The Thief Queen's Daughter by Elizabeth Haydon Page A

would sell a burp if they could get hold of it. And some fool would buy it.”
    “And there’s the toymaker,” Nick said, pointing to the other side of the black tent. “So this here in the middle must be your fortune-teller, Ven.”
    “If she’s there,” Ven agreed. “Mr. Coates says you can’t always find her.”
    “Well, if you’re going to find out about the glowing stone, I don’t think we have much choice,” said Clemency. “Shall we go inside?”
    Ven’s skin was itching with excitement. “Absolutely!” he said. “Come on.”
     

     
    Unlike the booths to the left and right of it, the round black tent had no sign above it, nor any kind of banner out in front. Waving from the point in the middle of the top was a white flag with nothing more than what looked like a sketch of an eye. In the center of the iris was a star. A flap in the tent hung open in the front. Otherwise there appeared to be no door.
    Ven pulled the heavy flap of the tent aside and stepped out of the way for the others to enter. Saeli looked at him nervously as Nick and Clem went into the darkness, then followed them as Char brought up the rear. Ven stepped in last, letting go of the tent flap.
    As soon as he dropped the flap, all but the thinnest line of light at the bottom of the tent drapes disappeared, leaving them all in blackness.
    “I can’t see a thing, Ven,” Clem called from the front of the line. “What do you want to do?”
    “I’m not sure this is such a good idea,” said Nick nervously.
    Ven reached into his pocket and took out the glowing stone. Its light looked a little bit like that of the moon on a misty evening.
    “Is this better?” he asked, holding it up.
    Once the light was out of Ven’s pocket, they could see that they were in the outer ring of the tent, with black walls forming a hallway that circled around. On the black fabric of the walls were black satin symbols, letters in an alphabet or language that Ven did not recognize. There was something familiar about the writing, but he could not place what it was. The symbols were visible only when the light hit them, disappearing into the darkness when it moved on.
    “I feel like I’ve seen this writing before,” Ven said quietly. “Anybody else?”
    “It doesn’t look familiar at all to me,” Clem said. Her voice sounded strained. “I don’t think I like this place, Ven. It makes me uncomfortable. Maybe we should leave.”
    “If you want to leave you can, Clem. Anybody else who’s nervous should go as well,” Ven said. “But this seems to be my best way of finding out about the glowing stone, so I think I’ll stay, at least for a few minutes more.”
    “Well, if you’re stayin’, I’m stayin’,” Char insisted. “Cap’n Snodgrass told me to look out for you, after all. Can’t really do that from outside.”
    They continued around the curving dark corridor until they came to what they thought was the place they had come in. The flap they had come in through was not visible. Instead, there were unbroken walls of fabric, and more corridor ahead of them.
    “Madame Sharra?” Ven called. His voice seemed to be swallowed in the heat of the heavy black cloth.
    “There’s no one here, Ven,” Nick said. “I agree with Clem—this place is giving me the pricklies. Let’s go.”
    As the words left his mouth, a golden glow appeared behind the wall of fabric to their left, followed by a rainbow flash, a quick burst of color Ven had seen several times before, once while looking over the wall into the Gated City for the first time.
    And once inside the Rover’s box.
    As quickly as it had come, the colorful burst of light was gone.
    The tent wall in that place appeared to be thinner, of lighter fabric. Behind it appeared to be the shape of a very tall woman who, like the king’s stone, seemed to radiate her own soft light. The image was fuzzy through the cloth, but Ven could see that her eyes were enormous. She drew aside the drape of the