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Her high and mightiness had to wait a few moments while Pritkin and I sorted out something to wear.My armor was a mess of caked earth, mud, and what looked like blood that had solidified and been trapped between the scales in places.I swallowed because it wasn’t mine, and stopped trying to wipe it off until I’d gotten some food and rest, but then, what to wear?

Pritkin left for a good ten minutes, leaving me clad only in the inadequate sandpaper-like towels the Circle had used even before the apocalypse because suffering was a war-mage virtue.And returned with various odds and ends, none of which fit me.We finally settled on matching gray tunics, which, for him, replaced the now tragically stained and shredded T-shirt with the pert witch, and on me was as long as a dress.

Then we went to find Bodil.It wasn’t hard, as she was right down the hall with our original group sans the witches.I was about to ask where they’d gone before I noticed: there seemed to be a party going on.

We walked into a copy of our room, except this one had a feast spread across the bed and half the floor.No, the Circle wasn’t starving, I thought, checking out a platter with only a bunch of fish bones on it because somebody had already stripped off all the flesh.But there were plenty of other options, including a big bowl of dates stuffed with nuts and glistening with honey, a stew with chickpeas, some kind of meat, and tomatoes that Alphonse was currently working on, some chicken wings with grill marks and preserved lemon that Bodil was sucking off the bone, and some little triangle pastries.

I was too busy wondering what was in the latter to look where I was going and almost stepped in another bowl, but Alphonse rescued it just in time.

“Don’t put your foot in the—what is this stuff again?”he demanded, waving around the bowl.

“Kimchi?”I guessed from the smell, but he shook his head, which was back to sleek and black since he’d had a bath, too.I guessed they hadn’t had a tunic to fit him because he was bare-chested, but he had on some gray sweatpants with a long knife he’d come up with somewhere stuck through a sash around his waist.

“You look like a pirate,” I told him and got a cocked eyebrow in return.

“Wanna know what you look like?”

Since I had avoided the mirror specifically because I didn’t want to know, I just shook my head and sat cross-legged beside him on the floor.

“Anyway, I know Kimchi, and that ain’t it.”He sniffed it again.“Something pickled, though.You want some?”

He pushed food at me.Only I wasn’t sure what kind as our group was busy hoovering up the meal, and what was left didn’t look very familiar until Pritkin handed me some hummus.It was swimming in olive oil and spices, practically begging to be sopped up, but whatever bread had been delivered with our feast had gone a long time ago.

I rescued a plate of raw veggies that was about to fall off the edge of the bedspread and used them as hummus delivery devices instead.

“I’m good,” I told Alphonse.

“Not with that shit, you aren’t,” he said.And before I could protest, a glop of something faintly gelatinous landed in the middle of my hummus.“Mutton,” he told me before I could ask.“It’s gone cold, but it’s still good.Eat it.You need the protein.”

“Hummus has protein.It’s made out of chickpeas.”

“Eat.It.”

I was about to argue when I caught a whiff, and despite the unappealing temperature, it smelled—damn.I decided I could express my dislike of being ordered around by my fanged nanny later and ate up.It was so good I practically inhaled it.

“Torshi Liteh,” Pritkin said, pushing the not-Kimchi at me.He’d settled on my other side and already helped himself to some of the stuff in the bowl.“Cooked and smashed aubergine with pickled vegetables.Some people also smoke the aubergine.”

“Aubergine?”I asked, looking at it more hopefully.

“Eggplant.”

“Oh, gimme!”

He did, and it was so wonderful that I had my face buried in my plate for a while in a food fog while the conversation ebbed and flowed around me.The whole place felt weirdly cozy, with the warm light, good smells, and a circle of friends and allies crowded around.My stomach rumbled happily as I stuffed it full, not knowing when I’d get the chance again, and I felt my body relax and almost start to purr.

Of course, that didn’t last.

“Well, I think they have a point!”That was Æsubrand, who was the only one who looked like he hadn’t bathed.Despite that, he was far less muddy/sandy than he should have been, as if dirt didn’t like sticking to him, and his long fall of silver hair appeared almost pristine.His face, however, was thunderous.“It’s better than the alternative!”

“That’s a matter for debate,” Bodil said serenely.Besides a few stains on her brown leather armor, she looked much the same, with no marks on that beautiful face.The only sign that anything unusual had happened was that her many braids, which had been grouped into one Rapunzel-like plait, had been separated, probably to get the sand out.She also seemed to like the hummus and was eating through a bowl of it with the pita bread I’d been looking for earlier.

“Then let’s debate it!”Æsubrand eyed my largely denuded plate.“Are you finished?”

“No.”Alphonse dumped some more meat on me, and I tore into it.

“I can listen and eat at the same time,” I said, around mouthfuls.

“As you’ve been doing for the past fifteen minutes?”the silver prince demanded with a sneer.“You haven’t heard a damned thing anyone has said!”