“Six months? I … I’ve spent half my life finding these jewels,” Silver’s father stammered.
Queen Imea didn’t comment further, but her smile faded. A few of her retinue began moving toward the showroom door. Silver nervously plucked at the neckline of her mother’s caftan.
Her father swallowed slowly. “I will scour the lands to make it so. It will be done.”
The queen’s smile lit up her face. “I will send my guard for my other pieces in two weeks. I will come, myself, three weeks before the Spring Festival so that I may personally carry this scepter with me when I set sail to the Island Nations.”
Silver knew there would be many sleepless nights for her father in the weeks to come. But she wouldn’t be there for them.
“I believe Sagittaria Wonder would like a word with you,” the queen said to Rami. She waved over the dragon rider, then left the showroom flanked by her retinue so that only Sagittaria remained.
Her heart thudding loudly, Silver stepped away from the center of the room, pulling off rings and depositing them on a cushion. Her breath quickened, and the patterns in the thick rugs at her feet began to spin.
Silver’s father retrieved the race cup he’d been saving for that moment. All the dents and dings that Silver had put in it were once again smoothed out. Her father must have worked all night to fix her mess. “I saved my finest gold for you—”
“I’ll judge that for myself,” Sagittaria Wonder said, arching an eyebrow.
She looked around the showroom. Her eyes swept over Silver and kept moving, as though Silver weren’t there.
You will notice me, Silver thought, carefully lifting the massive headdress from her hair. There were no other empty cushions, so she set the piece on a red-and-black stool.
“I’m not sure gold is the right material for this cup, after all,” Sagittaria said. “I have a man in Calidia making me a piece out of crystal. It’s beautiful. Turns to rainbows when the light hits it.”
Rami looked nervous. “Of course, but there is nothing like the rich warmth of gold. It is the sun itself.”
“We get enough sun in the desert.”
Silver paused at the bracelet over her burn. She didn’t understand why Sagittaria was being so curt. This wasn’t how she had imagined the racer.
Silver pressed her thumb to the wound to remind herself to focus. She was so close.
“If you like, we can set any number of gemstones in the metal,” Rami said quickly. “Unlike a crystal piece, our rainbow would be permanent. It would shine in even the darkest room.”
Sagittaria sighed. She reached into her bag and pulled forth a pouch of coins. A piece of parchment fluttered to the ground at Silver’s feet. “Here is a deposit for the cup. I’ll have the queen’s guard collect it when they come for her pieces.”
Rami Batal’s lips were pale. Payment matters were handled privately, not in front of everyone in the showroom. Sagittaria’s manners were lacking. A Calidian trait, no doubt, Silver thought. She silently vowed to never let the city change her good breeding.
“It will be ready to astound you,” her father said.
Sagittaria Wonder turned away to leave.
This was it. Silver’s one chance to impress Sagittaria.
“Wait! Sagittaria Wonder!” Her hands shook as she unbuttoned the caftan.
Sagittaria turned, her gaze sharpening as if seeing Silver for the first time.
“Silver!” her father cried out.
“I have something that will astound you now.” She sidestepped her father’s grasping hands.
Silver let the silk caftan drift to the floor and tore off the remaining bracelets. They fell with a clang.
She stood there clad in her riding suit. “It’s the finest wool you’ve ever seen. Thin but warm. Water-resistant. The scale pattern decreases wind drag. The glove linings increase grip. The…”
As Sagittaria Wonder walked toward her—three, four, five slow steps—Silver forgot the lines she’d rehearsed so many times. The water dragon racer pinched a piece of the shoulder of the suit between her fingers.
“What an interesting pattern,” she said in a low voice. Her eyes flashed from their shadowy depths. “Who taught you how to do this?”
“I invented it myself.” Silver didn’t know why she lied, but there was something about the way Sagittaria’s eyes looked through her, instead of at her.
“A girl with great ambition.” Sagittaria dropped the wool and stepped back. Her lip curled. “I know an important little bit about fiber arts techniques. And a lot about riding suits. This is a mess. The construction is too unwieldy for riding. There’s no padding in the seat. It looks like…” She smiled slowly. Cruelly. “Like a child made it.”
Silver went cold, as though she’d been wandering all night in a vast desert winter.
“It’s just a prototype,” she whispered.
“Well, I have no use for it.”
Silver looked down. The parchment that Sagittaria had dropped was still at her feet. Silver picked it up and held it out to the water dragon racer, her hands trembling.
“Keep it,” Sagittaria said, shaking her head. “It’s just an advertisement for the races. Give it to the one who taught you this pattern.”
Sagittaria Wonder spun on her heel. The rider disappeared out the door, Silver’s dreams following her like the last wisps of a snuffed lantern. Silver stood staring at the empty doorway.
Rami Batal gaped at her, his forehead as red as pickled onions.
“Are you mad?” he whispered. “What were you thinking? Have you forgotten who you are? You are a Batal. You are—were—the heir to this work.”
Silver’s eyes went wide. Her spine seemed to twist upon itself, as though she could shrink to the size of a beetle and scamper out a small crack in the doorway. She had seen her father angry before—so angry he’d seemed like an unfiltered sun. When Gama had told him about how poorly she was doing in her classes, or when she’d snuck off with her cousin and forgotten to bring the daily bread, or even when he’d found her drawing water dragons in the dust on the windowsill. But this cold and distant Rami Batal was worse.
Silver knew she was lost to him.
Her lower lip trembled. She was a shell of a girl. Not talented. Not graceful. Not impressive. Not worthy of the Batal legacy.
And not on her way to Calidia to ride water dragons.
Slowly, she unhooked the remaining jewelry draping her neck and ears, and set it on the table. She hastily pulled on her mother’s caftan and retrieved her shoes. The older ele-jewelers pretended to work on their metals and gems, but they peeked at her as she gathered her things.
“Here,” Phila whispered, passing the two golden hair combs to Silver. She opened her mouth as if to say more, but Silver turned away. There was pity in Phila’s face, and Silver hated that. She didn’t want anyone to feel sorry for her.
She just wanted to disappear.
THE ROADS WERE still crammed. Instead of the usual twenty thousand people, there seemed double that. Ladies-in-waiting and drivers and servants and cooks and animal tenders. Silver couldn’t imagine how big Calidia was if all these people were only a tiny piece of that grand city.
Vendors on the Jaspaton roads worked furiously to cook their desert specialties for all the Calidians waiting in line. The air became sweet with the heady smells of succulent tea, meat on spits, and desert-rose jellies softening in the growing warmth of the day. Silver’s mouth should have been watering, but it was as dry as a desert wind.