I thought of my mother. I shuddered.

Yasmin didn't notice. «Four years of hell,» she said. "Until one night, Jadon roughed up a woman who turned out to be a succubus in disguise. So much for Jadon; and praise The Lady for making Sigil a city where such things can happen. Anyway, I joined the Handmaids of Entropy the same night, thinking they would turn me into a remorseless killing machine… which is what I dearly wanted to become at that moment. I was all wrong about how the Handmaids actually worshipped Entropy, but I was all wrong about wanting to kill people too. The Handmaids gave me what I needed, and here I am.

«But Britlin… if you really are my brother, half-brother, I can't let those old wounds open again. I can't. It's not your fault, it's Jadon's… and maybe mine too, maybe it shouldn't make a difference to me. You and I were happy yesterday, why should it make a difference? But it does. When I think that you might be my brother, it wrenches my stomach and I feel so sick… I can't breathe. And the only reason I can even say this in front of you is you don't understand a word.»

She bent in and kissed my cheek, a kiss thick with good-bye. Even as she continued to help me down the street, Yasmin had left me – as surely as if she had stepped through a portal and disappeared forever.

In minutes we were back at the smashed-up house. Hezekiah had found an old wash-tub and Zeerith was dipping herself in it to soothe the pain of her burns. Her serpent's body was much too long to fit inside the tub all at once, so she was immersing a bit at a time, the rest of her body hanging out over the sides. It looked uncomfortable, but the soaking had clearly eased the pain on her gentle face.

Wheezle sat propped against one of the kitchen cupboards, his hands folded placidly in his lap. Missing a year from his life, paralyzed from the waist down, he was still as tranquil as death… but when the gnome caught sight of me, his eyes opened wide and he cried, «Honored Cavendish!»

«I found him in the remains of a brawl,» Yasmin said as she lowered me to the floor. «I don't know how Britlin got involved… maybe Kiripao was there.»

«Qi Chi,» I told everyone. «Rivi Qi Chi.»

«He keeps saying that,» Yasmin muttered. «He must have a concussion and it's making him delirious.» She let out an exasperated snort. «If it weren't for the sodding dust in my lungs, I'd have the magic to heal him!»

«Is he very ill?» Zeerith asked softly. The naga raised her head three feet off the ground and gazed down at me as I slumped on the floor.

«He's incoherent,» Yasmin replied. «Conscious but incoherent… and that scares me. Something's seriously wrong with his brain.»

I wanted to tell her I could think just fine; but my tongue couldn't put the words together. It occurred to me, maybe there was something wrong inside my head – some rupture in the conduits connecting thought and speech. Very bad, very very bad.

«Perhaps,» Zeerith murmured shyly, «I could…» She lowered her eyes in embarrassment. «People have suggested I can work magic, but I never… still, now that I have molted…»

«It is worth a try, honored snakeling,» Wheezle said. «And perhaps we can offer you some small advice for focusing the energy…»

«We'll help,» Yasmin assured the naga. «If you have the power inside, we'll show you how to draw it out.»

«This'll be great,» Hezekiah enthused. «A magic lesson!»

«Rivi Qi Chi,» I said. But nobody paid attention.

With deep concentration, Zeerith stared into my eyes. The rest of her green-scaled body had coiled around me, not tightly but with a firm grip that held me solid. It took all my self-control not to squirm – not just suppressing fear of being crushed by a constrictor, but also a frisson of arousal at this embrace from a girl just entered into womanhood. You're delirious, I told myself; such feelings are beneath you. But her face was the only thing I could see… her solemn, beautiful face meeting my gaze with the intensity of a lover.

«Stay relaxed,» Yasmin whispered in the naga's ear. «Think of a time when the world filled you with awe.»

Zeerith bit her lip, a child's gesture. «Do you want me to talk about it?»

«If it will help you remember.»

She closed her eyes, then opened them again, staring directly at me… into me. Her face was not just as beautiful as an angel, it was equally profound.

«Years ago, when I was small,» she began, "a storm struck the town – not one of the fire storms that leaks over from the Bad Place, but a rain storm, with a fierce and terrible wind. That's what I remember most, the wind: roaring through the streets, rattling all the shutters, ripping leaves off the trees. Candles and lamps kept blowing out, even inside the house… because drafts gusted through every chink, and the chimney sucked up a steady breeze. People ran about, trying to plug the holes, keep the shutters from banging; and in the middle of it all, the front door blew open right in front of me. The open door, right there.

"I had never ventured into the street before. The family told me there were people out there who would hurt me; and I knew they were telling the truth. But the door was open, the street was empty, the wind was blowing so hard that the rain made horizontal streaks… and before I knew it, I was down the steps and sliding along the cobblestones.

"The wind pulled at me, but I stayed low. I stayed low. And the feel of the pavement was rough and wonderful against my belly, the sting of the rain beating on my skin, the howl of the wind tearing at the shingles of every roof… I was the only one out that night. Legged creatures would have been knocked off their feet by the wind, but I could move freely. I had the town to myself. The dark and stormy town, not a light to be seen.

«All mine.»

Her voice was a whisper and her eyes shone. She still gazed at me, but I knew she was seeing the blackness of that gale-battered night.

«You are touching the magic,» Wheezle murmured. «Now, invite it into your soul.»

He spoke so softly, I wondered if the naga even heard him. Suddenly, however, the hairs of my skin bristled, tingling with the presence of unseen energy. Zeerith's eyes widened and her mouth shaped into an O: surprise, wonder, awe. Her breath caught in a small gasp; then a creamy warmth gushed around me, pouring out of her body, streaming from every scale. It flooded into my brain, so powerful it turned into a fiery pain, just for a moment. Purple flashes burst inside my eyes once more, a single moment of explosion quickly dissipating into relaxed sparkles.

Zeerith's body loosened around me and slumped to the floor. Yasmin leapt forward to prevent the girl's head from slamming down; but the naga stopped herself without help and offered a weak smile. «Was that magic?» she asked.

«Yes,» I told her. «I assure you it was magic.» For the briefest of seconds, I let my fingers twine quietly through her hair. Then I forced myself away. «Thank you, but now we have to get out of here. Qi and Chi are in the area; it's not safe to stay in one place.»

«Sod it all!» Yasmin growled. «That's what you meant by Rivi Qi Chi?»

«That's what I meant. Let's get moving before —»

«Hello, my wee darlings,» called a gloating voice from the street. «Have you missed me?»