“Are you ready?”
“I’m ready,” Bade decided. “I’m terrified, but I’m ready.” Running his fingers through his curls, nervously patting them, he looked down at himself, then at Orinakin. “I’m presentable?”
“You’re very handsome,” Orinakin said. “Remember to be yourself. Say what’s on your mind. Don’t second-guess yourself.”
Opening the door, Bade continued to look at him. “Thank you. For your advice and for your help, and for inviting me here.”
“I want Kudorin to marry well,” Orinakin said. “I believe in you.”
Bade gave him a nervous smile, then left with Beneta.
Closing his eyes, Orinakin whispered a brief prayer for Bade’s future. Eyes opening again, he turned his gaze on Bade’s trunks.
His braid was in there. The hair he’d cut off in the balloon. He’d discovered it while he’d rummaged through Bade’s clothing; it was wrapped in a white cloth and tucked in a bottom corner.
Probably Bade didn’t even remember putting it there. Most likely it had been kept merely as a curiosity. After all, who else did Bade know who could grow several inches of hair overnight?
“You’re going to think that I’m simply terrible for saying this, but I don’t want Kudorin to choose Bade,” Anosanim said. “Bade should be at home, with his brother. If Bade marries Kudorin, he’ll stay here, and twins shouldn’t be separated like that, not ever.”
“That’s Bade’s choice to make,” Talin said.
“If you and I didn’t see each other for years, I simply wouldn’t know what to do with myself. It would be horrible, absolutely horrible! I’d go out of my mind, I know that I would.”
Putting a hand on his shoulder and steering him out of the room, on the way to dinner, Talin said, “Stop worrying about things that won’t happen.”
“I don’t know why you refuse to concern yourself with anything,” Anosanim said, plucking at his sleeves as they walked down the hallway. “You might at least pretend to worry at the prospect of not seeing me for years.”
“I’m not going to waste my time worrying about something that will never come to pass,” Talin said. “Tell me what Liri said about the new balloons.”
“Oh, it’s going to be fantastic,” Anosanim said, feeling a quick pulse of excitement. “It’s going to be a terrific project. Of course no one thinks that it’s as grand as the new library or the temples, but I’m absolutely thrilled. She thinks that Kudorin’s going to commission a whole fleet of balloons! Oh, Talin, a whole fleet! I wasn’t sure that it would happen, and it still hasn’t, but - - like we’ve always said, there’s no sense in building new balloons unless they’re bigger and better, and it’s been hard to find a way to improve on the methods we already have.”
“You’re going to find a way, aren’t you?” Talin asked, a glint of pride in his eyes.
“Liri said that I’m in the perfect position to design the new mechanics,” Anosanim admitted. “I have a few ideas. There are some details that I want to look at. And you have to promise me that you’ll design the fabrics. I know that it’s a project unworthy of the royal artist,” he loved calling Talin that, “but it would only take you a minute to sketch out something.”
“These balloons will travel all over the world,” Talin said. “I’d never leave that task to anyone else.”
“I knew that you’d do it,” Anosanim said, squeezing his hand. “I could only trust you to come up with something to represent Orina Anoris to the world. Just think, Talin, people everywhere will see your work! Anyone, anywhere, can look up and see it there, floating in the sky, passing right overhead. Can you imagine?”
“They’ll see your work, too,” Talin said.
“No one looks at the basket,” Anosanim said dismissively. “But they’ll always remember spotting that spectacular, bright balloon.”
