AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Apprehension slowly my feet as I make my way back to my dressing room, not sure of what to do. But my day only gets worse when I walk in.
My sister is there, eyes narrowed and a sneer on her face. “So you finally show up,” she says.
“Gods, Rho, I’m like five minutes late,” I tell her. “I was trying to find out where Sienna
is.”
“She’s sick,” Rhovier snaps.
“And how do you know this?” I ask, raising an eyebrow. Rho doesn’t seem like the type to have her ear to the ground for information.
Rho shrugs and throws me a cloth to wipe down with as a zagfer worker comes into the dressing room.
“Excuse me, sir. I’ve been sent to help you prepare.” She curtsies, head bowed so as not to look me in the eyes. I roll them anyway.
“No formalities here,” I tell her before turning my attention back to my sister. “Rho, do you know anything else? Is she coming back tomorrow?”
“I don’t know. It doesn’t matter.” She’s growing agitated quickly, and I have to fist my hands to contain my anger. “We have more important things to worry about than a human who doesn’t know her place.” Her eyes land on the zagfer. “Get him ready, will you?”
But I don’t want to go on. I can’t go on without my little pavo, my muse. And Sienna didn’tseemsick when she left. This whole thing leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
I want to leave, to go find her and see what’s really going on. But I have a show to perform. I can’t leave right now without arousing suspicion. And I promised Sienna I wouldn’t turn this into something more.
So even though it’s hard, I swallow and sit down, letting the zagfer prepare me for my show.
But the feeling doesn’t leave me the entire night. I don’t know why, but I can feel in my bones that she isn’t sick. Especially if no one else knew where she was going to be out.
No, I fear there is a much, much worse reason that Sienna isn’t here.
Gods, I hope I am wrong.
7
SIENNA
When I got home that night, my stomach decided that the drink I had at the club was definitely too sweet after all. I spent half the night heaving it up and the other half sleeping restlessly before waking up, utterly fatigued.
Deciding to try to have some dry sliced bread for breakfast, I nibble on it carefully but the taste is disgusting to me so I throw it away and try not to gag. Gods, it’s been unbearable lately. I haven’t been feeling good for like, a month at least. If not longer.
I’ve been feeling tired all the time so I’ve taken to sleeping all day until my shift, then I go in and feel fine during my shift and even right after but by the time I’m heading home, I’m back to feeling crappy.
Determined not to let anything ruin my day today, I brave work with a smile on my face. The other girls are already there and I hurry in, determined not to seem like nothing is wrong.
“Hey,” Cyra waves to me when I head into the dressing room area. The theater is big enough that each of the main performers have their own rooms. I’m to clean the three musician’s rooms that headline the evening shows, including Ris’.
But I start with Thenzi’s. His is usually the easiest, and he comes in the soonest so I want to be sure his is done first. Something about the cleaning product I’m using though, is starting to make me feel nauseated.
I take a deep whiff of fresh air outside of the dressing room and head back inside to wipe it down but the scent is worse this time and it makes my head swim.
“Get it together,” I whisper to myself. “It’s just the usual cleaning products. Nothing nasty here. And Thenzi’s not messy.”
Some of the other artists that work here leave all kinds of disgusting things in their rooms. Thankfully Thenzi and Ris are easy to work with.
But the scent is somehow worse than ever and I feel lightheaded as I set the bottle down, trying to breathe in and out lightly, so I don’t get sick.
Unfortunately, the scent is too much because the world around me grows dim and I feel myself passing out.
“Sienna!”
