As Vladim moved to turn the locks, I heard Genya whisper. "You definitely owe me a kiss after all this, Don't think I won't hold you to it."
I laughed lightly. "We'll see."
"There is no seeing, you will, if I have to be the one to do it then so be...
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THE GRITSKI MANSION WAS IN THE CANAL DISTRICT, considered the least fashionable part of the upper town because of its proximity to the bridge and the rabble across it. It was a lavish little building, bordered by a war memorial on one side and the gardens of the Convent of Sankta Lizabeta on the other.
Mal had managed to secure a borrowed coach for the evening, and we were tucked inside its narrow confines with a very cranky Tamar. She and Tolya had grumbled long and loudly about the party, but Alina and I'd made it clear that we weren't going to budge.
We also swore them to secrecy; we didn't want word of our little excursion beyond the palace gates to reach Nikolai.
We were all dressed in the style of Suli fortune-tellers, in vibrant combinations of colors that included me in an ocean blue dress with beads that tangled together down my bust to the parallel side of my waist. Part of my hair had been pulled back into a complicated waterfall braid, as the other half hung down my shoulders in soft waves. The mask at my eyes was the same color but beaded heavily with gems.
Alina and the others wanted to go for something different, well Alina wanted to feel comfortable so she went with the safest option and wore something similar to Mal. Tamar the same. They all wore vibrant orange silks and red lacquered masks to resemble jackals.
I felt a surge of giddy excitement. The cloak resting over my shoulders was uncomfortably warm, and my face was already starting to itch beneath the mask, but I didn't care.
The street leading to the pickle king's mansion was clogged with carriages. We turned onto an alley near the convent so that we'd be better able to mix in with the performers at the servants' entrance.
Tamar carefully shifted her cloak as we descended from the coach. She and Mal were both carrying hidden pistols, and I knew that beneath all the orange silk, she had her twin axes strapped to each thigh.
"What if someone actually wants his fortune told?" I asked, tightening the laces of my mask and pulling the hood up.
"Just feed him the usual drivel," said Alina. "Beautiful women, unexpected wealth. Beware of the number eight."
The servants' entrance led past a steam-filled kitchen and into the house's back rooms. But as soon as we stepped inside a man dressed in what must have been the Gritzki livery seized Alina's arm.
"Just what do you think you're doing?" he said, giving a fierce shake on Alina's arm. I saw Tamar's hand go to her hip.
