“Really? Even though the two people had been enemies?”

“Oh, yes. The king and queen of Herran are a mixed couple, and theirs is a love for the ages, celebrated in songs and stories. They became a model for their people. Intermarrying is … not common, but accepted. More or less.”

“So your parents are like the king and queen.”

“You could say that.”

“Are there many people like you, where you come from?”

“There is no one like me,” she said. “I am beyond compare.”

“Sid.”

Her pace slowed. I felt a drop of rain.

“What do you mean, exactly?” she asked. “Someone who is mixed, or a woman who likes women?”

It startled me, how easily she could mention something that, at least in the Ward, was scandalous. “Someone who is mixed.”

“No,” she said. “Not many. There are unkind words for people who are half-Herrani, half-Valorian.”

“But you’re High. No one would dare call you something unkind.”

She widened her black eyes. “Of course they would.”

“But if the king and queen—”

“People adore them, but that doesn’t mean they adore me. I live in Herran, and most people there have very bad memories of what the Valorians did. The way I look reminds them of that. I look very Valorian.”

Sid’s mouth had twisted ruefully when she said adore. I asked, “Do you not like the Herrani rulers?”

She shrugged. “They are a problem. They had a chance to remake the world. All they did was reestablish the Herrani monarchy with themselves as the rulers.”

“What are they like?”

“Oh, I don’t really know them.” Thunder rumbled again, louder this time. She looked up and seemed to speak her words toward the sky. “They’re smart. Scary. Benevolent, I guess. Kind to their people. But you definitely don’t want to cross them.”

“It sounds as if you do know them.”

“Well,” she said reluctantly, “I worked for the queen.”

“Really? What did you do?”

“A little bit of this, a little bit of that.”

“Straight answers, Sid.”

“I ran her errands.”

“You don’t seem like a runner of errands.”

“And yet it was so,” Sid said. “The queen’s wish was my command.”

“Did you enjoy working for her?”

“It was interesting work. A good position for someone like me.” But there was a stiffness to the way Sid said it.

“Was it,” I guessed, “something your parents made you do?”

“Yes.” She smiled, a little sadly. “Exactly. Now it’s my turn to question and yours to answer. Tell me, have you told that young man of yours yet that you love him?”

I paused on the cobblestones.

“Why have you stopped?” she asked.

“We’re here.” I crouched by the white wall I had scratched at yesterday. I couldn’t see the red paint anymore.

“A straight answer, Nirrim. As we agreed.”