Chapter Four

Siorin leaned over the balustrade, her fairy man fluttering around her head animatedly, and Rivyn stepped up onto the ledge to kiss her. She whispered something to him, and he laughed, lifting himself up and climbing over the balustrade before drawing her into his arms and dipping her back in a picturesque kiss.

“Ah, young love,” Leamoira greeted me, smiling at the couple indulgently. A servant handed me a crystal glass of sparkling wine. I would have preferred a tankard of ale, I thought, as I sipped it. “It’s lovely to see. Well,” she refocused on me. “That was rather exciting,” she said. “You and Akyran ride as if you have no fear. I suppose that comes of your being a war mage.”

“I guess,” I saw Akyran look up at us, and an expression of alarm crossed his face. What was it that he feared Leamoira might say to me, or I to her? I wondered immediately upon seeing that expression. “Something is afoot,” I complained. “Eltarin and my parents are here, Akyran is watching us now as if he’s worried what we will say...”

“Ah,” she laughed with heartily false lightness. “He’s not very discrete, is he?”

“No,” but I wasn’t sure what he wasn’t being discrete about. “What is he up to?”

“Oh, no,” she shook her head. “I won’t be the one to tell you, seeing as he’s already angry with me.”

I blew out a breath in annoyance and surrendered my glass to a servant that hovered ready for it. “I guess I should go greet my parents, as they are here.”

She lifted her wine glass to her lips and turned to the field. I saw Akyran, over her shoulder, start and begin to cross towards us. I wondered what look she had sent him to elicit such a response, even as I turned on my heel and headed into the rambling castle. I heard his footsteps behind me as he ran to catch up, slowing as he did so until he fell into step beside me casually.

“Where are you off to?” He asked me as if he had not just sprinted in order to fend me off from my destination.

“I thought I might visit my parents before the ball this evening,” I told him.

“Do you have time?” He suggested. “Shouldn’t you be bathing and getting your hair dressed?”

I turned to him quizzically. “When did you become so concerned with my apparel?” I asked him.

“Well, one of us ought to be,” he caught me by the elbow and drew me to a stop before redirecting our path towards the wing of the castle that held our chambers. “I’m sure Fiena is frantically awaiting your arrival.”

“She can wait a little longer, it would be rude of me not to greet them…” I said, but he was determinedly steering me in that direction. “Akyran,” I protested. “You are acting most oddly today.”

“I was thinking about the jewels,” he said his jaw set. “And I have a trinket I picked up, which you should wear.”

“A trinket?” I was confused and distracted. What manner of trinket might Akyran have for me?

“Yes,” we were in the wing where we stayed, and passed my door. It was open, and I saw Fiena spot me and react, giving chase.

“My lady,” she called out after us. “You should bathe!”

“I’ll return her in a moment,” Akyran told her over his shoulder. “See,” he said to me primly. “I told you.”

“This is not my first ball,” I reminded him. “I know how long it takes me to get ready.”

He opened his chamber door and ushered me inside.

“Ah, my Prince, I am ready for you,” Ithyles strode into the room from the bathing chamber. “My Lady Reyneris.”

“Ithyles,” I greeted him. Akyran had released me and was digging through the partially unpacked chests of clothing.

“Where is - ? Ah,” he straightened and carried over a small pouch. “It’s not really gaudy, but you said your dress didn’t need it,” he opened the neck of the pouch and drew out a necklace. The fine gold chain glittered in the sunlight. There was a locket attached, oval in shape and tooled with a Fae rose. “See,” he said, opening it with his thumbnail. “You and I.”

Inside were miniature pictures of us both delicately and beautifully worked. “Oh, Akyran,” I was stunned. This was not just a trinket he had randomly picked up, but something chosen and made for me. “It’s beautiful.” It was a lover’s token, and coming from any other man, I would know it to be so. From Akyran however, I was just confused by its meaning and his intention in giving it to me.

