one's charge but my own." I picked up the disc. She stayed where she was, but her form grew more distinct, almost alive.

"I know you are afraid, little Kedi." She tapped her temple. "I can wait. But know that if you need me, I am here. And when I need you, you will help me."

Before I could lose my nerve, I flipped the switch on the disc. She stared at me as she faded from view. She was gone, but I could still feel her, thrumming with energy in my hand. I had been numb with fear, but now the full cold of winter gripped me, as though the very core of me was frozen. I gripped the disc and walked to the edge of the rooftop. I held my hand over the ledge. My fingers would not let go. The wind whipped my hair and snowflakes landed on my face.

When I could stand the cold no longer, I put her back in my pocket and returned to the loft. My teeth chattered from ice and fear. The edges of my vision blurred as I stumbled into the room, a pounding headache in my temples.

Drystan was restless, burrowing deeper under his duvet. I looked at my own empty bed and I could not face it. Only nightmares waited for me there. I wrapped my arms around myself, squeezing my eyes shut as hard as I could. I fell to the floor and curled into a ball, too scared to even cry.

"Micah?"

The sleepy voice broke through the paralyzing web of fear. I sat up, feeling as though I had run clean across Imachara.

Drystan was not awake. His eyes were closed, his forehead furrowed. He said my name again, more of a sigh. His eyes opened, his gaze blurry. I stepped toward him. Stopped. With a sleepy smile, he held up the blanket. Was that... an invitation?

I licked my lips, wondering what to do. In the end, it was simple. I set the damselfly down on the bedside table and slid into bed with Drystan, curling my body around his. He shivered once at my coldness, but then he relaxed. I rested my head against his shoulder.

I told myself that I'd only stay there against him until I had warmed up and the worst of the fear fled. Moments later, darkness claimed me, mercifully free of dreams.

15.

THE SHAI AND THE SHADOW CAPTURE.

"Could a mermaid love an angel?"

Translated fragment of Alder script.

When I awoke, my mouth felt fuzzy and my eyes bleary. Then I realized where I was and felt wide awake.

I faced the center of the loft, daylight streaming through the dragonfly stained glass. Drystan lay curled against my back, his breath warm against my neck. His arm lay around my torso, his hand on my chest. My chest, which did not have the corset underneath my shirt. My entire body tingled, my face burning in a blush.

My mind whirled as I wondered what I should do. What had possessed me to crawl into bed with Drystan? I had been frightened and cold, and perhaps he had invited me, but maybe he hadn't been fully awake. For Cyan's sake we were pretending that we were a couple, but this skipped a few steps. Drystan even had a...well, morning condition, as did I. I scooted forward, feeling so many emotions I couldn't give name to.