I felt a flutter in my belly and my heart gave a little twitter of happiness. Stupid cursed heart. I changed the subject quickly.
“The other I can’t tell, he’s got his face turned away. Ah, it’s Lord Illuminus. He’s Scintillant’s brother. Voice like warm velvet, but what a grouch. Curse it, didn’t know Illuminus was coming. I wonder if Thomas counted him. I’d better get down there.”
I pulled on my leather body shaper. “Could you lace me up?”
The ghost proved quite adept at lacing. It was nice to have someone to help me and even nicer to have someone new to talk to.
“So this Lucient let you out of the cupboard?”
“Oh... He was just a toddler then, so he was too short. But he went and got Klea to help. She’s another cousin. She’s not bad, though I hardly see her anymore—she’s fallen out with the family and who can blame her, but Lucient... Lucient’s a sweetie. He always brings me lovely books and he gave me that map.” I pointed to the large map of the Empire on the wall. “Could you pull a bit tighter? I’m trying to get a bit more cleavage going.” I looked in the mirror. “If only I wasn’t so small and skinny and pale. Why’d my mother have to mate with a ghost? Sorry, nothing personal.”
I opened the wardrobe and pulled out my silken day over-robe. Mine was bone-coloured silk, to make my skin look darker. It was cut down from a much older robe, but the seamstress had done a good job of matching the red-and-gold embroidered flower pattern, and normally I was pleased with it. As I pulled it on, I wondered how long it would take one of the cousins, Lumina probably, to remind me that I’d worn the same robe last year.
Shoes, shoes—there they were.
“So, how about the other four carriages?” asked the ghost.
“Retainer mages and mundane servants. Are you any good at doing hair?”
“I can try. Give me the comb. There are lot of these retainers. Does everyone travel with so many?”
“This is the Lucheyart family.”
“Sorry. Forgive my ignorance. You are related to the Imperial family?”
I grinned at him. “My grandmother’s the Empress.”
“What! You’re ONE of the Imperial family?” His hands fell to his sides as he stared at me. “Ka, ka, ka! I’m really sha sha sha!”
“What’s the matter?”
“I was trying to keep away from the centres of power. Avoid a diplomatic incident. And now here I am with a royal.” He shook his head. “Ka, ka, ka.”
“No, you’re not,” I said. “You have to have magical powers to be noble or royal. Look, Auntie Splen is miles from the throne. Four people at least. Ours is a junior branch. And Eff and I are both mundanes, which means we have no power at all. You couldn’t be further from the centre of power, more’s the pity. So don’t worry. All you’ve got to do is hide for the next few days and no one important will know. Come on. Can you do a braid?”
“How can you speak our language so well and not know how these things work?” I asked as he braided my hair. I loved having my hair done and he was quick and neat.
He sighed. “It’s very complicated. We were here to investigate crystal smuggling through the desert. We weren’t meant to come within your borders in any meaningful way. So I didn’t bother …”
“Marm Effulgentia says you should come down now,” called a servant through the locked door.
“Hell! Reckoning time, I suppose. So what do you think? How are my breasts?” I adjusted my cleavage to show off what there was to its best advantage. I had my pride. And a pointless longing for Scintillant to fall madly in love with me and want no one else.
Shadow started to laugh.
“What? Do they look stupid?” I peered anxiously in the mirror.
“No, no, they look lovely. I mean, how should they look?” he asked. He’d gone bright red again.
“Dark. At least they should match my face. I’ve been rubbing walnut juice on them all week. No, look properly. Why are you being such an idiot?”
He started to laugh again. “I apologise. It is not you. Things are so different here. You look wonderful. I thought it was your natural skin tone. Really.”
I MADE IT back to the top of the Eyrie stairs and Auntie Eff’s side just as the stately cavalcade of carriages flew around the curve of the driveway.
In the old days, the family had arrived after dark in a burst of torchlight and fireworks, but after Splendance (and Impi) took over, thrift dictated a more sedate daytime arrival. However, Auntie Splendance still managed to arrive in a cloud of yellow petals. They were silk—specially made, I’d warrant.
(Later that evening I saw one of the junior retainer mages levitating them up into a shining cloud of dancing yellow and blowing them into a trunk, no doubt to be kept for the next religious festival. Ladybless, that pig rat was a pinch-purse.)
The mundane peasants, who had assembled on the gravel before the house in their best cotton smocks, loved the petals and cheered at the top of their lungs.
“Blessings. Blessings, my children!” cried Auntie Splendance, waving languidly. Her voice, magically amplified, carried out over the crowd.
The Blessing party’s silken robes shone brilliantly in the late afternoon sun. Tumbles of colourful feathers and bows adorned their huge hats. Because they were mages, there was not a single speck of road dust on their lace-edged shirts, fine leather body shapers, gorgeous silken robes and cloth-of-gold imperial flowers. The retainer mages and servants who filled the carriages behind them were almost as brilliantly dressed, although with slightly smaller hats.
Several special chariot carts had been driven out from their place in the coach house, and each retainer mage responsible for driving a magical carriage carefully landed it on one. That way the magical carriages could be taken round to the coach house without any nobles having to soil themselves by visiting such a humble part of the estate.
The family’s servants scampered down the steps at the back of each cart so that they could be ready to rearrange mages’ robes and trains and brush off non-existent bits of dust, while the family floated delicately out of their seats.
Eff let out a huff of breath. “Right. Four days and they’ll be gone.”
I couldn’t tell if she was muttering to me or to herself. I squeezed her arm and she patted my hand. I noticed that my teeth were clenched and that I was glaring at Lord Impi, so I directed my eyes downward and breathed out.
Our servants had formed an avenue of welcome at the bottom of the Eyrie steps. Willow-in-the-Mist normally only had two servants, but we got in a lot of extras from the village during Blessing time—mostly young peasants from the estate who helped out in return for the chance to catch the eye of a mage and make their fortunes.
My gaze strayed into the phaeton where Scintillant was seated. He winked and blew me a kiss and—oh, curse it!—I could feel myself blushing and my treacherous mouth turning up at the corners. So much for giving him the cold shoulder. But I was not going to offer him a flower. Finish. End of story. No more.
Once the servants were in place, Auntie Eff and I managed to process down the Eyrie stairs quite elegantly, despite having no servants to rearrange us. By the time the procession of mages approached us, we were down at ground level, kneeling on one knee, heads bowed, leading the obeisance that the assembled peasants made every year to welcome the noble mages.