I wore a dress of cheap muslin. It felt strange to have skirts swishing around my ankles again. I bought it on the sly a few weeks ago, and decided that having my brother come to visit on Lady's Long Night was as good an excuse as any to dress up. I had even attempted a hair style with my shorn locks, though it ended up looking more like Lily Verre's, with bits escaping the pins and falling into my face.

"It's my sister!" Cyril exclaimed. "She's all grown up."

"I could still beat you in a fight and you know it."

"Oh yeah?"

"You know it. I've more muscles now." I strove for composure. "Cyril, these are the friends I live and work with. Well, you've already met them after a fashion. Jasper Maske is the head magician and our teacher. Cyan led the seance and is a magician, and Drystan is also a magician and, um, my good friend." I trailed off, blushing. Drystan's eyebrows rose, but he smiled. I fought the urge to shuffle my feet like a shy child.

"Pleased to make your acquaintance, Lord Laurus," Maske said, shaking hands.

"Please, call me Cyril."

Cyan gave my brother an approving look from the top of his head to his toes.

Hey! I thought at her. You have your sailor.

Sure I do. Doesn't mean I don't have eyes. I noticed him at the seance. You never told me you had such a handsome brother.

He's my brother!

She sent me a smirk, but kept her face pleasant as she held out her hand to Cyril. "Lovely to meet you. Again."

"You're not as frightening today."

She laughed. "I'm glad."

I shot a look at Drystan, who also gave me a smirk.

"Come in," I said, playing the host. "Are you going to spend Lady's Long Night with us?"

"If you'll have me. I told Mother and Father that I was going to the cathedral with Oswin."

"Wonderful! How is Oswin, by the way?" I asked as I led him to the kitchen while Maske made a pot of coffee.

"He's good. Engaged to Tara Cypress. They'll marry when he finishes university."

Engaged. So strange. Once, there had been talk of Oswin and I... but that would never happen now.

"Hah, he got into university?" I tried to make light of it. "Can't believe he passed his exams."

"It was a near thing."

We lapsed into silence as Maske poured the coffee into our cracked cups. I stirred my customary sugar and milk into it, but Cyril kept his black. My brother looked about with unabashed curiosity at my new surroundings.

Drystan kept sneaking glances at me.

"What?" I asked, resisting the urge to pat my hair.

"You look different."

"You've seen me in a dress before." I smoothed my hands down my skirts. "What, do I look silly?"

"Not at all," he said with a smile that warmed me straight through.

Normally, people exchanged presents right before they went to sleep on Lady's Long Night, but we opened ours before going to the cathedral, since Cyril would make his way home straight from there. We passed our wrapped parcels around. Cyril brought little presents of sweets for Maske, Cyan, and Drystan as well as me. He also gave me a stash of coins, which I protested but was secretly grateful for, and he brought some of the possessions I had left home without a some of my old Ephram Finnes novels and a new one to go with them, a blank leather-bound diary, my half-filled sketchpad, and my music sheets for the piano. I ran my fingers along my old possessions, half smiling. They were familiar, yet they did not feel as though they belonged to me at all.

Cyan gave me a preserved dragonfly cocoon from Temri, painted a bright blue and lined with gilt paint. I thanked her with a nod. I gave Cyan a pot of gold eye paint I had seen her linger over at a marketplace, and to Maske I gave a well, a mask. It reminded me of him, the Maske of Magic, made of black velvet embroidered with six-pointed stars, the thin crescent of a moon curling over an eye. He said that if we won the duel, he'd wear it for his first performance.

Drystan and I exchanged gifts last. He had been the most difficult person to find a present for. In the end, I gave him a small flute that sounded a bit like an owl's call, for he used to sometimes borrow Sayid's instruments and play at the fireside at the circus. I bought him the nicest I could afford, with little vines carved into the wood and colored with green enamel. His face lit up when he opened the case and I flushed with pleasure that he liked it.

When I opened his present, I felt as though I had offered him a lowly trinket. He gave me a necklace that was somehow neither masculine nor feminine, but just right for me. It was long enough that I could hide it underneath my clothing and was made of thin metal rectangles strung together. Each had an Alder word engraved on them, like "luck" and "faith" and "goodness" and... "love".

I blinked so that the others would not see the tears that marred my vision. Drystan seemed to understand. He put the necklace on me and it settled under my clothes. We finished our drinks and the cold metal of the necklace warmed against my skin.

We made our way down to the Celestial Cathedral as dusk fell. It was the night of the Penmoon, and so all of the Penglass glowed blue, tingeing the snow around us. I steeled myself against its wordless call. I tried to recall the glyph I had seen in the vision of Anisa and Matla, but though I could recall the general shape, the rest eluded me. Did Cyan remember? There were so many more secrets inside of them, I was sure of it, but perhaps it was for the best I didn't remember. I had enough mysteries.

