You need to convince Lodia to finish that mirror cover, I told Katu.

I was riding on his shoulder, on my way to see a princess-of-the-night plant. Katu had mentioned that the white flowers Lodia was embroidering were called princesses-of-the-night, which bloomed for only one, well, night before withering with the dawn. Between the botanical oddity and the old folks’ cackling, I had to see it for myself.

“Mmm.”

Since Katu didn’t sound confident that he could push Lodia to finish the mirror cover to present to Anthea, I pecked the side of his neck. In a gentle, encouraging way, of course.

“Urp!”

Katu startled too easily.

You have to do it. You’re the only one who can. And you know as well as anyone – no, better than anyone – that she can’t move on with her life until her mother’s name is cleared.

Technically, I didn’t know that any of that was correct, but it sounded true, and that was what mattered.

“Why are you so devoted to her anyway?” At long last, Katu began to exhibit an inconvenient suspiciousness and sense of self-preservation. “Aren’t you a Queen’s spy? Why’s a Queen’s spy acting like a nosy granny?”

A granny???

A granny? A granny? He dared call me a GRANNY? Who did he think I was?! I raised a wing to whack him – and only pulled the blow at the last minute.

Can’t hurt a human. Can’t hurt a human. Even if no human had ever deserved a wing whack as much as Len Katulus!

He compounded his crime by waving his hands and knocking me off his shoulder yet again. You’d think he’d remember that I was perched on his shoulder and that moving his arm would also move me, but no. No, of course he didn’t.

Flapping my wings, I hovered right in front of his nose and glared into his eyes.

He waved his hands some more. “No no no, wait! I didn’t mean it that way! I didn’t mean you’re old or anythi– erm.” He cut himself off, realizing that any awakened animal was at least a hundred years old, which was ancient and decrepit by human standards.

Uh huh. Yep. Let’s see how he got himself out of that one.

Pulling himself back together, Katu swept a dramatic bow and addressed me in the melodious voice that he used for declaiming love poetry. “Noble spirit, I am certain that you are as beautiful now as you were on the day you awakened.”

Flatterer.

Also a jester, to go by the giggles of a passing group of palm civet spirits.

Straightening, he offered me his arm as if I were a beautiful lady at a ball. Accepting the peace offering, I landed on it, and he continued our walk out of the city.

“I do hope you won’t be disappointed, Pip. It’s far too early in the year for the princess-of-the-night to blossom. At most, we’ll see some early buds.”

And even if they were ready to bloom, they wouldn’t in the middle of the afternoon, so it wasn’t like I was expecting anything anyway.

Experimentally, I sidled a few steps up his arm, tipped my head to a side, and slid a sidelong gaze at his face. But when they do blossom, will you bring me to see them?

Hmm. That didn’t come out quite right. It sounded less like an enchanting seduction and more like a wallflower’s last gasp at finding a dance partner. I really was out of practice, wasn’t I?

Katu gulped. “Nothing would do me greater honor, noble spirit.”

He didn’t need to sound quite so terrified. Rolling my eyes, I hopped back down his arm. Don’t bother. I was just teasing you.

“You were?”

What, could Queen’s spies not possess a sense of humor?

Yes. We can do that, you know. I shrugged my wings.

“Oh. I see.”

Well, if I ever felt bad about my atrophied flirting skills, all I had to do was look at Katu.

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After a good half-hour hike into the forest around Lychee Grove, we arrived at what had once been a village. The huts had long since been abandoned to the undergrowth, creating a maze of private nooks. Yep, I could definitely see young couples sneaking out here to “watch the flowers bloom.”

Next to the crumbling walls grew bizarre plants the height of an adult human. Taking off from Katu’s shoulder, I flew to the nearest one for a closer look. It grew out of the earth in straight, woody stalks, but then it turned into a mess of leaves that jutted out from one another. They could almost be branches, except that they were long, flat, green, and scalloped around the edges. And when I said “long,” I meant long. Some were a good foot in length! What was up with all these overgrown southern plants?!

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Bright pink, spiky tumors sprouted from the edges of some of the leaves. Katu leaned in to inspect them. “Yeah, these still have a ways to go. The buds have only just started to form.”

Those were flower buds? I nearly asked that out loud, but I caught myself. If I were truly a South Serican, I would know that already.

How long until they bloom? That wasn’t a suspicious question. You wouldn’t expect a spy to be a botanist.

“Oh, a month or so, is my guess. I will – I was planning to – bring Lodia out to see them…when they do?”

Uh huh. Of course he was.

That is an excellent idea. Katu’s eyes had just begun to open wide with shock when I added, Given Lodia’s penchant for embroidering nature themes, it will be an inspirational experience for her. I believe I shall accompany the two of you.

His expression made up for every frustration I had experienced in Lychee Grove up until now.

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After I laid my plans, I still had to get Lodia herself to cooperate. After all, she was the one who had to finish her embroidery so her grandmother could present the mirror pouch to Anthea, who would then be so impressed that she would take the girl into her service and thus bring me several steps closer to the Director of Reincarnation.

Lodia was, as usual, hiding in the common room of her house when Katu and I returned. My feathers were pristine and glossy, but the poet was sweaty and leaf-stained from our hike. Billowing sleeves weren’t designed for avoiding oversized foliage.

Lodia blinked at his disheveled appearance. “Katu? What were thou doing – Pip? I mean, noble spirit?”

