Tahki didn’t know what to say. She made the great World Fair sound like some cheap roadside attraction. Something for unenthused parents to drag overactive children to. Something not worth risking your life for.
“Does that upset you?” she said.
Tahki shrugged. “Does it matter?”
The judge leaned over to him. When she spoke, her jaw shook, like she needed to open her mouth extra wide to get all the syllables out. “Your designs weren’t right for the competition. But they are right for something better.”
Tahki pinched his brow. “What do you mean?”
“I’d like to employ you, Tahki.”
Tahki stared. “You want to give me a job?”
“That’s what employ means.”
“An architectural job?”
“What other kind of job do you think I’d be offering?”
He swallowed. Even if he had won, he knew the odds of being offered a job were thin. “But I thought you said my designs weren’t practical.” He didn’t want to sound ungrateful, but he didn’t want to get his hopes up, either. He’d experienced enough disappointment already.
“They aren’t practical. They aren’t functional, at least not yet. But they’re… different.”
“And different is good?”
“Different is good.”
“Why is different good?”
“Sorry, but I can’t tell you until you accept the position.”
Tahki laughed. He knew it was rude, but he couldn’t help it. This whole encounter felt so surreal. “How could I accept if I don’t even know what I’ll be doing? What if I’m not right for it? I could risk my entire career taking on a job I can’t perform.”
“You’re a little on the dramatic side, aren’t you? I say you’re right for it, and my word is king. You want to be famous, don’t you? You want your work known? That’s why you came to the fair, isn’t it?”
He looked down at his hands. “Doesn’t everyone want that?”
“No, everyone does not. But those who do fight for it.” The judge spat to the side. “If you accept this job, the entire world will know your name.”
World famous. It seemed too good to be true. He bit his lip. “You can’t tell me anything about this… project?”
“I can tell you who your employer will be. You’ll be working for Queen Genevi. It’s her project. I’m just a recruiter.”
He gaped. This couldn’t be a serious offer. Could she really want him to work for the ruler of the most powerful country in the world? His first impulse was to say yes, but then he felt goose bumps on his arm. The sun shone bright, but the air felt cool. He was used to a desert climate. To Dhaulen’aii’s climate. The country whose people the queen went to great lengths to keep out of Vatolokít. He might have fooled the man at the checkpoint and even the ignorant guard, but there was no way he’d be able to fool Queen Genevi. If anyone found him out, he would be executed for sure.
“I can’t,” Tahki whispered.
“Come again?”
“I… can’t accept your offer.”
She clicked her tongue. “Is there a reason?”
“I don’t think I’m the right person.”
The judge stood a moment longer and studied him and then pushed away from the rail. “I leave in an hour. If you change your mind, you can find my carriage at the west harbor. Ask for Gale Utmutóta, or Judge Utmutóta. And if you don’t change your mind, good luck with your future, Tahki.” She strode down the path without a second glance back.
His head drooped. He leaned against the stone and rubbed his eyes. He couldn’t believe his luck. Or that he’d let his dream job—every architect in the world’s dream job—shuffle away. He had half a mind to throw himself into the ocean but shivered at the thought.
With a sigh, he stood and stuffed his hands in his pockets and turned to find a carriage home. His fingers brushed something smooth and hard. He pulled out his mother’s pencil and stared at the sleek black coral. After his mother had died, he liked to hold the pencil against his chest at night, the way some children hold safety blankets. He wondered if things would have turned out differently for his mother had she been offered the same job. Would she have accepted the job?
Of course she would have.
His father was always going on about his mother’s impulsive—borderline dangerous—adventures. She said yes to whatever life threw her way. That’s what his father always told him, and she regretted nothing. Opportunities like this came once in a lifetime. If he didn’t act on it, he might live to regret it for the rest of his life. One thing he knew for sure—his mother would have wanted him to go.
With his new resolve bursting like fireworks in his mind, he sprinted down the path, his bag bobbing against his back. He shoved through the throngs of people. Several curse words hit his ears as he pushed by. He took a wrong turn, bit down his pride, and asked a girl leading two gingoats where the east harbor was. She pointed right and he ran again.
Tahki arrived just as the judge—Gale, she’d said her name was—threw her bags in the back of a black and blue carriage.
He jogged up to her, panting. “I’ll go.”
Gale drew her lips thin. “You’ll go where?”
“With you. The job you offered, I want it.”
Gale smiled, or maybe it was a grimace. He couldn’t tell with all the wrinkles. “Good.” She looked him up and down. “This all you got?”
Tahki nodded.
“Then we can leave early,” she said.
“Don’t you have to judge the other contestants? I mean, isn’t the fair another two days?” Tahki said.
“My job here is done,” she said.
She walked to the side of the carriage and tugged
