Bluecrowne by Kate Milford

Author:Kate Milford
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

* * *

“Well, this is exciting!” Blister announced as he and Trigemine hiked up the last few of what seemed like several thousand steps to the top of the cliff. “And isn’t that something?”

“Hmm?” Trigemine was accustomed to long marches over far more forbidding terrain, so although his legs were aching and his lungs were working hard, he’d had enough energy left to spend the interminable hike going over the reckonings he had done the night before. He’d gotten good and lost in his own head, to the extent that he’d nearly forgotten the other man was there.

He roused himself from his mathematical thoughts and noticed for the first time the house that stood before them. “Good lord.” It was something. In all his wanderings, Trigemine had never seen anything quite like it. It hardly seemed to belong to either the here or the now, but even he couldn’t figure where or when it might fit.

Blister set the bag he had been carrying on the landing at his feet and wiped a thin sheen of sweat from his nose with an embroidered handkerchief. “Perhaps this is what passes for a palace if one is a privateer.”

“Letter-of-marque,” Trigemine said. “I am told they prefer letter-of-marque.”

“Yes, thank you.” Blister slung his bag of goods over his shoulder once more. “Ready, friend?”

“Lead on.”

They had just reached the portico and Trigemine was in the process of lifting his hand to the bronze knocker when the door swung inward and Liao Bluecrowne came bounding out. “They have arrived, they have arrived!” he crowed, dancing around Blister as if he were a maypole.

“We have, indeed!” Blister sounded as excited as Liao.

The girl, Lucy, appeared in the doorway. She gave them a civil nod and waved a hand inside. “Should you like to come in and rest after the hike up?”

“Not a bit of it!” Blister winked. “Provided there’s a dinner basket packed and ready. No sense wasting time when there are fireworks to be made.”

“Certainly,” she replied. “If you or Mr. Trigemine will be so kind as to carry it, it’s just here.”

“With seven-water grog?” Blister asked, mock-severe. “And cake?”

Liao nodded feverishly. “Lucy baked the cakes herself!”

Trigemine touched his hat and made a short bow. “Allow me. I’m not likely to be useful for much else.” The basket sat just next to the door. Lucy stepped aside to allow Trigemine to enter, and he saw something, some momentary hesitation flicker over her face as he bent to pick it up. Distrust? Or just curiosity? What does she think she senses? he wondered.

“That’s quite a nice pin,” Lucy said, looking at his cravat. “I noticed it back in the Harbors.”

“Thank you.” Trigemine straightened. “I use it to walk through time.” And with that, he took the basket and followed Blister and Liao to a stone outbuilding across the lawn, leaving Lucy Bluecrowne to look after him in confusion.

They were already inside and having a disagreement when he reached the door of the stone building. “But I know how to make stars,” Liao protested.

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