half?'

'Oh.' Tal assumed she'd heard about his arrest, but Thamalon must have somehow kept the scandal from the house staff. He was good at that. 'Well, I'm almost never at Stormweather.'

'I've seen you there plenty of times,' she said. Tal had not heard her sound so vexed since he was eight years old, and Larajin was charged with keeping him out of mischief. 'You've been avoiding me, and I want to know why.'

'Avoiding you? Of course I haven't…'

Larajin looked up at Tal's face. 'Have you gotten taller?'

'What? No. I don't think so. That's not possible, is it?' He knew he had put on a lot of weight, a lot of muscle, but how could he be growing taller?

'Oh, you're standing on the curb,' she said, stepping closer. Her arms pressed against Tal's hip, and he stepped away too quickly.

'What's wrong?' she asked. 'I thought you'd be happy to see me.'

'I'm always happy to see you,' he said. As usual when he was off the stage, he sounded as convincing as a Mul-horandi rug merchant.

'Then why do you run off whenever I see you?'

'I don't…' Tal began, but the lie died on his lips.

'What was all that talk about our being friends if this is the way you treat me?' she said.

He remembered the conversation they'd had shortly after Rusk attacked him in the Arch Wood. Even over the buzz of the crowd, there was no mistaking the irritation in her voice.

Before he could defend himself, she went on. 'The last time we talked, you scolded me for acting like a servant instead of your friend.'

'No,' said Tal, remembering his shame and anger after their last meeting. 'The last time we talked, Thamalon dragged me off for a lecture on fraternizing with the help.'

'What?'

'Why do you find that so surprising? Of course he'd want to keep you to himself.' Thamalon had never come out and said so, but there was no doubt he was claiming Larajin as his property when he scolded Tal for being too familiar with her.

'So he told you…?'

'He said enough that I could figure out the rest. I'm not as thick as everyone thinks,' Tal said.

'And you're upset about it.'

'Of course I'm upset! Thamalon acts like some paragon of honor and integrity, but he's the biggest hypocrite in Selgaunt. I can't believe he keeps you at Stormweather, especially after he and Mother started getting along again last winter.'

Larajin's chin sank. 'I've often felt terrible about that,' she said.

'Then why don't you leave?' he said, more harshly than he expected. He realized for the first time that he'd been as angry with Larajin as he had been with Thamalon. 'Haven't you caused enough trouble? After Mother gave up her whole life for the rest of us, how can you stay in her sight? She deserves better.'

Tears welled in Larajin's eyes. She tried to blink them away, but they rolled down her cheeks. 'I know,' she said. 'I know. Often I've wanted to tell her myself, but I could never work up the courage.'

'Oh, I think she knows.'

'Do you really?'

'How could she not see it? I bet she's kept quiet only to save the family reputation.'

'I'm sorry!' said Larajin, defiantly. 'You should have said something sooner if you felt so strongly about it. I was going to tell you that last time we spoke.'

'You were going to tell me? Did you think I'd be happy to hear it?'

'You always treated me like a sister anyway,' she said.

'Like a sister? How could I think of you that way when you're sleeping with my own father?'

'What?'

'That makes it even worse,' he said. 'It's bad enough that you're his mistress without acting like you're part of the family.'

Larajin slapped his face. He barely felt the blow, but it shocked him nonetheless. Larajin's eyes hardened. It was the first time Tal had seen her truly angry with him. The sight made his stomach shrink.

'How could you think that?' She dropped her packages and punched him in the arm. The crowd began to move away from them, forming a small clearing around their argument.

'Ow! Yes, well-'

'You thought I was his mistress?' She kicked him on the shin.

'Ow! No! I mean, obviously, you're not.' He scooped up some of the fallen packages and smiled awkwardly at the people who had begun to stare.

'That's revolting!'

'I know. I thought so, too. Ow! Quit it!' he said, trying to use the packages as a shield.

Larajin held up both fists as if to redouble her pummel-ing, but then she saw the confusion on Tal's face.

'You assumed… he never told you!' Larajin's fury transformed to astonishment. 'After all that has happened this year, he never told you the truth?'

'What is the truth?' Tal asked, keeping an eye on her fists.

Larajin watched Tal's face carefully, alert for any trace of subterfuge. Satisfied that he wasn't acting a part for her, she shook her head and smiled as she had years before, when they were children.

'I should probably leave it to Lord Uskevren to explain,' she said tentatively.

'Obviously, he doesn't tell me the truth,' protested Tal. 'What are you talking about?'

'I'm not Lord Uskevren's mistress,' said Larajin. 'I'm his daughter.'

Tal felt dizzy. 'His what?'

'Your half sister.'

Since their quarrel subsided, the jostling crowd pressed in on them again. Tal felt seasick in the tide of bobbing heads. He wanted to sit down. He wanted a drink of ale. More than either of those, he wanted to hear that he'd just misunderstood what he thought he'd heard. No matter how fantastic it seemed, it did explain some things.

Larajin seemed to read his mind. 'That's why he was so upset when he thought you and I were…'

'When he thought you and / were doing what I thought you and he were doing.'

'Yes.'

Tal stood still for a few moments looking over the market crowd toward the heart of the city. In the distance, the morning sun set the spires and towers of central Selgaunt to gleaming. Dozens of family crests waved in the sea breeze, their bright colors creating the illusion of a blooming garden.

'Larajin, I don't know how to begin apologizing.'

'Try anyway,' she said. Indignation lingered in her tone.

'I am unutterably sorry,' he began. 'The fault is entirely mine.' He paused, torn between inventing a more formal apology and wondering at the ramifications of what he had just learned.

'Say more things like that.'

'I couldn't have been more wrong,' he added. 'None of this confusion would have happened if I weren't born an idiot.'

'That part isn't your fault,' said Larajin. 'It's hereditary.' She covered her mouth like a child who'd just said a naughty word in range of her parents. Then she laughed.

'At least among the Uskevren men,' agreed Tal.

'Right.'

Tal salvaged the dropped parcels, and they stood a while in silence as the crowd jostled them.

'Want to help me carry these back to Stormweather?'

'I… I can't at the moment. There are some things I have to do first.'

'Like finding a set of clothes that fit?' Larajin plucked at the fabric of his stolen shirt.

'Among other things,' said Tal. 'Listen, there are some things happening lately… I have to deal with them. It

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