Chapter Five
Liza barged into the room to let us know that a carriage had arrived. “Miri, Sasha there’s a covered carriage…” her voice trailed off as the spectacle of the three of us hit her.
“Oh wow!” followed by a squee of delight were the only sounds that came from Liza for a good thirty seconds.
“You two look fantastic. I hope you’re going to a really posh party,” she said finally speaking coherently.
“Dinner actually, but a reasonably formal one,” I replied as I got used to walking in the skirt I now wore.
“We’re about ready. Could you let the carriage know that we’ll be there within ten minutes,” said Miri as she gathered our great coats together.
The serving girl gave a very proper curtsy to Miri and then left the room.
“Here give me those,” said Sariel as she took the two great coats and put them into a sack which then disappeared along with all the makeup back into the pocket dimension. “You’re not going to need them until after the dinner anyways.”
Sariel was back into her mercenary black and blues that she wore earlier today. Though now she was armed with a narrow-bladed dress sword, stiletto and two throwing spikes in the top of her calf high leather boots. She was to act as our ‘escort’ for the evening. Even though she dressed down, her hair and makeup would still cause heads to turn.
Around five minutes later, we left our room to quietly get to the entranceway and our awaiting carriage. As Sariel closed and locked the door, I heard Liza call for quiet from the top of the stairway. Apparently, Liza felt that since we looked like ‘true ladies’ we needed a herald. Standing at the top of the stairway she announced, “Gentlefolk and free peoples, may I present the ladies Sasha, and Miri on their first outing of the winter season.”
Okay I’ve been the centre of attention before. I fling lightning bolts around like insults; such things tend to get noticed. Though to be fair the words ‘kill the spellcaster’ usually follow soon after acquiring all that attention. So when I turned the corner to descend the staircase into the main hall; and I felt every eye in the place on me the first thought that went through my head was: ‘please oh please someone shout ‘kill the spellcaster’’.
Instead I was met with a stunned silence that lasted a full 10 seconds. Then every male in the place stood up (or was pulled to a standing position by their friends).
I had to remember to breathe. “Keep moving. Don’t stop until were in the dining room,” whispered Miri over her shoulder. Like she had to tell me; while her black dress enhanced her figure in all the right ways, at least it was completely opaque. For my dress Sariel had said that she was going for something truly Fae.
Inspired by the lightning scars, and my silver hair, the Fey had created what she called ‘a walking art dress’. Styling my already curly hair into a fairly good approximation of a cloud she then added several silver hairclips that when they caught the light they really did look like a lightning flashing. My dress, while not as form fitting as Miri’s, still attracted attention. Sariel had transformed it into something called gossamer. Depending upon how the light caught it, my dress was a light sky blue, light grey or transparent. The overall effect was that as I walked and people watched my movement it appeared that several bolts of lightning were coming from the clouds and down through a mostly clear day. For shoes, I wore a pair similar in design to Miri: only mine were a light grey in colour with silver lightning accessories and flat toes. Sariel assured me that only my arms and legs would show and not my more ‘private’ areas.
Even if I did flash too much skin, I wouldn’t have really cared at this point. Miri, and I were the centre of attention in a positive way, i.e. no one was trying to kill us. Like many things in life it was scary at first, but by the time I was halfway through the room, I was rather enjoying the feeling, and as we were about to leave the common area, I had to suppress a giggle.
“I owe that Fey a big vote of thanks,” whispered Riley in my ear as he landed on my shoulder.
“Oh?”
“Yes, it the first time in months that I’ve seen you genuinely happy,” he said.
The feelings of happiness continued when we actually saw the carriage that Roland had sent to pick us up.
“Oh wow, Roland really did pull out all the stops with this one, didn’t he,” I said to my companions.
Painted white with gold inlay the carriage was pre-plague in origin, and showed all the majesty that forgotten era possessed. But what showed that Roland was trying to impress were the four matching white horses and the fact that the two footmen, and two drivers were not only dressed identically (in white and gold livery I might add) but they were all clean as well.
“Fraulein Storm Crow?” asked one of the footmen as we approached. His demeanor while polite was also confused.
“Yes, I’m her,” I replied.
“My apologies Fraulein, we were told to expect three sellswords not two ladies and their escort,” he said as he offered his hand to help us into the carriage.
I was glad for the help; moving with any degree of dignity in skirts takes some practice. The footman even helped Sariel up though she did have to put her hand out for him to get the hint.
“Well this is acceptable I guess,” said Sariel as the carriage took off with a jolt.
I decided that I was enjoying being a princess too much, and didn’t rise to the bait so I just let the Fey’s comment lay. Though I had to admit, riding in the back of a carriage wasn’t that much more comfortable than being in the back of a wagon. But it was only a twenty-minute ride and we all managed to survive with no bruises.