The Roma were not nearly as impressed as Petra was. They had seen this many times before. One of Emil’s friends said that Neel had used an unfair advantage.
“Unfair!” Neel muttered to Petra. “Even if you got the ghosts, you still got to learn how to use them. Danior did. It’s not like I don’t practice to be able to do that.” Huffily, he fetched the knife for a third throw.
“You should hold it like this.” He gripped the knife normally and tilted his wrist. He glanced at Petra to see if she could tell the difference between how he was holding it now and how he had held it the first time. To her surprise, she could. She nodded. He threw, and the knife went into the red.
Now it was her turn. When she held the knife, she was curious to find that it felt very natural. She seemed to sense the knife in her mind, like a tiny needle that pricked gently. She knew how she should hold her fingers, and how to angle her arm, her wrist, and the metal blade. It seemed as simple as adding grain to a scale until you could see the needle flicker to the exact weight you wanted. Petra squinted. The black center was about as big as a freckle. But when she threw, she knew the blade would hit the black. And it did.
Neel whistled and clapped Petra hard on the back. The rest of the Lovari had different ways of responding. Everyone looked at least a little taken aback. Sadie and a few others applauded, and many began speaking among themselves. Petra heard one word repeated: petali.
“What’s petali?” she asked Neel.
“It means ‘lucky.’ They’re saying you’ve got beginner’s luck.”
“Really?” Petra replied archly, and walked to pluck the steel dagger from the board. She liked this game. This time she didn’t take so long finding the right position for the throw. She confidently let the blade spin from her fingers. She hit the black mark again.
She turned to Neel with a grin. “My family has always had a way with metal.”
A COUPLE OF HOURS LATER, Petra said she had to go back to her inn. She and Sadie agreed to meet in the morning at eight o’clock in the castle stables. Petra shouldered her pack. “I’ll walk you home,” Neel said.
They set out through the trees together, heading for the center of town. They talked the whole way. Petra told him about the differences between Okno and Prague. She described her family and Tomik. Neel’s voice painted vibrant images of the different places he had lived in, like Spain, Portugal, Hungary, and North Africa.
Once they crossed Karlov Bridge into the older part of town, Petra thought they would retrace their steps back to the Shorn Lamb and the market, but Neel led her in a different direction. “I want to show you something.”
He brought her to a square that was flanked by soaring towers that prickled with spires. In the center of the square, people were massed around a tall, slender building with a pointed roof. They seemed to be waiting for something. Petra could see only the back of the building, but she guessed what it was even before Neel shouted, “Hurry up! It’s almost time for the hour to strike!” They ran into the crowd and jostled for a good view.
Petra gazed in awe. The clock was even more beautiful than she had imagined. As her father said, the clock’s face showed a brassica field rippling in the breeze. Golden Roman numerals ringed the dial. Signs of the zodiac, also in gold, flashed in a constant circle as a flat, blue plate made from lapis lazuli spun below the face. Tiny green copper dragons peered down from the pointed roof above the clock’s face. Their twisted tails were streaked with gold.
Then the silver minute hand and the gold hour hand reached the number five together. Jets of water sprang up in the air on either side of the clock, in the form of dripping lilies of the valley. Small children splashed in the water below. Melodious chimes rang. Above the clock’s face, blue double doors folded open. Small statues appeared in one door. They turned to face the audience. Then they disappeared behind the second door. It was a parade of good and evil. First came the devil, then an angel, then a miser clinking his money bag, then a woman scattering brassica seeds, then Death as a skeleton. Last came Life, a young girl who looked like Petra. She slipped behind the second door. The blue doors shut. The wings of the copper dragons fluttered like leaves, and a red rooster statue at the top of the tower crowed.
Petra was speechless. The clock was unbelievably lovely, and must have been very difficult to design.
When they reached the inn’s door, Neel said, “You know, I might be seeing you at the castle.”
“You might?”
“Yeah. I’ve been thinking about what Sadie said. I decided it’s about time I gave up picking pockets and tried my hand at a real job. Thought I’d see if Tabor could get me work in the stables.” He sounded serious, but his yellowy eyes twinkled.
“But, of course, you wouldn’t have to stay in the stables,” Petra said craftily. “I’m sure that once you got a job at the castle, you could probably explore different parts of it pretty freely.”
“Yep. And maybe I’ll get a notion of where the prince stashes his pretties.”
“Sadie and your mother won’t like it.”
“Oh, I suppose not. But there’s no reason for them to know, right?”
“I believe that would cause them unnecessary stress,” Astrophil chimed in.
“Most unnecessary.” Neel shook his head and sighed. “Sometimes adults just don’t know what’s good for them.” He began walking away, but glanced over his shoulder to wink at her. “See you later, Petali.”
14
Genovese
I HOPE YOU REALIZE, Astrophil silently said, that taking a job at the castle means you will miss the start of classes at the Okno schoolhouse.
And you can see how sad I am about it, Petra replied. She marched across the inn’s common room, sat across the table from Lucie and Pavel, and announced that Aunt Anezka wanted her to stay with her for an entire month. “I’ll move my things to her house tomorrow. She’ll take me back to Okno.”
“Well, if that’s what your aunt really wants …” Lucie said. “We wouldn’t be good company for you anyway. We’re so busy selling our wares.” And Lucie launched into a long complaint that Petra ignored. She ate her dinner quickly. Then she dashed up the stairs to their bedroom.
Petra had been aching to try something the moment she was alone.
She emptied her pockets, placed a copper krona on her palm, and stared. Anticipation thrilled through her. Could she move metal with her mind, like her father?