Chapter 12 #2
Thyme gave me a quick assessing look, then darted to the table and started shoving food in his mouth.
Holding up my long robe so I wouldn’t trip over it, I joined him and gestured for Nelly to come over.
If I was going to die tomorrow, I might as well feed a couple of famished kids before I perished.
“Thyme, what do you normally do?”
He replied, with his mouth full of egg tart, “I’m an Ambush Cub.”
Which meant he helped with the tygers, was probably an apprentice of some sort.
“And what made Nelly here think you might be an expert in getting me dressed to appear before the king?”
“Six older sisters.” He swallowed and took a gulp of tea out of the bowl he’d poured it in. With his hunger and thirst sated, he eyed me. “Stand up.”
I did as he said. Thyme paced a slow circle around me.
Finally, he spoke: “Large, luminous eyes, clearly your best feature. Fine bone structure. Too thin, but can be disguised with the right dress, perhaps something with a sweetheart neckline, billowing sleeves, and a tight bodice.”
Nelly nodded, eyes enchanted as she watched. “Something nice and bright?” she asked hopefully.
“We must be careful not to clash with her hair.” He nodded, then snapped his fingers.
“Nelly, go and tell Lady Harper’s maid the Ambush Master requires the dark plum dress the second daughter wore to the Autumn Harvest two years ago.
Say you need their accessories as well: undergarments, shoes, all of it.
Especially any glyphs you can squeeze out of them. ”
I blinked at him. Nelly scurried out the door. Thyme crossed over to the chests and started rooting through them until he dug out a flat box.
“What’s that?” I asked.
In answer, he pulled a chair up to the window and gestured for me to sit in it. He opened the box, revealing several little jars and brushes.
“Close your eyes.”
I felt him brushing some sort of powder on my eyelids. I stayed still as he applied the cosmetics onto my skin and lips.
I heard the door open and then Nelly’s voice: “Oh, that nasty maid didn’t want to give it to me, but I said, ‘The Ambush Master is going to let his tygers eat you, see if he won’t,’ and then she gave me everything quick enough.
Then she said to go ahead and take it all because she’d rather die, she would, than have to lay eyes on me again. ”
Nelly’s arms were full, and Edith ran to help her carry it all.
Once Thyme was finished with my face, I went behind the dressing screen to pull on the undergarments and dress Nelly had brought, letting her help me tighten the stays. It was astonishingly heavy—half of it appeared to be made from metal. I stepped into a pair of glittery shoes.
“It’s too big,” I said, trying to keep it all up and tight around my body. Thyme rolled his eyes and pressed what I’d assumed was a button sewn into the sleeve.
The dress and shoes shrank until they fit me perfectly. I laughed, twirling.
“It’s a fit glyph. The better dresses all have them,” Thyme explained. Then he swirled his skinny fingers around his head. “We need to do something about that. Please tell me you got their hairstyling glyph.”
My grin turned into a quick scowl, though I could hear Edith snort behind me.
What is it with these people and my hair?
“Upon pain of being eaten by tygers, that maid refused to give it to me. You should have trimmed her hair before we got her into that dress, Thyme.” Nelly turned to me. “On account of it drying into a thick and unmanageable mess, lady.”
Thyme sighed deeply and headed for the chest again, pulling out a comb and a small jar of product. He smeared it around his palms, then rubbed it through my hair. It smelled like sandalwood.
He pulled my hair back carefully, twisting and arranging the upper half, then fixing it with two sparkly combs.
Edith pulled me toward the looking glass with a bright smile and waterlogged eyes.
The lustrous eye shadow made my golden-brown eyes seem enormous.
My neck rose long and slender out of a low sweetheart neckline while my blue-green hair tumbled down my back.
The material of the bodice, shoulders, and wrists was adorned with bright steel, woven so finely by a metal mage that the dark wool appeared to be sparkling under a filigree of raindrops.
I turned, spotting where the dress accentuated my curves, the rich color making my skin glow. With the metal ornamentation on the bodice that resembled armor, I looked like a princess and a warrior in one.
I didn’t recognize the woman in the reflection.
On impulse, I grabbed my ribbons. As I touched them, I thought of Blake. Blake, whose men had burned down Edith’s and my home. Blake, who had saved my ribbons and gifted me a glyph. I hung the ribbons from the ornate belt encircling the dress.
There. Now I looked like myself.
You are beautiful. Almost as pretty as me. Flame’s voice in my head.
A grin pressed over my lips. It is not possible to be so magnificent, I replied.
I felt more than heard her contented purr.
“You look lovely, my dear,” Edith said, pride in her eyes. “You show them who you are.”
Donning the dress felt like I’d donned my own armor against them all. Still an Azure but now a tygress rider as well. Chosen by Flame.
I would not fail.
A knock resounded on the other side of the door, causing us all to freeze.