I stay awake all night. Although Flight's sitting in the tree branches, his quiver across his shoulder. I look out and watch for even the minutest hint that a ketak is hanging from a branch or limb. Several times I glance over to where Luca is. I'd like to go to him. But the elders say that kind of canoodling isn't fair to the other suitors. Plus I'm all bundled up with Pel. Pel's got good manners. Not once has he tried to touch me in any indecent way. I wonder if the other suitors will have good manners.

I feel Jula's hand nudging my shoulder. Why in the name of Founders' Graves is she up so early? She looks as if she hasn't slept. She helps me wriggle out of the ropes that have bound me to Pel and we grab two water buckets. I follow her past the edge of the clearing to the lake, looking around for tell-tale signs of ketaks.

"You mustn't marry Luca," she says grabbing my arm. "Last night in a vision, the Good Lord of light told me to warn you. Don't do it."

I believe her because the Good Lord of light is a kind god and has always guided her. He sends me dreams sometimes but I don't have visions the way Jula has.

"But why not?" I ask her.

"It'll be bad, bad," she says. "Whatever he does, however brave or loving or wealthy he is. . .that one is not for you."

"But did the Good Lord say whom I should marry?" I ask.

She shakes her head then hoists her water bucket into the lake. "Just whom you shouldn't."

"Well, that's useless," I mutter under my breath and fill my bucket.

And that's all she says which is just pretty useless as far as I'm concerned. I want her to tell me exactly what she saw but she never describes what she sees...just the impression and interpretations. A part of me thinks her mother's influenced her to lie against me and Luca marrying. Luca's a White skin. Jula's mother doesn't believe Brown skins and white skins should marry. It "muddies" her people, she says. Not that Luca's related to the woman or anything but that's how some White skins are. They dislike Brown skins or those they call the muddled people -people like Jin Woo, SanGun, or Hok. Still Jula's mom wouldn't mind if Jula were to marry a rich sojourner like Jin Woo. Even though Jin Woo's got fae blood in him.

I follow Jula back to the middle of the clearing and immediately Pel greets me, smiling so wide, like he's been waiting for years for my return. I frown at him. "You've got to stop loving me," I tell him. "Ay me! Why do you get yourself in this mess? You can't say I deceived you or forced this love on you, you know. I've always been very responsible about that kind of thing."

"I know," he says, "but I'll win you even so."

"Ay me," I moan and tap him hard on the forehead. I walk to the center of the clearing where everyone's planning the day's hunt.

It's quite an array, as the old folks would say. The tunics of the western and eastern villages, the tribal garments of my people, the silks of the sojourners, the rich vestures of aristos like Jin Woo and Lady Kinna, and the cotton royal weaves of a fae Prince. Neither Sangun or I are rich but somehow we both managed to get dressed up for the occasion. Sangun probably borrowed his tunic; it looks old. Mine was woven by a female fae, a servant of Flight's. It's so lovely and ethereal I feel like a princess in it.

It's morning and the first day of actual hunting and although I generally don't think of clans or castes, I'm noticing how groupings occur. Luca and Pel are waiting for Jula and me. Because we're always together in the village. Lady Kinna's by herself. Lord Jin Woo's with Sangun and Hok. Kop-kop's with his grandmother.

They say the friendships formed on these hunts last forever. That's another reason for the junha. It's the reason for some of the strange friendships in our village. Friendships that make folks both hopeful and wary; you don't want to insult a beggar who's pals with an aristo or a fae because they met at a junha. But sometimes junha friendships don't last and people return unchanged to their villages and their old caste-aware selves. It's only seven days after all; not exactly conducive to permanence. Jin Woo's hunting with descendants of sojourners, his own caste, but I get a feeling he'll befriend all of us. Lady Kinna, on the other hand, seems pretty untouchable. And yet, at least for these seven days and the seven following, I will be dressed better than even she. Thanks to Flight and fae seamstresses. I suppose I should thank him for going to all those lengths for me.

When I think this, Flight begins laughing behind me. Apparently he's going to spend the next seven days messing with me.

"And what exactly is it now?" I ask him. "I was hoping you'd let up for once. Cause, you know...I'm getting married and all."

"Is everything I do about messing with you, Mirror?" he asks, throwing his quiver across his shoulder. "For a little tiny thing you're awfully conceited. My world does not revolve around you."

"Well, since it doesn't, you can just get along then."

"But now that we're chatting," he says, "I was thinking we'd go for a ride. Selbi or Kratta?"

Darn it! He knows my soft spot. I want to say 'Neither.' But I so like rides. Still, I can't let him win entirely. "Both," I say.

He furrows his brow. "Both?"

I cross my arms. "Because I don't trust you as far as I could throw you, Flight. And I don't trust Kratta either. The both of you almost killed me three years ago. Or have you forgotten?"

"That was entirely your fault," he says and whistles twice. Selbi's whistle and Kratta's.

They emerge out of the morning sky, Kratta's shadow darkening the forest around us. Selbi is not exactly a small horse but Kratta makes even the aristo mansions look like a pebble.

Most of the suitors and Lady Kinna are of course awestruck. It's not everyday one sees a dragon and a flying horse. But Jin Woo's awe is filled with joy.

"Amazing!" he shouts. "Can I try one day?" He's like a little kid, this aristo. Not that most aristos are cold but they're like Lady Kinna. Way too serious and class-conscious. I try not to worry about this infectious joy Jin Woo carries with him because darn it, it could be pure human joy or it could be some recessive fae-trait like...I dunno...irresponsibility.

