The five wraiths did not delay. One breath, they were pale shapes in the air, the next, they had shrunk and hardened into children's marbles, glossy and harmless at a glance.
They clicked together once, then scattered across the road and rolled away in different directions, hunting a way to reach Ledgegrove Bazaar as fast as they could.
Fay watched them go and felt the hair at her nape lift. Mimicry that quick meant they understood more than they admitted.
She seized Good Chip by the sleeve and pulled him back to their pavilion.
"We must change," she said.
Good Chip blinked at her. The robe he wore was clean and too bright in a place that fed on grime.
The jade white of Fay's skin was worse. It made her look like something carved and set on a shelf.
Fay was not a boastful lady. Yet Radeon had said she had beauty, said it plain. If she was worth looking at, then she was worth taking. So she hid it.