On the long promenade that led down to the Snakewood Palace, floats draped with white fabric fluttered in the winter wind. Snowflakes danced from the clouds. We bustled through the crowds until we found a good view of the parade. Men and women dressed as Chimaera a angels, dragonkind, mermaids, and others a waved as the floats moved down the boulevard. They wore all white, as though frosted, the blue light of Penglass settling on them like a shawl.

Music drifted through the streets. Imachara was fragmented lately, with the rising Forester protests, but at that moment, any animosity faded away as the citizens listened to the flute music rising and falling with the whistle of the wind, mesmerized by the slow waving of the false Chimaera.

After the parade had made its way back to the Snakewood Palace, we went to the Celestial Cathedral, our feet sliding on the frosty pavement. It was the largest cathedral in the city; its spires of white and dark marble some of the tallest in the city.

I did not consider myself particularly religious, but there was something about sitting on a pew under such a high manmade ceiling, and seeing the monumental religious figures in the stained glass that made me feel so small. I liked the near silence, but for the low murmurs of a few prayers, or the shuffle of feet. Like holding one's breath.

The High Priest trundled onto the stage, awkward in his heavy white and gold vestments. He led the people in prayer, and I mumbled the verses along with the countless others around me. I lifted my eyes to the windows, wondering if the Lord and Lady heard our prayers.

The priest finished his sermon, and relinquished the stage to the choir. Two dozen men and women in dark blue robes embroidered with stars lifted their faces toward heaven and sang, their sweet voices reverberating throughout the cathedral. Drystan's hand found its way into mine. They sang of love of the night and the day, and how the darkness made the stars and moon shine that much brighter.

When the last note faded, the silence was absolute.

And then it shattered.

A keening wail echoed about the chambers, so loud that I clapped my hands to my ears. All the gas lights outside on the street and inside the cathedral extinguished, leaving only the glass globe chandelier bathing everyone in an unearthly glow. Outside, a loud voice asked all to gather around.

My hand still clasping Drystan's, I filed out with the others. Faces were tight with worry. Curiosity drove us forth.

Timur, the leader of the Foresters, stood on a makeshift podium in the square outside the Celestial Cathedral opposite the Royal Palace a the same square where Foresters had protested in the autumn. He waited, arms open, for us to gather below.

"Friends, welcome. I thank you for joining us on this most special occasion. The Long Night of the Lady." He gestured at the moon. "I apologize for interrupting your festivities. But the Long Night of the Lady marks a new beginning. The night grows shorter. The light wins against the battle of darkness, snow melting into the life of spring."

He gestured to his fellow Foresters fanned out behind him. Many of them had the look of bodyguards, their massive arms crossed over their chests.

"For years, I was one of you. Working in a job that poisoned my very soul. Paper after piece of paper crossed my desk. Eventually, I realized what the papers said. They said that the nobility and the royals had everything. The large holdings of land. The vast wealth. The hordes of Vestige. I'd leave my office and see people with soot or grease on their faces, their clothes shiny with use and their faces pinched with hunger. Where is the justice in that? That those who live in comfort are blind to the reality and the pain that many of their citizens live each and every day?

"I left and founded the Forester Party. And there was an enormous response. The people of Ellada yearn for justice, and I aim to bring it to them. First, I hoped to work with the system, and I brought forth petitions and worked within the confines of the law. The petitions had thousands of names but nobody within that building" a he waved behind him at the Snakewood Palace a "was listening. They hoped that if they ignored us we would go away. As you might have noticed, we haven't."

Snow swirled around us. People's faces were serious, their noses pink with cold. Some murmured amongst themselves, but most were quiet. It was not a mob like last time. People were listening.

The first few days after I ran away from the Laurus household, I had a taste of what many people went through every day. Being hungry, unable to find work, scrounging and trying to make the most of nothing. I'd found another bubble of safety within the circus, and now the Kymri Theatre. I had luck on my side. A lot of people did not.

"I'm here tonight to tell you that enough of Ellada wants a change. We do not want violence and bloodshed. But we want to be heard. And we will do whatever it takes. The Snakewoods and the Twelve Trees cannot ignore us forever, especially not now that we know their secret."

He paused again, letting the words sink in.

"The royals have lied to you, citizens of Ellada. They have lied to their very core. We do not wish to expose them, for it would turn both our worlds upside down. So we give them this chance to acquiesce to our demands. To let our voices be heard, and changes be made. If they do not, then we will let the secret of the Snakewoods be known. So spread this knowledge far and wide. Together, Ellada can be great once again. And we will do what it takes to make this happen. Whatever it takes."

