They held her under the liquid while she strained, kicked, and begged. Eluvie knew that it was a dream. The pain was absent. Only the fear existed, paralyzing, overwhelming. But she couldn’t make it stop.

  She awoke, hours later, in her bed in a dark room. The dream had ended hours before, but the fear was still present. She listened for footsteps outside her door, for Madam Ria to come barging in and drag her into the bathroom.

  It was a whole hour before the fear subsided enough for her to move. By that point, the sky was beginning to lighten. She went to her window to watch the sunrise and remained there until the sun was well above the horizon. The light felt safe and energizing. And that was important because every moment felt like the last one before she broke.

  Footsteps began approaching her room. It was only one pair and accompanied by jingling: Lady Mirab.

  Eluvie remained at the window and took deep breaths. Mirab couldn’t do much by herself, and she wouldn’t unless Amu had betrayed Eluvie.

  The door creaked open.

  “Sweetie,” Lady Mirab said, her voice free of malice, “are you awake?”

  Eluvie said nothing.

  “There you are,” Mirab said. She shut the door behind her.

  Eluvie admonished herself to be strong once more and turned to face Lady Mirab. She could not manage a smile, but she made an effort not to look distressed.

  Don’t freeze, she told herself, don’t freeze.

  Lady Mirab hugged her, and somehow, miraculously, she didn’t freeze.

  Mirab held Eluvie at arm's length and looked at her with a searching expression. "How are you feeling?" she asked.

  Eluvie couldn't lie, so she shrugged. "It's early," she said. "Why are you here?"

  Mirab ignored the obvious avoidance. Two liars, deceiving each other, made interesting partners.

  "I wanted to have breakfast together," Mirab stroked Eluvie's cheek. "I need to leave soon, but I didn't want to do that without seeing you."

  Eluvie was not convinced that she could keep her act through an entire meal.

  "I'm not hungry," she said. That was entirely true. She was far too anxious to be hungry. "Where are you going?" she asked.

  Mirab sighed. "I need to meet some diplomats. They refuse to meet in the palace, so I'll have to go to them." She stopped stroking Eluvie's face. "But when I return, we might go on a trip. It depends on how accommodating they are."

  Eluvie did not ask what the trip was for. Pretending disinterest was working for her so far, so she leaned into it.

  "Enjoy your event," she said, "and turned back to the window."

  Mirab said goodbye and left. She seemed a little bothered by Eluvie's silence, but she was clearly willing to ignore the topic. As soon as she was gone, Eluvie returned to bed. She had a day's worth of work to do.

  She did not know what would happen to her dispersed pieces when they moved the barrier, and she did not want to be exposed. So, she was recalling them to herself. It was easy with her new transformation skills. She simply converted each one to air and navigated it through the corridors and into her bedroom. Once there, reintegrating with it was intuitive and painless.

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  She was halfway through the task when the sound of her bedroom door opening made it through the connection. She immediately returned to her body and leisurely turned to the new arrival.

  It was her attendants. Bitu led them, holding a tray of food. As they entered, she met Eluvie's eyes and smiled. The smile was clearly strained; they were not as good at acting as Mirab.

  "I'm not hungry," Eluvie said.

  They froze at the room's entrance.

  Bitu recovered first. "Try to eat, anyway," she said. "A bite or two will do wonders for you. You might find that your appetite comes back." She nodded to the newest attendant. "Go and draw a bath. And you," she nodded to another attendant. "See if you can find something at the tailor's that the miss would like to wear."

  Eluvie had frozen at the word "bath." She knew that they meant nothing sinister by it, but every other thought had flown out of her head.

  Two of the attendants disappeared, leaving only Bitu and Piri in the room. Piri looked nervous. For a moment, Eluvie wondered why. Then, she remembered the incident with the diamonds and had to suppress a smile. It was no wonder that the three of them were alone.

  Eluvie truly was not hungry, but she accepted the tray they gave her. It held a light meal: several thick slices of bread, two boiled eggs, and porridge with an embarrassment of condiments on the side. She ate slowly and watched the nervous attendants out of the corner of her eye.Finally, when Eluvie had begun wondering if they would never speak, Bitu broke the silence.

  "We have a bit of a problem, Miss," she said. "I hope you can help."

  Eluvie's mouth was full, so she nodded and waited.

  "We lost some of your gemstones," Bitu said. "We have been all over the palace, but we haven't found them all. We know that you don't remember much, but we were hoping that you could go over some of your common routes with us and see if you can find them. If we don't find them, Lady Mirab won't be happy. We might lose our jobs."

  Eluvie impressed herself by failing to laugh. It was a neat story. There was nothing in it to question and no reason for her to refuse assistance. That they would keep the jewels for themselves was, of course, a given.

  "I'll help," Eluvie said.

  Both women sagged in relief.

  Note to self, Eluvie thought, don't depend too much on their acting skills.

  Their level of relief was only slightly too much, but little details like that could ruin a plot.

  "Do you know who Lady Mirab is meeting with?" Eluvie asked.

  She made the question sound trivial but, from her attendant's reactions, she could tell that it was not. She watched them struggle for a while. They were clearly forbidden from discussing the topic with her, but she had just agreed to help them become rich. They wouldn't want to upset her.

  Eluvie guessed that Bitu, as the more senior, would respond. Piri would not want to break the rules with her superior in the room.

  "She's meeting with an ambassador from Rade, I believe," Bitu said. "I don't know what they're discussing, though."

  That was a smart choice, Eluvie thought. By claiming to have no knowledge, Bitu forestalled more questions about the meeting. If Eluvie pressed for more information now, it would sound odd. Eluvie didn't worry, though. She had opened the door of conversation. Now that they were already speaking to her, they would find it awkward to stop. And the more they shared, the more blackmail material they gave her.

  Eluvie moved the conversation onto a tangent. "Where is Rade?" She asked. "Have I heard of it?"

  Bitu seemed glad to move to a less contentious topic. "You might not have," she said. "It's a very small nation.

  "Rade, Rade," Eluvie muttered to herself as she pretended to think. "Maybe I have heard of them. Are they the island nation that hasn't joined the alliance?"

  Bitu nodded stiffly.

  "Oh," Eluvie said. "Will they be joining now?"

  "I don't know," Bitu said. "Maybe. I wonder what the delay is with that bath. I'll go and check."

  Eluvie let her go. She already had enough information. Mirab had mentioned signing an agreement. If it was with Rade, it made sense that they were finally joining the alliance. Why that would precede a trip to the sky was still a mystery, however.

  Eluvie gave up on the meal. When the attendants offered their assistance with her bath, she gritted her teeth, controlled her temper, and sent them out. She was so paranoid that she wished that she could lock the bedroom door, but they had not given her its keys.

  She considered skipping the bath altogether, but it would have seemed suspicious. So, she did it as quickly as she could, ignored the clothing they had brought her, and made her own clothes again. She opted for the same style but in a different color, so they would notice that she had changed. Then she finished the task of recalling her tendrils and helped her attendants find some of the diamonds she had hidden. She couldn’t give them all her resources, after all.