Mystery Saja knew every hair on his own head, and still no one had ever seen his face. Purple strands hung past his chin like a curtain. He wanted just one person to look under it. Not a crowd. Just the blue-haired boy who lived at the tall apartment block near the North Pole ice. He found Baby Saja on the frozen practice rink. Baby Saja was the boy who had promised to teach voice tricks, but only if his students obeyed without asking why. He stood pushing air from his belly, mouth wide, sending sound across the ice. "Watch," Baby Saja said. He did not turn around. "You breathe from here." He pressed a hand to his stomach. "Not the throat." Mystery Saja tried. His voice cracked and died halfway across the rink. Baby Saja laughed, still not looking at him. "Again," Baby Saja said. "And keep that hair out of your mouth." That was the problem. The hair. Every day Mystery Saja hid behind it. He wanted Baby Saja to see him, really see him. But Baby Saja stared at the ice, at the far wall, at anything but his face. Mystery Saja stopped. His heart pounded. He reached up with both hands. "Look at me," he said. "Please. Turn around." Baby Saja sighed and turned. "What now?" Mystery Saja pushed the purple curtain aside. He held it back against his forehead. For the first time, the wind touched his whole face. His eyes, his nose, his mouth, all bare in the cold light. Baby Saja went still. His own eyes went wide. He stepped closer across the ice, slow, careful. "So that's you," Baby Saja said quietly. "That's me," Mystery Saja said. His voice shook. "I wanted you to know." Baby Saja studied the face he had never seen. Then his mouth fell open, not in wonder now, but in shock. "I know you," Baby Saja whispered. He backed up one step. "You're the one the judges are looking for. They said someone snuck into the final round. They have your picture." Mystery Saja's hands dropped. The hair fell back across his face. "What picture?" he said. Baby Saja pointed a shaking finger. "They banned that face from the glacier stage. If they see you now, you're out. Both of us, maybe." He looked toward the showcase hall, where the three judges waited. "Why did you show me?" Mystery Saja stood frozen on the ice. He had finally revealed himself. One person had seen his true face at last. And that one person had just named him a wanted stranger.

Baby Saja backed toward the apartment block at the edge of the ice. Mystery Saja followed, hair swinging over his face again. The blue-haired boy knew a face now, but that was all. A face on a poster. A stranger the judges hunted. Mystery Saja had shown himself and gained nothing. Being seen meant nothing until Baby Saja knew who he truly was. "Wait," Mystery Saja said. "Let me explain." Baby Saja stopped at the door of the tall building. "Explain what? You lied. You snuck in. Now the judges want us both." A calico cat slipped out through the gap in the door and wound around his ankles. Baby Saja scooped it up like a shield. "Go away before someone sees you." "The song you sang in the first round," Mystery Saja said. "Your mother's song. I know it." Baby Saja went still. The cat squirmed in his arms. "I know it because she taught it to me too," Mystery Saja said. "Before you were old enough to sing. She taught me to push the air from my belly. Same as you taught me on the ice." He pulled the purple hair back with one hand. "They banned me because I sang it here first, and the judges said it belonged to no one but themselves." Baby Saja stared at the bare face. His mouth opened, then closed. "You never told me your name," Baby Saja whispered. "But I remember that song's voice. It lived in our apartment." "I'm your brother," Mystery Saja said. "That's who you're really looking at." The cat leaped from Baby Saja's arms and darted back inside. Baby Saja did not chase it. He reached out and touched Mystery Saja's cheek, the one part of him no one had ever been allowed to see. "You came back for the showcase," Baby Saja said slowly. "Not to win. To finish her song where they stopped you." "Yes," Mystery Saja said. His voice did not crack. "And I wanted you to know it was me singing it. Not a stranger. Not a poster." Baby Saja's shock melted. He gripped his brother's sleeve. "Then they can't see your face on that stage. If they find you, they pull us both." "I know," Mystery Saja said. Baby Saja glanced up at the rows of bright windows above them. Then back at the ice, where the glacier stage waited beyond. "You made it to the final round with me," he said. "So we hide the face and we finish it together. But you follow what I say. No questions." Mystery Saja let the purple hair fall back across his eyes. For once he did it gladly. "No questions," he said. Baby Saja finally saw him, not just the face, but the brother behind it. And now the judges could not.