“Dossam!” A girl who looked like she was barely out of her first quindec launched herself at Sam, and they embraced. “You’re back, just in time for the rededication. Will you be playing after all?”
Sam glanced at me. “I haven’t decided yet. Stef is bullying me into dancing. Ana and I have lessons with her every morning now.”
The girl finally noticed my presence. “You’re Ana?” She didn’t give me time to nod. “I hope you’re planning on dancing at my rededication. Maybe you can convince Sam not to hide behind his piano the entire time, too. We can use recordings.”
I smiled, per Sam’s advice, and the girl seemed pleased.
“Well, I have to run. I was just confirming the ceremony details, but I need to get back to Tera now. She’s not feeling well.”
“I hope she recovers,” I called, but the girl — Ash, presumably — was already halfway down the great staircase. She waved and vanished into the crowd.
At last, Sam hauled open a door for me, and I ducked under his arm. The entrance hall was cool and quiet, save the echoes of footfalls and voices beyond heavy doors. I resisted the urge to drop from exhaustion right there. The number of people— Well, maybe I’d get used to it.
“You were great.” Sam motioned me down the hall. “Now they’ll remember that they like you—”
“Or they like you and you don’t seem to mind me.”
“—and they’ll tell everyone great things about you. Especially Armande. I think he’d do anything for you.”
“You just introduced me to people you knew would feel that way. Did you take lessons from all of them, too?” Maybe I’d get to hear embarrassing-for-Sam stories to help restore my dignity. Surely Armande would have some.
Sam’s mouth turned up in the corner, always the same one. Soon, he’d have a line there to match the one between his eyes. “I can’t sneak anything past you.”
Not for lack of trying.
I couldn’t forget him creeping from the house last night.
Chapter 13
Faces
“ALL THIS SPACE for the Council?” I asked, trying to keep up with Sam’s long strides.
“Oh, no.” He slowed his pace. “The library is here, as well as the prison and hospital. Grand reception rooms, a concert hall — which you must see later — and entire chambers devoted to preserving artifacts the Council and archivists deem important enough to keep on display.”
“I wish I could look at everything now.” Oil paintings of faraway places lined the walls. Lush jungles with flowers of every color, rivers with otters playing, and deserts with enormous cacti and forever-stretches of sand. “And I wish I could see all this for real.”
“There’s no reason you can’t.” He motioned me around a statue-guarded corner. “After you’ve completed your training, we can go anywhere you want.”
I liked that he said we. I couldn’t imagine exploring by myself. While I’d seen maps of Range, I didn’t even know where oceans were. I didn’t know anything about what was beyond, except that it was dangerous. People had been exploring for thousands of years; sometimes they died, but they could tell everyone about it when they were reborn.
“Have you been everywhere?”
He shook his head and stopped in front of wide double doors with intricate carvings — maps of Heart, it looked like. “The Council is in here,” he said, voice low. He reached as though to touch my face, but hesitated. “You’ve got a strand of hair.” His hand dropped to his side without doing anything.
Cheeks hot, I gathered my hair into a ponytail — out of my face — and combed a tangle out. “How’s that?” I smoothed my dress.
“Beautiful.”
Not “better” or “needs more work” like I’d expected. Before I could summon a response, he pulled open one of the doors and ushered me inside a tall chamber as big as the first floor of his house. Statues stood against the walls like guards — and some like guardians — and fraying tapestries hung behind them. Fading images of animals and geothermal features surrounded us.
All ten Councilors were present. They sat on one side of a long table carved of a dozen kinds of wood, with precious metals inlaid in elaborate, flowing patterns. In addition to the Councilors, a man at a desk sat in one corner of the room, tapping on something that might have been a bigger version of an SED.
Meuric rose from the center of the line of Councilors and said, “Dossam. Ana. Welcome.” The others nodded their greetings, and Sine smiled warmly at me. “Please sit, both of you.”
Sam pulled out a chair and motioned for me to sit first. I kept my hands in my lap where the Councilors couldn’t see me fidget. They appeared to be of various ages, but they all had that air about them, the same depth in their eyes that Sam had no matter how eighteen he looked.
“We’re here to discuss the terms of Ana’s stay in Heart, and the requirements she must fulfill in order to remain Dossam’s student and guest. In the event neither Dossam nor Ana wish to comply with the Council’s requests, other suitable arrangements will be made.” Something in the way Meuric said that made me think the arrangements wouldn’t be suitable to me. “This is a closed session for now, but the records will be public within the month.”
The announcement hung on the air like a warning. The terms of my stay. Other arrangements. Ugh. I liked Meuric least of all the Councilors, but he was the Speaker. The leader. If he didn’t like me, the others might not either.
From what Sam had explained, Councilors queued up to serve when there was an opening — which only happened when one died — and served the rest of that life. Meuric signed up every lifetime. His constant association with the Council probably made him the most powerful person in Heart.
Sam had also said Meuric believed in Janan. Why would anyone believe in something so fiercely, without any proof?
“So, Ana.” Meuric’s tone shifted. Kinder, maybe, but I still didn’t trust him, or anyone on the Council. They’d voted to keep me out of Heart. “What do you think of Heart so far?”
“It’s lovely.” My throat itched from nerves, and I wished we’d brought water. But then I’d probably drink it all at once and have to pee for the rest of the meeting. “Very big.”
Sam took the chair beside me and nudged my leg. I couldn’t interpret what he wanted, so I ignored it. He probably didn’t want me to mention the thing with the walls and temple. Not that I’d been about to.
“We haven’t had much time to look around yet,” Sam said, leaning toward the table, “but we’re already planning piano lessons, and Stef has offered her services as well.”
Oh, right. I tried to appear pleasant, like he’d suggested. “This morning we made appointments with a bunch of people. Armande is going to teach me how to bake next week.”
“That’s wonderful. You should come visit me, too. If you’re studying music with Sam, you might enjoy poetry also.” Sine spread her hands on the table. Wrinkles crisscrossed her flesh and veins; she looked so old and fragile.
My eyes were liars. In truth, Sine and Sam were the same age.
That thought made my head hurt, but I managed to nod when Sam tapped my foot with his. “Sounds great,” I gasped. “Thank you.”
I couldn’t imagine Sam any way other than how he was now, no matter how hard I tried. None of the books I’d seen had sketches or photos of him, and the video I’d seen had mostly been his back. And blurry, besides. Would I recognize him if I saw a clear photograph?
Stef’s description of the dedication ceremony made me shiver again. How could anyone continue like that, risking not recognizing the person they loved? How could they look in the mirror and recognize themselves? I looked like me. Sam looked like Sam.