“Tau’s furious with us,” Kinda said. There was a noise of stones moving. “And I really don’t know what to do. My patience with them is running out. I thought … when they pushed me at you, down in the lake, I thought it was because they were worried about you. They wanted someone to take care of you, because … you know, things are going to change.…”

“I know I’m not a Prince. I won’t go with the two of you when you come of age. I knew it wasn’t going to last.”

There was a soft exchange of breath: a kiss. Tau-indi imagined them curled up against each other with mad loving hateful relish. Even listening to them like this, the jealousy wasn’t sexual, or as little sexual as anything in Tau-indi’s mind this year. No, it was a nobler kind of poison. They’d been friends! They’d been good together, the three of them! Why was this necessary, this closeness between two of them? Why was it required, if there had been nothing wrong with their third?

“What do you think they’re angry about now?” Abdumasi asked. “I mean, I can tell they’re angry, Tau’s not subtle—”

“Not subtle!” Kindalana must have made a face, because Abdu laughed the shocked laugh of someone finally talking about a taboo thing. Tau-indi wanted to roll up into the waterfall and be sucked all the way out to sea. They had thought they were subtle …

Kindalana sighed. “Tahr and my dad. I think they think it’s my fault, somehow. Tau thinks I made it happen, and they’re furious with me. It’s Farrier who’s made them think that way, I expect … the way he flinches from me, it’s like I walk around naked.”

What? No! That wasn’t true at all.

“Oh,” Abdumasi said. “Your dad and Tahr? Is that a thing?”

“Only since she got back. She’s been sleeping with him occasionally.”

“I can tell she’s different. More … intent?”

“She’s stopped caring about trim.” Kindalana threw a stone. It whistled out past Tau-indi and vanished in the waterfall. “It’s not like you and me, I don’t think. I get the sense Tahr just doesn’t want to put things off anymore.”

“What do you mean?”

“Like she thinks time is running out, so she might as well take what she can get.”

“Does it bother you? The affair?”

“Apparently it bothers Tau a lot.”

“I didn’t ask about Tau.”

Kindalana’s voice moved deeper and pitched sharper. “Well, I’m talking about Tau. Tau’s working too hard. Their trim’s in a snarl and it’s making them miserable.”

“Sometimes,” Abdumasi said, so softly that Tau almost asked him to raise his voice, “I almost get up the courage to tell them that thing I told you. The thing about their dead twin.”