Folding the Sky

-14-

Kalindi was a lot less troublesome when she was asleep.

    Jem stared down at the princess, who was still dozing despite the fact the hour was creeping into late morning and the streets just below the window were bustling to life. Kalindi slept like a child, curled up into a ball, her pillow hugged tight against her chest. Her face, however, was peaceful, normally knitted brows pleasantly raised as if she were ensconced in a lovely dream.

    Jem almost didn't want to wake her. But then again, she did.

    She snatched the pillow from Kalindi's arms, and Kalindi cried out in surprise, her eyes flying wide, frantically searching the room as if she were trying to gather where she was. Finally, they locked on Jem, and the usual scowl formed on Kalindi's face.

    "There you are," Jem said, dropping the pillow atop the quilt. "A princess who sleeps in, huh? And here I thought you were perfect."

    "Rest is important," Kalindi snapped, her voice slightly gravelly with sleep. She sat up, scrubbing her fingers through the tightly-wound coils of her hair, one side of which was flat against her head. "Is there a reason you woke me, or are you just extra villainous in the morning?"

    "No. I'm only villainous on Wednesdays." Jem pointed to the front of the room, where a rolling table was parked, draped with a starched white table cloth. An array of silver entree dishes sat on top of it, along with a pitcher of grapefruit juice and a pot of coffee. "There's food, see? If it were Wednesday I would have already eaten it all."

    Kalindi blinked. "You ordered—who's paying for this?"

    "You, obviously."

    "I'm not made of money, Jem."

    "Really?" Jem gasped. A light tink rose in the air as she removed a lid from one of the dishes, picking up a steaming biscuit. "What else is royalty good for, then?"

    The look on Kalindi's face then reminded Jem of one of those tiny, angry lapdogs the upperclass women carried around in their satchels all the time. Jem wished she could photograph it.

    "You know," Kalindi said, raising an arm in the direction of the table. Jem didn't quite understand what she was doing, until one of the dishes started to levitate, wobbling over to Kalindi's waiting lap as if guided by a pair of invisible hands. Jem scowled as Kalindi said to her, "You're not so far from royalty yourself."

    "Ha!" Jem scoffed around her biscuit. "People know my mother—the illustrious, timeless, never-aging Ruby Okiro. A goddess, basically, with her name and all. They don't know me. I'm invisible."

    Kalindi removed the lid from her dish, revealing a baked frittata no greater in size than her hand. She poked at the egg cake with her fork, then looked up at Jem again. "That's really what you think?"

    "I more than think it. I know it," Jem said. She could feel her good mood draining, like heat leaving her body, and she didn't care for it. "Thanks to that meteor, I can't follow in my mom's footsteps like I wanted to. All I can do is stand in her shadow."

    It was quiet between them for a moment.

    Then, Kalindi snorted.

    Immediately, there was a sharp pang in Jem's chest. "Are you—" She shook her head, her tone bitter. "Are you laughing at me?"

    Kalindi covered her mouth with a hand, her eyes turned up. "Just a bit."

    "Wow. Would it kill you to not be a total jerk for even five seconds of your life?"