“What?”
“You’ve got to take one minute—one minute—to stop being so …” He grew frustrated. “So sunora.”
Petra wasn’t used to being called names she didn’t understand. She folded her arms across her chest and frowned. “What do you mean?”
“You’re so green. I know you’re not used to the ways of life around here, but you’ve got to think. If pinching the purse of some hill-bred nobody would get me sent to the gallows, what do you think is going to happen when the prince finds out that a bunch of Gypsies have been eating his deer, eating his conies, and living on his own hunting grounds? He won’t think twice about turning us all into dust in the captain’s vial. How long is it going to take before that happens?” He flung his hand into the sky and the snowflakes sifting down. “You got your reasons for wanting what’s inside the Cabinet. I got mine. Leastways I know that if things don’t go our way and I get caught, what’ll happen to me will happen just to me.”
Astrophil cleared his throat. “And Petra.”
“Right. So no more second-guessing.” Neel took a small knife from his pocket and cut his palm. “Swear.” He passed her the knife and held up his left hand, where a thin line of blood shone.
Petra, you know the rules of a blood oath, Astrophil warned. Maybe you should—
“I do swear.” She cut her palm. Ignoring the sting, she grasped Neel’s bloody, dirty hand.
Astrophil sighed.
“Good.” Neel shook her hand for good measure. “Now let’s talk sense.”
“Let me tell you what happened last night.” Petra began to relate the conversation that had taken place between her and John Dee. She held back any details concerning the clock. As she spoke, the two of them leaned against the woodpile, shivering under the white sky.
“He made you scry?” Neel frowned.
“Yes.”
“What did you see?”
“Nothing. At least, I don’t think I saw anything.”
“You might not’ve. That might not’ve been what he wanted.”
Petra gave him a searching look. “What do you know about scrying?”
“Nothing. Well, nothing much. But the Roma are good at mind-magic—foretelling, scrying, and the like. As far as I know, asking someone to look at a shiny bit of something doesn’t always mean you want to know the truth about the present or the past. There’s other stuff a scryer can do.”
“Like drive someone insane.”
“There’s that, too.” He peered at her and smiled. “Looks like you got all your marbles, though.”
She felt a pang of homesickness when he said this. She missed Tomik. She missed Okno. She missed her family.
Neel was pensive. “I’ve got to ask Drabardi about this. But tell me: how come this Dee knows stuff about you? Did he drop a word about me? Or Astro?”
“No,” Astrophil said to Neel. “But he is a difficult man to read. He acted as if he was being honest. Even too honest. But listening to him speak is like seeing the curve of a tree root just above the ground. You can see only one piece, and you have no idea what the rest of the root looks like, how far down it goes, and how far it stretches out under the earth.”
“Is he a friend of your da’s?”
“No,” Petra said, insulted. “He’s a spy”
“No need to get all prickly. I was just asking. Because it’s weird that some foreign gentleman is offering to help you. Give me that bottle of bella-whatsit.” Neel took the brown bottle from her. He opened it, sniffed the liquid, and put a little on his tongue. Then, before Petra could stop him, he tipped back his head and let a drop fall into one eye.
“Neel!”
“That could be poisonous!” Astrophil cried, wringing four legs.
“Well, yeah. Why do you think I put it in only one eye?” He blinked, and belladonna ran down his face like a black tear.
Petra groaned. “If the poison’s strong enough, that won’t matter! You didn’t have to do that! I was going to test it in the laboratory before I tried using it.”
“You know how to tell if something’s poisonous?”
“Not exactly, but if belladonna is made from a mineral, I —” She broke off, startled to see that John Dee’s gift was working just like he said it would. The pupil in Neel’s right eye swelled like a small black balloon. Soon Neel looked very odd indeed, with one black eye and one yellow. She couldn’t help but chuckle.
“Laughing at me when I might drop dead? That’s a fine thank-you.” He continued to blink. “Well, I’m not dead. And I’m not blind. So I guess your potion’s all right.” He passed back the bottle.
As Petra took it, she considered the sight of his mismatched eyes. She ran her thumb along the shallow cut in her palm, which was already beginning to crust over. A blood oath is a promise to protect your friend’s life as much as your own, and to keep no secrets between you. It’s a way of making a friend family.
“Neel, why haven’t you told anyone at the castle about us? Or about my father’s notebook? You would probably get a reward. I know you’ve thought about it.”
“Someone like me wouldn’t exactly get a private meeting with the prince. So who would I tell? The captain of the guard? And a right pleasant fellow he is. First thing he’d do is chuck my Gypsy hide into the nearest jail cell and claim any reward for himself.”
“So you have thought about it,” she accused.
“I can’t help thinking. But it ain’t my style to betray the ladies. Or spiders.” He nodded at Astrophil.
She scowled. “I can’t believe you even thought about it. I trusted you.”
“I know.” He thrust his hands in his pockets and looked down. “I’m not used to that. The fact that you trust me … well, it makes me want to be someone you can trust.”
They were silent.
I should tell him about the clock, Astro.
You promised your father you would tell nobody, he said.
I know.
This is unlike you, Petra. You never break your word.
I know. But I’ve taken a blood oath, and—
I tried to stop you, Astrophil interrupted. If you make too many promises, one of them is bound to crash into another, and then one of them is bound to break.