"Do you wish to try today?" Flight asks.

And just as I'm about to warn Jin Woo not to, our giddy joy-filled aristo says, "Yes! Yes! Surely, yes!"

The only thing I can do is warn him. "Ride with me on Selbi, Lord Jin Woo," I say. "Selbi's gentle. And he doesn't play stupid tricks with human lives."

"Not the dragon?" Jin Woo asks, putting on an exaggerated frown.

"Lord Jin Woo," I say, "are you out of your mind? Don't you know that dragons and faes together cannot be trusted?"

"Lord Jin Woo," Flight says, "you and I are distant relatives. I have no doubt that as soon as you take the reins, you will instinctively know how to use them. It seems to me that you are a man who understands flight."

"Do I?" Lord Jin Woo asks. "I cannot say that I do. Perhaps if you explained. . ."

"As it is written in the Scriptures of the good God of Light, 'It is not in man who walks to direct his steps.'"

"And that means?" Lord Jin Woo asks, looking way too interested.

"You humans are all trapped in your own perspective," Flight says. "You can only see your own thoughts. You can only know what is one footstep away from you. You come up with answers to your needs, then years later those answers are proven entirely wrong. You choose a medicine which later proves to be your poison. You are like a sheep without a shepherd, stumbling around in your ignorance because you do not see as a good or a fae sees. This is why you need a god or a fae to help you see from on high. But you, Jin Woo, you already understand this. You are open to what the humans call 'intuition' or 'spirit.' You put your mind away easily and enter into flight. So tell me, have you had any dreams since you entered into this journey?"

"I suppose I have. But my mind was on other things. . .I did not pay too much attention-"

Flight is shaking his head. "Such human words from a man with fae blood in him!"

"It is shameful, isn't it?" Jin Woo says and chuckles.

So that's that. Typical fae conversation. And Jin Woo totally went with the weirdness. That only makes me even more wary. Soon enough, his arms are around my waist while I hold Selbi's reins. Interestingly, both Jin Woo and I have quivers. I, because Flight taught me how to use them. But why does Lord Jin Woo have them? Is this yet another fae trait?

I want to ask him. But Flight interrupts my musing. "Over there! A swarm of them!"

He's flying ahead of us on Kratta, winging across the sky as if it belongs to him. Which I guess it technically does.

"Idiot!" I shout. "How do you expect us to see invisible snakes? Seriously, it's as if you have no ability to see things the way we humans do."

But Kratta belches out a grayish blue smoke and through the mist, I see ketaks. A swirling entangled mass in a snakepit. My stomach turns. I hate ketak pits.

"Do you see them, Lord Jin Woo?" Flight shouts.

"I do, Prince Flight. I do!"

"Mark their position. By human measure."

"That I will, Prince Flight."

Flight then turns right and Selbi follows. We ride over other junha groups and past faes spending their days doing whatever faes do until several miles away, near a cave-mouth, Flight shouts to us again. "Over there!"

Again the belching of smoke, again the momentary sight of the invisible, again the marking and measuring of distances. We do this all morning, then turn toward our campsite.

"Now I understand why it is necessary to have faes on these hunts," Lord Jin Woo says. "In addition to the truce tradition, I mean."

"Every once in a while Flight is actually of some use," I have to admit. "But please, Lord Jin Woo, be careful if you befriend him. Forget that he's four hundred years old. Think of him as you see him just now, as an impetuous sixteen year old. It's best. Because I swear. . .he sometimes forgets that we are humans."

"I shall be careful," he says, "but you must grant me a favor as well."

Oh, no! I think. Here it comes: he wants to bundle with me tonight. Perhaps worse; these aristos are known for having their way with common girls. But what I say -slipping into standard yinglis- is: "If it is within my hands to grant it, I will, Lord Jin Woo. What do you request, my lord?"

"Call me only 'Jin Woo.' I'm afraid the 'lord' title makes you as uncomfortable as it does me."

"I find that surprising, my lord." Again standard yinglis, not the Yeboonik patois the villagers from my neighborhood use.

"I'm my father's only child," he answers. "But he died. His mother took me from mine. But I still remember my childhood running and playing with the common lads."

"Ah," I say, "well then, 'Only Jin Woo.'"

He squeezes my arm playfully and for reasons I'm not entirely sure of I burst out laughing. As we approach the campsite we see two groups from our wedding junha. And one walking alone: Luca.

Solitariness is one of Luca's worst failings. He likes people well enough but he does not like being with them, or sharing his thoughts with them. I rather like the company of others but Luca plans his days alone, plans our lives alone. It is not that he is selfish, but his mind allows for few to enter it. In the woods, however, with invisible snakes, being alone is not what one should be. I remind myself that frogs can become princes.

"Fool!" Flight shouts down to him.

But my beloved does not hear, or rather he does not listen. And we continue toward the campsite.

We dismount from winged horse and dragon and race toward the lake. Flying is a thirsty endeavor.

"You must not marry Luca," Flight says, as Selbi disappears into the morning. "You will not be happy. Marry Pel. Or Jin Woo. Or Sangun. Or Hok. Or even Kip-kop. But do not marry Luca. He will bring your head down to the grave early early."

"Early early?" I echo.

"Your life will be a living death," he says and walks toward a flirting water fae.