“By noon, not a soul will be stirring in the Ward,” Raven said. I had almost forgotten she was in the room.

Annin cut sun melon into thin, papery orange slices and dropped them into a bowl of pale wine. With a sigh, she said, “It will be so dull with no customers.”

Morah said nothing. She cracked eggs into a bowl one-handed. Each tap of an egg against the rim of the bowl was precise and surprisingly loud. She watched Raven as she did it. She watched her the way you watch the silver ants, to see which direction they want to go in, so you can get out of their way.

“Now, girls,” Raven said brightly, “it is never possible to be bored when there are things to do. There are errands to run in the Ward.”

“I thought you said we should stay indoors,” said Morah.

“And so you should! I can’t even imagine setting one foot into that sun, particularly when I have been feeling so poorly.”

“Nirrim, too,” Annin said.

I lifted my gaze from my work in surprise.

“Just look at her,” Annin said. “Those shadows under her eyes! They look like they’ve been smudged with that kohl the High ladies use.”

Two nights of lost sleep were catching up with me. I hadn’t realized that Annin had noticed.

Raven came close, tipping her head up. In the last two years, I had grown past her height. She tucked a lock of damp hair behind my ear. It was so reassuring to feel her tenderness. She could easily lose her temper, it was true, but who among us is in perfect control of our feelings all the time? And she always became kind again.

“My lamb,” she said, “have you been sleeping badly?”

“No.” From the look on her face I could tell she was remembering when I had first come to the tavern from the orphanage, and had woken, weeping, in the night, babbling about things that she assured me were not real—except Helin’s death, which sometimes I would hope was one of the lies I had believed. “It’s not like that,” I said.

She smiled in evident relief. When you see relief on the face of someone you love you also see the worry that had been hidden. Her worry made me feel beloved. I was her girl. Her lamb. “I feel fine,” I promised.

“Annin, she is fresh as a flower. Except…” She touched my hair again, but this time let her fingers slide free, and rubbed the fingertips as she grimaced. “Very hot. My dear, you are so sweaty!”

Morah cracked another egg. The yellow globe of the yolk and its slick transparent white spilled from the shell in her hand into the bowl. She gave me a hard look I didn’t understand.

“I’ll run those errands myself,” Raven said. “Now, what did I come down here for? Oh, yes. A basket.”