Before I could think things through, I stood before her. “I’m sorry—”
She waved her hand. “No need. I saw your face.”
I slid into the chair beside her. “I’m still sorry. For tonight and for, well, ignoring you, and the day we met—”
A soft laugh. “You mean, when we lined up by rank? I suppose you didn’t know back then.”
I blushed out of embarrassment, but I was also pleased. The light had come back into her eyes.
Paige angled her body toward me. “Listen. I forgive you. For everything. Now, hurry to Tressa before she notices that you slipped away.”
“What happened to make her hate you so?”
“I made a mistake,” Paige said. When it was clear I was waiting for more, she sighed. “My family’s always been poor. When we were younger, Tressa wasn’t so… elegant. I resented her. As we grew older, she became better at hiding her disdain, or maybe she began to pity me, but I couldn’t see the change. At her sixteenth birthday party, I overheard her say something snide about a friend of mine. I… lost my temper.”
“You yelled? Like I just did.”
Paige laughed, not happily, and her gaze flicked to the waterfall. “I wish. Did you know I’m skilled with Illusion?”
She opened a hand and there, in her palm, prowled a miniature tiger. Fur rippled as muscles flexed, and I heard the pant of breath and the low rumbles in its chest. Paige had created it in a mere second, as if it were as simple as Light.
It vanished.
“The Duke of Evenspire has one in his menagerie,” Paige continued. “It was quite believable when a life-sized tiger took after Tressa. She screamed her head off and—”
Her amusement died. “She hates me. Which she should. It was a cruel joke, crueler than her gossip, and it made her the fool of court. That’s why she is here. Her mother hopes she will find a husband, and, in her absence, the court will focus on the next scandal.”
“Oh.” Tressa’s presence at the Kyer had always puzzled me. “I see.”
“No, you don’t,” Paige said gently. “No more than you saw that waterfall as a facade. For if you did see, you would stop talking to me. Right now.”
“But I—”
“You’re a blue, but that can’t save you from hatred. Not from her.”
I shook my head. “Tressa became my friend before she knew about my Gift. She can be kind. Surely there’s some way…”
Paige stood as if she’d help me by leaving herself. “There is no way you can play the Game on your own. Go back to Tressa.”
“I don’t want this ‘Game.’” I stood with her. “I want friends who are real friends.”
“You are her friend,” Paige said. She gestured to the swirl of dancers I’d waded through. “Tressa genuinely likes you. But you’re also beneficial to her, and she is good for you. Don’t throw everything away for someone who has already lost.”
I took a step toward the crowd of endless nobles. Orrik had thought, despite my awkward ways, I’d find a place here. “I thought the Kyer was different.”
“They say the Kyer is a sanctuary for people like me, but it’s not completely.” Paige stared at a cluster of Dragon Mages, all middle-aged and in uniform. They hadn’t done up their hair, and their jewelry was simple. “In a decade, maybe.”
I made a decision. “Paige, sit down.”
She frowned.
“I’m going to be a Dragon Mage in a little over a month. I hope. So I’m going to start acting like a Dragon Mage now, not a decade from now.” I sat and patted the chair beside me. “If Tressa truly is my friend, she’ll let me make other friends.”
Paige’s eyes glistened. She lowered herself onto the chair as if she expected it to prick her. “Shamino was right about you. He said you weren’t like the others.”
“Shamino? How do you—”
“Know the Kyer’s hermit?” Paige smiled. “We grew up together.”
Of course. Paige knew Tressa; Tressa knew Shamino.
“When I was five, Shamino found me crying in a corner. We’ve been friends since.” She smoothed her plain skirt. “The friendship made more sense when we were five.”
I peered at her. “You’re in love with him?”
Paige burst out laughing—a full, from-the-belly laugh. “First One, no! He’s like my big brother. Most of the time, he drives me insane. Like tonight. He needs to leave the Quarters and find a way to cope with women, but he hides behind his dragons. By the Queen’s Jewels, it’s been three years.”
Once again, a reference to events I didn’t know. I nodded anyway, but Paige saw through my mask.
“I wish I were a Threepines,” Paige said with a sigh. “I thought everyone knew about him. In short, Shamino was a chubby, carrot-headed boy whom everyone ignored. His brother died. Everyone turned to the new heir, and—” She waved her hands in the air. “Overnight, Shamino had grown into the man every woman dreams of, physically and financially.”
I couldn’t imagine an unattractive Shamino. I tried, but I just couldn’t.
“Women fell at his feet,” Paige continued. She wrinkled her nose. “Made him sort of an arrogant bastard for a while. Regardless, his father wanted Shamino to honor the marriage contract drawn up for his brother. Instead, Shamino defied him, because the girl he’d been daft for since childhood had suddenly declared herself in love with him. The day after their engagement, Shamino found her kissing someone else. She’d never wanted him—she wanted a handsome and obscenely rich husband.”
“That’s horrible,” I said.
“That’s court.” Paige sounded like a tax collector stating the current value of wheat. “Shamino never recovered, even after his disinheritance.