Fog filled the stage. I smelled pine needles and dried roses. It was the same Vestige machine Bil had used at the start of every circus show. The smell filled me with such nostalgia and loss. When the fog cleared, the Foresters were gone.

I shivered in the cold. The snow still danced upon the wind. The gaslights rose, bathing us all in a yellow glow. I looked back at the Celestial Cathedral, light again blazing from its windows. Yet the sight of it gave me no comfort. A small trickle of people returned to the cathedral, but most of them stayed in the square with us, cold and confused.

"What secret is he talking about?" I wondered.

"No idea. Hence the secret," Drystan said. I glowered at him.

"Maybe they don't even have one, and they're hoping the threat will work," Cyan said. "What royal family wouldn't have secrets that would turn the world upside down if they were known? I must admit, I hope the royals don't comply and we can find out what it is."

Cyril's face was especially drawn. "Do so many of the people really feel that way?" he asked. He looked lost.

Cyan looked at him, and there was no pity in her features. Her long hair whipped about her face. "Many of us do, young Lordling. So many of us have so little, and you have so much you don't even realize it. I've slept in a cart most my life. Your world and mine are too different for us to ever understand each other."

Cyril stared at her, mouth agape.

"I've been in both worlds," I said, hesitantly.

"Not for long," Cyan said, and though her words cut me, they were true.

My brother hunched his shoulders. "Perhaps things will change."

She laughed, and it was not a friendly sound. "The nobility will never give up a copper of their wealth to help the like of us and you know it. This isn't going to end well."

A strong winter wind whipped around us, snow flurries so thick we could barely see.

"I should head back," my brother said, and we all knew he was heading back to a room of comfort and roaring fires, while we returned to the old theatre that was never warm.

"Luck be with you on the Lady's Long Night," I said the traditional words, but they sounded hollow.

"And Luck of the Lady to you, Gene," he said, bending down to kiss me on the cheek. We watched him walk back toward the Gilt Quarter.

25.

THE DOCTOR'S APPOINTMENT "The loss of Miss Iphigenia Laurus as a subject is great. The slow, steady heartbeat, the oxygenation of her blood, the immunity to illness a all combined is something I have never seen in the history of my medical practice. Selfishly, I hope that they find her, and bring her back to me for further study."

Unpublished notes of Dr Leonard Ambrose.

The next day I couldn't focus at all on magic practice. My only thoughts were for the night and the looming visit with Doctor Pozzi. Maske told me off multiple times for dropping things or for missing my cues. He was wound tight. The Specter Show had unnerved him. He was redesigning the final act and would tell us nothing about it. He said only that he was close and we would know soon enough.

Maske grew thinner, his eyes wide in his skull. The only breaks he made were to visit Lily or when she came to visit him, and he was only briefly rejuvenated before disappearing back into the depths of his workshop.

I went up on the roof to watch the sun set. Cyan came up to visit me.

"I hope you've stayed out of my head," I said without turning around.

"I've tried, but you've been shouting your thoughts. I know where you're going tonight."

I turned toward her. "And?"

"And be careful. Pozzi is the first person I've come across I couldn't read at all. I don't like that."

I rolled my eyes. "Welcome to how the rest of humanity feels."

She glared at me. "No need to be sarcastic."

"Sorry. I didn't realize until recently just how much I want answers about where I came from."

She sighed. "I wouldn't mind some answers, either. But... you won't mention me to him, will you? I don't think he learned much from Shadow Elwood, and I'd like to stay beneath his notice. Just in case."

"No problem," I said. "I wish I hadn't poked my head out from behind the wall like an idiot. Now I have to see him. He knows everything about me. He could force me back with my family at any time. And what he said..."

"Yes. That you might be dying." She rested a hand on my shoulder but I shrugged it away. "It might be a lie. Just saying it so that you'll come. Do you feel like you're dying?"

"No." Even with the fainting, I felt perfectly fine the rest of the time.

"See? It could be a trick."

"Doesn't feel much better, going to the house of a liar in the middle of the night."

"You'll be fine." Her eyes shadowed. "Are you going to take Anisa?"

"Why would I do that?"

"I don't know a it just occurred to me to ask..." She scowled. "Stars! I thought she said she was going to stop meddling."

"Do you think I should take her?"

She shook her head again. "I don't know, maybe. I think she knows more about this than she's letting on."

I sighed. "I'll take her. She probably just wants to listen. And then maybe I can ask her advice. She is ancient, after all."

"Yeah, though maybe living one hundred lives turns you mad as a hatter."

I laughed. Cyan had managed to put me at ease, somewhat. She left me alone to watch the sun fade over Imachara. And then I crept down to the loft to meet Drystan.