When this third dance ended, Leesa spoke as if no great social cataclysm had occurred just ten minutes before. “Try to amuse yourself as best you can,” she said, patting him on the cheek as if he were a child. “I’ll catch up with you in an hour or so.”

“Well,” he said, but she had twirled away. A few minutes later he saw her in the arms of a thin, nervous, awkward young man who must be the son or brother of someone who mattered. He would not be able to keep track of her progress for the rest of the evening, this he knew from long experience. It might be time to seek out Melina’s friend or sample the refreshments.

But before setting out on either of those quests, he took a moment to look for Aliria Carvon and her ill-chosen guest. No longer standing proud and alone at the entrance, they had joined the others on the floor and were moving with a sinuous grace through the patterns of the latest dance. Aliria was gazing up at her partner, laughing as if he had just said something amusing. He was staring down at her with a peculiar and somewhat unnerving intensity, and he did not look as if he had just made a clever remark. The other couples around them took care not to come too close. Aliria and the guldman danced in a small deliberate bubble of privacy and may as well have been embracing in the unobserved seclusion of her home.

Nolan pushed his way slowly through the crowd, nodding to the people he recognized, hoping he would not accidentally encounter Cerisa again. He had been here less than two hours, and already he was wishing the evening was over. He was relieved when he finally spotted Julitta, standing quite alone under the shadow of some impossibly contorted greenhouse plant.

“I see my prophecy came true,” he greeted her. “Melina has abandoned you.”

She seemed grateful to see him and gave a friendly smile. “She did warn me before we arrived. But I thought it would be fun anyway.”

“And has it been?”

“Not quite as much as I’d hoped.”

He nodded. “It never is.”

“Things are—livelier at the parties at my mother’s house. Not so much politeness and strict decorum.”

“Has she taken you in-country yet? This is relaxed compared to some of the formal events there.”

Julitta shook her head, the expression on her face somewhat alarmed. “No, but her sister’s engagement ball is set for next fall, and she already asked me—”

Nolan laughed. “Oh, you should go. Just once. Just to see what it’s like. Stories to tell your granddaughters twenty years from now.”