She paused. Bones creaked in the wind above us.

“I thought I would be expelled from the Willows for that. To put on another’s hua was reprehensible enough; to attend to important guests pretending to be an asha is even worse. But to release a horde of undead from one of the most popular cha-khana in Ankyo? Other people had been thrown in prison for lesser offenses.”

This time, her movements were deliberate. She circled the massive skeleton, heedless of the mud and wet sand that swirled around her ankles and the hem of her hua. I could not see the runes she made in the air with her fingers, but her gestures suggested they were larger than the beast’s jaws. A chill settled around us.

“Rise,” the girl commanded. The topaz-colored bezoar in her hand broke apart in response, dissolving.

And the skeleton moved. I staggered back, horrified, as something unseen wrapped around the desiccated limbs and took form, muscles and tendons and skin forming around the joints before my very eyes. The creature shuddered and sighed and rose from the sand. At first it resembled a gigantic, skinless animal, and I could see the blood bubbling through its veins. But the spell continued its curse, and skin formed up along those pink sinews to become a rough, leathery hide. The daeva shook itself free and rumbled. Its tongue unfurled, saliva dripping onto the ground, the sand it landed on dissolving like acid. Its red-and-silver-striped eyes look back at me, and it crooned.

The girl lifted her hand, and I saw something swirl into focus before her. The magic congealed and sprouted a shape—it was a heart without a heartsglass, as black as shadows, as bright as stars. It solidified enough that she could reach out and take it from the air, though it continued to shift and twist, never staying in one shape for long. She plucked that shining jewel from the air and pushed it into her own heartsglass.

The light blinded me, and I had to shield my eyes from the sudden glare. The girl remained steady on her feet, the taurvi by her side. Her waist wrap had shifted, and on her hua’s embroidery, I saw a second dragon’s head look out from where it had previously been hidden, followed by another.

“Don’t worry. It won’t bite.”

I scrambled back anyway. The girl placed a hand against its muzzle, and the creature actually purred. It regarded me with interest, with curiosity—but with neither hate nor hostility.

“When your heartsglass is black and steeped in the spells of the Dark,” the girl said, smiling, “you find that there is no need to wait five more years to raise daeva.”