et's

minutes before the transport arrived, and I was kneeling beside my open suitcase with m

her lips and her eyes already swimming, and behind her loomed

er you. Mother's emerald brooch has vanished from the jewelry box, and I remembered you were near i

l, wounded sniffle, as thou

e healer's kit on the be

n strange for two days, and Sera has never lost a single

do no su

he simply set a hand on my shoulder and moved me aside like a chair in his way. Seraphine slipp

ridor, drawn by the noise, and I turn

stop. He is tearing

f you have nothing to hide

g in ninety minutes. I have a transport coming and a place waitin

would not meet my eyes. "If you simply return it, darling, we will

cause they had just decided I was a thief and th

with her tearstained face turned carefully away. And I, who had spent a lifetime learning to read the small signa

hed he

eve of her own shawl and emerged with a flash of green and gold, and then tho

sed the room in three strides and seized her wrist, and my gr

a voice like cold

gh I had struck her. "Li

watched her slip the brooch into my coat. It is in the left pocket. Ch

n he reached into the coat and drew out the emerald bro

said grimly, rounding on m

she put i

her," Fathe

gainst my ribs. "I am telling you what I saw with my own eyes. She planned this from

y about a girl who has suffered

," Corvin said, and he did not low

st soft thing in my chest c

act li

y beside my passport, my enlistment papers. He tugged the first page fr

perwork to make it look convincing. Pretending to leave, preten

he room, and they fluttered t

e tremble in my voice. "Just read the seco

g." He scoffed. "Fathe

er said heavily. "Say it properly, and l

nothing

leaned close, so close that only I could hear, and her breath brushed my ear. "Y

ghted curve at the corner of he

th string, my three months of Moonvale preparation, my grandmother's remedies, my notes

r the first time my voice rose i

books into Seraphine's arms. "Sera lost her peace toni

are

re family." He looked at me with unh

red her head with perfect, quivering humility. "Than

uzzed agai

s, and the message glowing on

ng in ten minute

all. I looked at my notebooks in my sister's arms, and at my papers scattered across the

also knew, with a certainty that sta

mb, and slid them back into the envelope. Then I closed my suitcase with a sharp click while I straigh

d softly, "p