AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“ ’Tis beautiful,” Nella whispered at her side.
Kerrigan had to agree. Even if it appeared to be only a fourth of the size of the city of Kinkadia back home, it was big enough to get lost in. Big enough to find a way out of this mess.
“Very,” she whispered.
She hadn’t been to many of the port cities in Alandria, but she was certain they had nothing like this on her coasts. Alandria was an island run by the twelve—now thirteen—Fae tribes consolidated in power by the Society. She was Bryonican by birth and now by right. Rosemont was the capital of Bryonica, the home to the king and queen—a title she had been in line for until she dismissed Ashby March’s advances for Fordham once he claimed his right as king of the House of Shadows. Though the palace was beautiful, the docks were small and remote in comparison to Eivreen.
No one seemed to pay attention to the fact that two girls were being held in a cage as they trotted down the Eivreen streets and into the early morning bustle. People would be rioting in Kinkadia to see the same thing. Slavery had been outlawed back home a thousand years ago during the Great War. Humans and half-Fae didn’t have the same rights that full-blooded Fae had, but it wasn’t … this.
Kerrigan felt more at home within the city bounds as they went through the streets. She’d grown up in the capital city herself. But she could see that Eivreen was bigger and scarier than a small-town girl like Nella was used to.
She squeezed her hand. “It’ll be okay.”
Nella nodded, her eyes wide and shoulders slumped. “It’s … it’s bigger than I remember.”
Felix pulled over at the back of a large inn that read His Lady’s Ruby. Nella and Kerrigan were immediately ushered out of the back of the cage by a pair of men of the same tan complexion as Felix while Felix helped Flavia out of the carriage. Both girls went straight into the same bath and were scrubbed clean by a pair of women.
“I’ve never been around so many Andines before,” Nella whispered to Kerrigan.
Kerrigan didn’t see much difference between Nella and the workers. Nella was coppery and sunbaked while the Andine appeared a natural burnt tan, though she had no way of knowing. She hadn’t seen many people in the streets with the same complexion as herself, in fact, and didn’t think she’d be able to tell the difference the way apparently people from Domara could.
“You’re done,” the first woman told Nella, wrapping her in a towel. Kerrigan stood to receive one as well, but the woman shook her head. “Not you. You get in the milk bath next.”
Kerrigan wrinkled her nose. “A milk bath?”
“The matron wants you as buttery as any Doma,” she said crisply. “In.”
Nella nodded at her encouragingly before disappearing from the room. Kerrigan moved from one bath to the other. It wasn’t actually milk, but some kind of crisp white balm that made her skin feel as if it was baby smooth. A twenty-minute soak smoothed out the calluses on her hands and feet that she’d rightfully earned from sword work.
The two workers dunked her twice before one took some rose-scented oils to her face and neck while the other worked it through her hair. Most of her curly, long red hair was piled up into an intricate design on the top of her head while loose tendrils appeared at her temples and the nape of her neck.
“Hmm,” the second woman said, grazing a finger across her lightly pointed ears. “What do we have here?”
Kerrigan waited for the prejudice. Waited for them to make fun of her for being half-Fae, half-human. Her entire life, she had lived in a world where she was denigrated for her heritage. Where she was called a leatha in public. A word that was not used in polite conversation, as it meant something like mongrel bitch.
But the two women glanced at each other and then smiled.
“Let’s tuck your hair behind your ears. They’re lovely! Doma with a touch of Fae. Oh, you’ll be absolutely adored.”
Kerrigan faltered. A touch of Fae was a good thing here? Everything was upside down. Completely upside down. She only purposely showed off her ears when she was going for defiance. Never for attention.
The women either didn’t register her shock or didn’t care. They continued their work, dusting her in a pale powder flecked with gold, lining her eyes with dark kohl, and painting her lips a soft blush. Then, a pure white gown was draped across her body, held up with gold latches at her shoulders and wrapped tightly around her waist. She slipped her feet into gold heeled shoes, dangled gold hoops from her ears, and then the women nodded, facing her toward a silver mirror.
