and Livilla stayed in her rooms, rarely stepping out.
Sometimes the sky changed colours and Garnet called the Lords and Court to join him, but Topaz and the lambs were made to stay home. Too young, Livilla insisted. Bree would sneer and toss her head, proud she was the only one allowed to accompany their mistress into the sky. Topaz had no idea what happened in that dratted sky, but she was pretty sure she lost nothing by staying where it was safe and warm.
The last nox of Fortuna was the worst. Livilla and Bree were gone for so long, and the lambs were more restless than usual. They huddled up to Topaz, craving her warmth. She did her best to heat their hands and feet without bursting into flame. It was getting easier to control her heat, though it still didn’t feel natural.
Livilla screamed. The lambs all exchanged a fearful look, and then scampered as one to the balcony.
The whole Creature Court were there, what was left of them, gathered in the Haymarket below. They were a mess, charred and smelling like thunderstorms, hair stuck up in all directions, burns on their skin and clothes. Garnet stood in the middle of them all, his hands around Livilla’s throat.
Topaz felt the heat rise within her. The lambs needed their lady; how else were they to survive this mad world that they had been hurled into?
‘So this is it,’ Garnet said, voice loud and hateful. ‘Can’t poison me with your drink or your cunt, so you’ll let the sky do it for you?’
Livilla glared at him. ‘I did nothing to that damned sky,’ she managed to say. ‘It wants you dead, and why not? You’ve been dead once already, and you escaped. Shouldn’t the sky be angry at you? Shouldn’t it want your blood?’
Topaz’s heat prickled her skin from inside out. Smoke curled out from under her fingernails. She climbed up on the rail of the balcony.
‘None of you touch me,’ she cautioned, even as the other lambs made to grab hold of her.
‘Little salamander wants to play, does she?’ said Garnet, without even looking up in her direction.
‘Let her go,’ commanded Topaz.
The heat was pressing heavier against her skin, like there were coals alight in her belly. She stood up on the balcony rail.
‘Do not speak to me, courtesa,’ said Garnet, disgust evident in his voice. ‘You are less than nothing.’
Topaz broke into lizard form. She spread out in her many bodies, running at full tilt over the curve of the balcony and down the sheer drop of the wall. Her lizards fanned out as she hit the floor and burst into hot, scorching flames all over.
The Court scattered like the animals they were. Only Garnet stayed, his hands still clasped around Livilla’s throat.
‘I am your Power and Majesty,’ he raged, shaking Livilla, and Topaz could feel it, the anger of him, the power pressing down around them all. He was strong enough to crush the lizards body by body. He would hurt her if he could. She was supposed to bow and scrape to him like all the others. Too bad no one had ever stopped to explain all the rules to her.
She burned hotter and hotter, until her eyelids had to fall closed to protect her eyeballs from her own flame. ‘LET HER GO,’ she thundered, and felt the city shake with the wonder of her words. She could see nothing, but she felt it, all of it, the moment of his capitulation.
Livilla breathed once, a shaky gasp. ‘Topaz,’ she said, in the gentlest voice Topaz had ever heard from her. ‘Enough.’
Topaz let go of the flame and felt the cold of the concrete seep into her lizard skin. She looked up and saw that Livilla stood nearest to her. Garnet had stepped away from them both, his face blistered and scarlet.
‘You are not of the Court,’ he said in a voice that shook and swayed. ‘Swear an oath never to turn your flame on me again, salamander, or you will leave this place. I will have order here.’
Topaz found the thought that belonged to her demme body and crawled into it, forming arms and legs, shaping herself whole. ‘I serve my mistress,’ she said, when she had a throat.
Livilla gave Garnet a triumphant look. ‘You were always such a rebel, lover. Can’t you appreciate how glorious she is?’
‘She can be as glorious as she likes as long as she swears an oath to me,’ Garnet spat.
‘Make us,’ Livilla