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no good in bed. Though if
he offered I wouldn’t say no.”
    “You would sleep with him?” Mirela propped herself up on one
elbow and turned to look at the wolf, though she could not see him.
    “Yes.”
    “But you are a man. And he is a man.”
    “Ahh, didn’t pick that up, did you?” There was a smirk in
his voice.
    “You talk to me as though I am stupid. I am not. You’re the
one who doesn’t make any sense.”
    “I’m saying that I like men.”
    Mirela blinked once, then again, then lay back. She’d heard
about men who liked other men, though it had been through whispered conversations.
She’d certainly never met a man like that, and her father and uncles, when
alluding to the depravities of people who were not Romany, warned that such
people would be evil.
    The wolf didn’t seem evil, though perhaps that made him all
the more evil.
    “Are you evil?” she asked.
    “Because I like men? No. Let me guess, you grew up with a
Bible at your bedside.”
    He made it sound as if that were a bad thing. “You have not
answered. Are you evil? You must not lie.”
    “No, I’m not evil. And if it makes you feel better I like
girls too.” There was laughter in his words.
    “What?”
    “It’s called bisexual, or bi. That’s your second new word
for the day.”
    “You want to marry both women and men?”
    “Marry, no. Have sex with, yes.”
    “It is a sin to have sex before marriage.”
    “Then what are you going to do if good old William comes
here demanding your virginity?”
    “I will grant it to him. He is my master.”
    “You went through some good brainwashing.”
    “I am not brainwashed. I know my place. And I know that I
like boys, not boys and girls. It must be very confusing to be you.”
    There was a beat of silence and then he laughed. It was not
the short barking laugh of before but a deep belly laugh like a child’s. It
made her smile. She’d never talked with a boy like this. Boys and girls were
kept separate until marriage, and most marriages were arranged, so there was
very little contact with the boy before the wedding. Mirela had never really
cared about talking to boys, though her sisters and cousins were forever trying
to sneak into their company. She’d always been more focused on the sky, and
since she would never marry, no one cared that she would rather be flying than
sneaking off to a fair.
    “You have a nice laugh,” she said. “I like it.”
    “You are far more interesting and fun than I thought. I
imagined you’d be mousy.”
    “Mousy? That is a silly thing for a wolf to tell a falcon.”
    “True, and we’d better stop talking about it because it’s
making me hungry.”
    Her stomach rumbled in response to his words, and once more
she was forced to examine the situation in which she found herself. She could
tell from the silence he was doing the same.
    “Your name is Christoffer, yes?”
    “And you’re Mirela. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mirela.”
    “I am happy to meet you, Christoffer.”
    This time the silence was not as sad nor as long.
    “It is the necklace, isn’t it?” she asked.
    “That’s stopping us from changing? It must be. Though we
should probably call it a collar rather than a necklace.”
    “Collar, yes.” She stroked hers with two fingers,
remembering with a grimace how she’d admired it and then willingly placed it
around her neck. “There must be very powerful magic on it.”
    “I’m just hoping this isn’t leaching away our power forever.”
    Mirela’s breath caught. It had never occurred to her that
this necklace might be permanently stripping her of her falcon.
    “I have to get it off!” She jumped from the cot, fingers
digging between the collar and her neck. She ran to the bars and began throwing
herself at them, face turned to the side so that the collar hit the bars.
    “Mirela, stop it! Whatever you’re doing, stop.”
    She staggered in pain when she misjudged and hit her cheek
on a bar. “I must have it off. It is