I flew across the room and settled on her shoulder, which was a lot cleaner than Katu’s. Just Pip is fine. I wished to see the princess-of-the-night blossoms. Katu took me into the forest.

Her eyes widened. “The princess-of-the-night blossoms? But it’s too early in the year for them…isn’t it?” She directed the latter question at Katu, who had collapsed onto the bench across the table from us.

Before he could answer, heavy footsteps heralded the arrival of the cook. She came in with a platter of translucent-white squares. Pursing her lips at Katu’s slumped figure, she set the platter on the table, a little closer to Lodia than to the guest.

“Thank you, Mistress Fan,” Lodia said with a polite smile.

“Thanks, Mistress Fan,” Katu echoed.

Without raising his head, he reached for a square. The cook plonked a small plate and a pair of chopsticks practically on top of his hand.

Lodia ducked her head and giggled. After the cook had returned to the kitchen, she offered, “Would you like some white sugar rice cake, nob– Pip?”

I eyeballed the squares. Their tops were shiny and blistery, and the cut sides revealed bubbles that ran from top to bottom. Or, well, since they were bubbles, probably from bottom to top. It wasn’t the most attractive dish, but it also wasn’t the weirdest thing I’d seen today.

Sure. Why not?

She gave me her own plate, and a whole cake, even though there was no way I could finish it all. While the two humans picked up their chopsticks, I hopped onto the cake and tapped the top with my beak. It bounced a bit. Huh. I pecked harder, made a hole, and tore off a piece. It tasted sweet, as you’d expect from the “sugar” part of its name, but had a faint, alcoholic tang too. The texture was sort of chewy. Not what I expected from cake.

I ripped off another piece and tested it. Yeah, yeah, it wasn’t like any cake I’d ever had, but it grew on you.

By the third bite, I’d concluded that it was pretty good and, by the ninth, the best food in South Serica!

When I came up for air, Lodia and Katu were both gawking at me. What, had they never seen a shparrow eating a white shugar rice cake before? Oh, wait, no, that wasn’t it. I was the Queen’s shpy. They needed my permission to eat.

This ish good! It’sh not poisoned! You should try some!

I flapped both wings, generously allowing them to eat in my preshence before attacking the cake again. Yeah, yeah, this was even better than the highest-quality rice wine in Casshius’ court! Why had I washted time drinking alcohol when I could have been eating it?!

A hand reached for me. Lodia was trying to block me from the cake! My cake! Shrieking, I lunged at her hand, aiming to rend it with my beak.

Wait! Hurting humans wash bad!

At the last shecond, I wrenched sideways and jusht grazed her palm. She yelped and yanked her hand back, and I tripped over the edge of the hole I’d dug in the cake and fell over.

Bounce.

Oooh! Right! The cake was bouncy!

I bounced again. Wheeee! This was fun! How would Bobo put it? The fun-nesht!

“The ‘fun-nest’?” ashked a male voice.

“It does…look fun,” shaid a female voice.

Bobo would love this! I had to tell her all about it! Oh, but wait, she was a bamboo viper. She was a lot, lot bigger than a shparrow. She was too big to fit on this piece of cake. But – aha! I could take many little cakes and lay them all shide by shide to make a very big cake. Then she could bounce too!

Wheeee!

Yesh! Yesh! I had to get back to Honeyshuckle Croft to get Bobo!

“Honeysuckle Croft? Bobo?” The woman washn’t keeping up at all.

“Croft makes it sound like a place name, but I’ve never heard of ‘honey suckle’.” The man washn’t keeping up any better.

How can you not have heard of honeyshuckle? It’sh everywhere. It has yellow and white flowersh on the same plant. They shmell sweet. Ooooooh, maybe that’sh why they planted it – to make their house shmell sweet.

I stopped bouncing to ponder thish revelation. I’d never thought of it. I could have asked Mistressh Jek. I should have asked Mistressh Jek. I would ask Mistressh Jek!

The cluelessh people kept talking over my head.

“I’ve never heard of that. Hast thou?”

“No…I haven’t either.”

They were jusht like Anthea’s peanut gallery. Now I had my own peanut gallery too. Maybe it was a Shouth Sherican thing! Everybody in Shouth Sherica got their own, personal peanut gallery! Amazing!

I rolled around, cackling with laughter. That didn’t seem enough to convey jusht how funny it was, so I whacked the cake with my wings too.

“I’m getting worried…. Do you think she’s all right?”

“Does that look all right to you?!”

A third voice, older and harsher: “Gimme that sparrow. I’ll cook it and we can be done with this nonsense.”

Cook me! No! Not again! I struggled to roll back onto my clawsh, but I kept tripping over my own feathersh. I had more than nine feathersh. Why did I have so many feathersh? I never needed or wanted more than nine tailsh.

“Mistress Fan, no! You can’t cook her! She’s a – she’s a – ”

“She’s a very important spirit! You’ll bring down the ire of the Queen if you kill her!”

Silence.

I finally wobbled to my feet, shwaying right and left and front and back and all the other directions in between. Balancing on only two claws wash hard. Four paws were much, much more shtable.

“The ire of the Queen? What does that even mean? Len Katulus, if this is another of your jokes – ”

“It isn’t, Mistress Fan! I swear! I can’t tell you why, but Pip is very important!”

Handsh scooped me up and cradled me, protecting me. They were warm and comfy, like my mother’sh nest. And I was dizzy. Sho dizzy. Maybe it was naptime. I tucked my head under a wing.

I was just dozing off when a fourth voice rang out. “Leaves above, what is going on in my house?”