“You think all this will make that better?”
“I don’t know,” Matthias said. “But the Market spoke, and my people came at their word. And I’ll play for them. Or I would, if you would stop asking me ridiculous questions.”
“Just one more,” Sin promised. “I guess you’ve changed your mind about who should lead the Market?”
“Is the leadership still in question?” Matthias asked. “If it is, I think you should let us know. A lot of people might be very interested.”
He raised his pipes to his mouth with an air of decision and resumed playing. Sin opened her mouth, and he raised one eyebrow in a manner that suggested he would not be impressed if she spoke, and the nails rose from the grass, hanging in the sky like tiny stars.
Sin turned away and saw Nick and Mae standing side by side. They looked a bit funny together, Sin thought, Nick tall and grim and Mae so short, with her bright, silly hair.
They didn’t look like they were having a funny conversation. Sin started over to them.
“I won’t do it again,” she heard Nick say abruptly as she came into earshot.
“You’re damn right you won’t,” Mae told him. “If you do, I swear, I’ll find some way to kill you.”
“Hi, guys,” Sin greeted them, with the carefully assumed air of someone too preoccupied to pay much attention to other people’s conversations. “Were you talking about Gerald’s little message?”
Immediately Sin could see Mae’s brain turning possibilities into a checklist and ticking them off. “No, but I was thinking that Seb has the pearl, and wondering why he hasn’t handed it over. He has to have it, because none of us do. If I had it, I’d be wearing it and using it to rule the Goblin Market.”
“You seem to have appointed yourself leader anyway,” Sin remarked.
“Well, I don’t have it,” said Nick into the ensuing silence. “And I don’t feel the Market has done anything terrible enough to deserve me as its leader, though my face would look amazing on the money. But if Seb has it, I’ll kill him for it. And then I’ll give the pearl to Mae.”
Mae met his gaze coolly. “I’ve told you I want to get it for myself.”
Nick turned away, and Mae watched him go for a moment, then fixed her eyes on the construction of one of the wagons.
“All of our fuss over that pearl,” she said in a brittle voice. “And it looks like neither of us is going to get it.”
“Looks like,” Sin murmured. “I didn’t want it for me, anyway. I wanted it for Merris. I thought it could help her fight back the demon.” She paused. “Not that I didn’t also want to win.”
“I wanted to win too.” Mae’s hand went up to touch her talisman, and then the place where her mark lay beside it. “And I wanted the pearl for me, as well. So I could fight back the demon.”
Sin took a deep breath and shoved envy aside.
“I’m sorry Nick did that to you. If I was you, I’d be sick about it. When I saw him do it, I wanted to kill him. But he said he wouldn’t do it again.”
Mae sighed. “Yeah.”
“You don’t believe him?”
“I believe him; he can’t lie,” Mae said. “It just doesn’t matter. I don’t want him to be holding back from controlling me. I want him not to be able to do it. When he can just make me turn around, make me do what he wants, make me think or feel whatever he wants, even if he never does again, how the hell am I meant to be around him? Let alone…”
“Let alone what?” Sin asked gently.
Mae set her jaw. “There’s something I want to tell him,” she said, not looking at Sin but at the wagons she had ordered built. “Something he probably won’t understand. But I want to tell him anyway. I can’t, not when we’re like this, but I thought if I could get that pearl… I thought maybe I could.” Mae tried to smile. The expression folded in on itself. “Pretty stupid, right?”
Sin, who could smile on command a hell of a lot better than Mae could, did so. Her smile made Mae smile back, just for a minute, but for real.
“Oh, I’m not all that surprised. You never met a ridiculous challenge you didn’t like. Which is not to say it’s not stupid, mind you.”
“Thanks,” Mae told her, and made a face. “Your support means a lot to me.” She shoved her hands in her jeans pockets. “You don’t—uh, you don’t seem altogether thrilled by the plans I have for the Market.”
“That would be because I’m not.”
“Merris came to see me today,” Mae said. “She said you sent her. Thank you.”
Sin felt the practiced smile slip off her face. “It doesn’t seem to have done much good.”
“None of this would be happening if Merris hadn’t given me the nod and let me put it all into motion,” Mae said. “I’m— I’m sort of in charge, because nobody else wants to do it, but they wouldn’t have let me do any of this if Merris hadn’t spoken to them. That’s down to you.”
“I’m thrilled.”
“Merris didn’t seem to think my ideas were too bad,” Mae offered, almost tentatively.
“I’m not Merris, am I?” Sin returned, and softened slightly at the look of dismay on Mae’s face. “I wouldn’t leave.”
“So,” Mae said, still looking wary. “If you don’t approve of what I’m doing, are you going to do something about