He beamed, pleased. “Good,” he stepped around me and scooped my hair to the side in order to fasten it. His breath touched my skin. I wanted him to place a kiss or a caress, something to define what the present was. But he fastened the necklace and turned me so he could adjust its position against the hollow of my collar bone. “Now I’m always with you,” he said without meeting my eyes.

“I love it,” I told him honestly, and lifted up onto my tiptoes to brush my lips against his, hoping he’d take the gesture and make it something else, something more. But he just accepted the light kiss with mild surprise, and a small smile.

“I’m happy you like it,” he replied, “and now you should get ready.” He steered me to the door, and down the hallway to my chamber, depositing me into Fiena’s care.

“Something is very odd today,” I told her as she washed my hair. I could hear Tillie fussing with my dress and undergarments in the main chamber. “Akyran is acting most… unusually.” There was a flutter of hope in my chest that I squashed mercilessly. In all the centuries we had been friends, only a magic spell would turn Akyran into a lover overnight.

“Perhaps he’s bespelled,” I muttered. “But the only ones who could bespell a prince would be…” I frowned. “Leamoira did bespell Rivyn.” She had not however, been near to Akyran for the past week, in order to place a spell on him. Still… The queen had not been discrete in her opinion that her sons were too unyielding and inflexible of late. It was possible that she had decided to do something about Akyran, and I had not been present at the time.

“Tillie,” I called over my shoulder.

“Yes, my Lady?” She came to the door.

“Can you fetch me a glass of red wine and place it and my black box of spell components on the dresser. Be careful of the locket that I put on there.”

“You think the prince bespelled?” Fiena asked me. She sounded amused. “Whatever gives you that idea, my Lady?”

I sighed out a breath. “I’m just being silly, I am sure,” I told her. She held the cloth up for me to leave the bath and dried me before rubbing the scented oils into my skin. I caught the unmistakable scent of Fae rose. “New oils?”

“Yes, my Lady, do you like them?”

“Fae rose,” I acknowledged. “I don’t think that there is a Fae alive who doesn’t like the scent. Expensive, however.”

“These were a gift from the Prince,” she told me as we moved into the main chamber and she helped me into my undergarments and shoes.

“See,” I pointed out. “That’s just… unlike him. A sword, a new bow, armour, spell components… those are gifts from Akyran to me. Perfumed oils and jewellery, never.”

“Perhaps the prince has realised that a beautiful woman likes to receive other things than weapons and spell components?” She suggested, waiting for me to sit before the mirrored dresser. She began to work the comb through my hair once I sat. I could smell the hot metal of the curling wand heating in the embers of the fire.

“I honestly don’t think Akyran knows I am a woman,” I replied with a dry laugh. I should have ordered two goblets of wine, I thought wryly. I could use one myself to calm my nerves.

“I’m sure that’s not true, my Lady.” She divided my hair and began to curl them with the wand. I could smell the cinnamon from the soap she had used in my hair as it heated against the metal. She pinned the curl against my head and moved on.

Tillie returned with the wine and placed the goblet at my elbow. After a moment she placed the small black box of spell components next to it. I mixed the contents from several vials into the wine and stirred it.

I met Fiena’s eyes in the mirror. “Just in case.”

When my hair was curled and pinned, they helped me into the dress.

“Beautiful,” Fiena said with approval and Tillie clasped her hands together in delight. The dress shimmered with golden threads, the top layer sheer except for the glitter, over an opaquer gold below. I hung the locket around my neck, its simple sentimentality perfect as the only adornment.

Tillie rubbed colour into my cheeks and lips, and Fiena released the curls, running her fingers through them to break them up and soften them.

“Thank you,” I said to them. “I expect it will be a late night. Akyran will get bored of the formalities and we’ll probably head to a tavern.”

“Yes, my Lady.” Fiena paused. “If he doesn’t know you’re a woman, my Lady, after seeing you in this dress, I’d be checking his vision.”

“Thank you,” I smiled at her, swirling before the mirror, pleased with the effect.