The Cracks in the Kingdom by Jaclyn Moriarty

Author:Jaclyn Moriarty
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Romance, Fantasy, Young Adult
ISBN: 9780545633697
Publisher: Scholastic, Inc.
Published: 2013-12-31T16:00:00+00:00

5.

The mood, which had been flying, abruptly took a seat and put its feet up.

This was a smaller, cobblestoned square.

It was almost empty. Two or three people wandered past, speaking softly. One wore a necklace that dripped with Turquoise Rain. A jazz trio stood silent in the corner, the double bass leaning up against the piano.

They were breathing hard as they stepped in, then their breathing slowed and quieted.

The Turquoise Rain was gentling. It still fanned out but had a whisper quality, a warmth.

“This is the Art Quarter,” Keira said. “And see that caramel colored door? That leads to a Conversation Corner. You want to go?”

They followed her across the square. Above them empty birdcages were strung along a crisscross of wires.

They swiped their armbands and entered an empty courtyard. A fountain played in shadows, and they could make out a few plants and trees, shaping darkly in pots, and a scattering of couches at odd angles. The electronic music played, but its pace was slower, volume lower.

“Sit anywhere,” Keira said. “You can get coffee, chocolate, and bananas from that wall over there. Swipe your armband and touch the image you want. Then sit.”

“Coffee, chocolate, and bananas?”

“They’re conversation stimulants.”

The others hesitated.

“Night is for conversation,” Keira explained patiently. “See how dim it is in here? We can hear each other’s voices, and see the light in each other’s eyes, but that’s it.”

There was another silence.

“When there’s only words, and the spark behind words,” she elaborated, “that’s when conversation finds its voice. Everyone, sit down and talk.”

* * *

Elliot and Keira sat cross-legged on opposite ends of a couch. From across the courtyard they could hear the rise and fall of voices from the Princess, Sergio, and Samuel.

“It’s the silence,” Keira said to Elliot. “Just night-distant winds, water, owls. You hear the shifts in nothing. It softens things.”

“Wait,” said Elliot. “I thought the point was edges.”

“Exactly.”

They both laughed, and Elliot felt the couch tremble.

“It’s both,” Keira said, a horizontal slide to her voice. “That’s the essence of night. Duality. Sharp and soft. Dark and light. By day, all you get is light.”

“We get shadows in the daytime too.”

“Shadows are just darker light. Listen to me.”

“I am.”

“You’d better be.”

There was another silence. They were looking at each other, seeing nothing but shapes and glints. The music was doing something sweet, rising up to an exquisite point and holding, and Elliot felt it holding him suspended. Then it fell back down into the low, fast drumbeat, and he exhaled.

Keira spoke again. “All that glare and light of day,” she said. “You need darkness for beauty.”

“Not much point in beauty you can’t see.”

Keira leaned closer to him. “See that?” She pointed to a pale gold paper lantern that was standing in an alcove. “It’s the glow from inside that makes it beautiful. You don’t get that by day.” Now she waved across the courtyard to where the others were leaning together. “We can’t see the scar on Sergio’s forehead, or the puffiness of Samuel’s cheeks, or the tension in Princess Ko’s neck.

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