The Water Mirror by Kai Meyer Page A

not?”
    â€œHe is a weaver apprentice, after all. One
     of our enemies, or have you forgotten already? I can’t just . . .
     it’s bad manners.”
    â€œIt’s even worse manners to act as if you’re listening
     to a friend when in fact your thoughts are somewhere else entirely.”
    â€œCan you also read thoughts with those eyes of yours?” asked
     Merle with amusement.
    Junipa shook her head earnestly, as if she’d actually taken the
     possibility into consideration. “A person just has to look at you.”
    â€œYou really think I should talk to him?”
    â€œCertainly.” Junipa grinned. “Or are you a little
     afraid?”
    â€œNonsense. I really just want to ask him how
     long he’s worked for Umberto,” Merle said.
    â€œ Very poor excuse!”
    â€œNinny!—No, you aren’t. You’re a treasure!”
     And with that Merle grabbed Junipa around the neck, hugged her briefly, and then ran
     across the bridge to the other side. As she went, she looked back over her shoulder and
     saw Junipa looking after her with a gentle smile.
    â€œHello.”
    Shocked, Merle stopped in her tracks. Serafin must have seen her, for
     suddenly he was standing directly in front of her.
    â€œHello,” she replied, sounding as though she’d just
     swallowed a fruit pit. “You here too?”
    â€œLooks like it.”
    â€œI thought you were probably home hatching plans for splashing paint
     in other people’s faces.”
    â€œOh, that. . . .” He grinned. “We
     don’t do that every day. Would you like something to drink?”
    She’d left her cup beside Junipa, so she nodded. “Juice.
     Please.”
    Serafin turned and walked to a stand. Merle watched him from the back. He
     was a handsbreadth taller than she, somewhat thin, perhaps, but so were they all. After
     all, anyone born during siege conditions never had the embarrassment of having to worry
     about his weight. Unless you were rich, of course. Or, she thought cynically, you werenamed Ruggiero and secretly ate up half the orphanage
     kitchen.
    Serafin came back and handed her a wooden cup. “Apple juice,”
     he said. “I hope you like it.”
    To be polite, she immediately took a sip. “Yes, very much, in
     fact.”
    â€œYou’re new at Arcimboldo’s, aren’t
     you?”
    â€œYou know that very well.” She immediately regretted her
     words. Why was she being so snippy? Couldn’t she give him a normal answer?
     “Since a few weeks ago,” she added.
    â€œWere you and your friend in the same orphanage?”
    She shook her head. “Uh-uh.”
    â€œArcimboldo did something to her eyes.”
    â€œShe was blind. Now Junipa can see.”
    â€œThen it’s true, what Master Umberto said.”
    â€œAnd that was?”
    â€œHe said Arcimboldo knows his way around magic.”
    â€œThat’s what others say about Umberto.”
    Serafin grinned. “I’ve now been in his house for more than two
     years, and he’s never showed me a single magic trick.”
    â€œI think Arcimboldo will keep that to himself till the bitter end
     too.”
    They laughed a little nervously, not because they’d discovered their
     first thing in common, but because neither one knew quite how to take the conversation
     further.
    â€œShall we walk on a little bit?” Serafin
     pointed down the canal where the crowds of people were thinner and the lanterns shone on
     empty water.
    Merle grinned mischievously. “It’s a good thing we don’t
     belong to fine society. Otherwise it would be improper, wouldn’t it?”
    â€œI don’t give a hoot about fine society.”
    â€œThing in common number two.”
    Close beside each other, but without touching, they ambled along the
     canal. The music became softer and soon was left behind them. The water lapped