“Were you?” Sherrea asked me intently.

“No.”

“That’s what I thought. The old crow just wants to save it up ’til she can make me feel guilty about all the work she did.”

“Pah! I would never be so stupid. I know you have no conscience at all, so!”

They were friends. They were good friends. I felt as I had at the Underbridge, when I heard her call Robby by his nickname, when I discovered she knew Theo.

“… Theo!” I gasped. “Sher, where’s Theo? Is he okay?”

She blinked and turned to China Black. “You didn’t explain?”

“There were more important things to discuss.”

“Sure. I bet you forgot,” Sher grumbled, scowling. She sent that glare at Mr. Lyle next. “You could have said something.”

Mr. Lyle grinned. “I had no chance, little sister. When she gets like Iansa with her horsetail, what can poor mortals do?”

“I apologize,” Sherrea sighed. “These two would tell a gopher how to dig, but a little thing like saying whether your friend’s alive or dead—”

“Is he?” I blurted.

“Dead? Nah. Theo’s upstairs — or he’s supposed to be. Resting up. If he comes downstairs before tomorrow, I’m gonna kick his butt.”

“Get your pointy shoes, then,” said Theo from the doorway. He was smiling and rumpled and pale, and his right arm hung in a black cloth sling. “I was cool with it, ’til somebody broke down the door. Then I got curious. Hey,” he said to me, and the smile was wider.

“Hey,” I answered. He looked embarrassed. I felt embarrassed.

I wondered if he had any idea why; I sure didn’t. “Oh, Cha — here, have a seat.” I moved quickly away from my chair.

China Black frowned. “We need another cup. I’ll get one.”

As she disappeared into the hall, Frances studied Sherrea. “I think I misjudged something a few hours ago,” Frances said. “I’m sorry if I seemed patronizing, back on the riverbank.”

Sher shrugged. I watched them size each other up, and realized, with a jolt, what Frances was reacting to. Sher and China Black weren’t just friends. They were peers. China Black, with her limo, elegant clothes, haughty manner, and easy power, behaved as Sherrea’s equal. The Sherrea I thought I knew, the adivina with the cheap cards and the melodramatic apartment, barely older than I actually was. What had I missed?

I was irritated. It was another change, another upset to my delicately balanced routine. I found myself suddenly too grouchy to converse. I would have dropped into my chair, but Theo was in it.

“Here,” Sher said. She’d dragged two low-backed chairs to the other end of the tea table. That was irritating, too: the second-guessing, the attention, the proximity.

“Thank you,” I said, and sat down. She gave me a sideways glance, filled the last clean cup for Theo, and sat, too. Then China Black returned with a cup for her.

“I bet everybody’s told everybody everything,” Sherrea said. “But would you mind telling it all to me, anyway?”