Chapter 5 #2
The carriage came to a stop in the drive, and a footman appeared, opening the door and helping everyone out. I was the last to exit, and I took his hand as it was offered, a deep breath leaving me as I reckoned with what was to come. I couldn’t let a beautiful outside blind me to the rotten inside.
I stepped down and smoothed my dress carefully.
It was a teal velvet, chosen to appeal to the high king specifically.
It was studded with pink pearls to match my hair, diamonds to honor the king and capital, as well as rubies to represent the court I was competing for.
It was gorgeous, I had to admit, and fit me perfectly.
It was designed to have what looked almost like a cape over it, but was instead built into the dress.
It had straps a few inches wide that sat on my shoulders and were part of the main piece of the dress.
It scooped down before splitting to plunge deep, leaving plenty of cleavage on offer to entice the king, and similar dramatic splits went up each side of the skirt, letting my legs peek out all the way to my upper thighs.
The fabric of the cape left a gap between the straps of the dress and where it connected further down my arm, leaving the curves of each shoulder fully exposed.
It then flowed down around me and created a train.
While the dress was embroidered and studded with gems nearly over the entire front, the cape was mostly bejeweled around the bottom, with some added where it was split to allow my arms free range of movement.
A ruby and diamond necklace was added, taking up my entire collarbone and dipping low to my breasts.
Matching earrings dangled from my pointy ears, at least where they peeked through the curtain of my hair.
The bright pink mass was left down, but had been styled with half of it swept up into a braided crown halfway back on my head.
Diamonds were inserted into the braid, making even the top of my head shine.
Two shorter pieces of hair were left down in front to frame my face, which I was informed quite strictly was important for some reason.
I felt like a fraud.
Or at least, like a version of myself from another life.
One where the high king of Diamond had never sent his assassins after my family, and I’d grown up as I was supposed to.
A noble lady, the daughter of the Pearl Lord, living in the lap of luxury, even though I couldn’t be my father’s heir as a woman.
Which was certainly some bullshit, and I remembered thinking so even as a child, as my parents tried for a boy.
They never got the chance, however, leaving only…me.
In another world, I would be the rightful heir to Pearl.
What Ula didn’t understand was that because I was a woman, Pearl Court likely would have gone to our cousins regardless.
There was a chance I could have gotten it, if the king had agreed to my petition, but I knew how small a chance that was even without his extermination of my blood.
So despite how distant, House Helmi now had full right to it, because they had the closest male of blood relation to my father.
Walking through the doors of the palace in Theiapolis on the arm of Lord Casaan now, a part of me wondered what would become of me if anyone found out the truth.
Would I be forced to marry some lord’s heir, like Casaan, to brush it all under the rug?
Or would I be taken out before the public could find out I was even alive?
I shuddered, though whether that was because of my thoughts or my escort, even I wasn’t sure.
We were greeted by a man with opalescent white hair and eyes, his smile large and welcoming, but it looked forced as he greeted Lord Carnelian. His long black jacket was trimmed with opals and diamonds, a nod to his original court and where he now served.
“And this is Lady Jacinth,” Carnelian said, motioning to me with his hand.
Casaan stepped forward, bringing me with him, and my eyes met the opal ones of the Elf before me.
I could see his surprise, his wide eyes taking in my coloring, before his own shot to Carnelian, but he’d locked his face down after his initial surprise, leaving me to only guess at what he might be thinking.
“She’s a somewhat distant cousin, but of my blood,” Carnelian told him with a disdainful sniff. “She’s the only option Ruby Court has for an unattached female of noble blood, Emrys. If his majesty has a problem with that—”
“No, no.” The man, Emrys, shook his head quickly.
“Of course not. I was merely surprised we hadn’t heard of Lady Jacinth before.
” He raised an eyebrow at Carnelian before turning to me with a smirk, leaning in like we were sharing a secret.
“Treasures such as yourself rarely stay hidden for long, my Lady.”
I smiled demurely at his put-on show of flirting. “You’d be surprised, my Lord.”
He chuckled at my response, “Well then, let’s ensure such hiding is long in the past now, and get you situated here at court, shall we?”
If only he knew how much I wished to go back to hiding from it.
I caught sight of Carnelian’s stern warning glare and managed to nod graciously, “Of course, my Lord.”
“I’ll take her from here, Lord Casaan,” Emrys told the heir of Ruby with a little wave of his fingers that had him narrowing his eyes, but he reluctantly passed my arm to him, nonetheless.
Emrys quickly snaked my arm through his and set off down the hall, forcing me to keep pace with him as I tried to take in the palace around me.
It was much grander than anything I’d seen before, as befitting the seat of the high king, I supposed.
But my fingers itched to snatch the trinkets we passed, knowing it was unlikely they’d even notice or care they were missing with so many people converging on the palace today.
“Now that we’ve gotten you away from such bores, Lady Jacinth, why don’t you tell me about yourself?” Emrys suggested with a twinkle in his eye.
I remembered from Sienna’s lessons that this man was responsible for inter-court relations. He was a ruthless politician according to her, one able to sniff out lies and able to finagle nearly any situation to the king’s benefit. I’d have to be very, very careful with my words.
“I’m afraid there’s not much to really say, my Lord.” I tried, hoping against hope he’d think me boring and leave it alone.
“Oh, come now.” He snorted inelegantly, surprising me. “We all thought Carnelian had no female relatives, yet here you are, crawling out of thin air. A stunning creature such as yourself does not just go unnoticed for years. Not in this court.”
“Maybe that’s precisely why I stayed out of this court.
” I countered, raising a brow at him. I nearly cursed myself for my combative attitude, as it certainly wasn’t very ladylike of me.
But Emrys, even more surprisingly, seemed to enjoy it, laughing at my response before tipping his head toward me.
“Touché, my Lady.” He watched me for a moment before shaking his head slightly, and I prayed he was only amused and not seeing anything deeper. “A Ruby Court competitor who tried to stay out of court. There’s one for the books.”
I snorted in response before my eyes widened and I brought a hand up to cover my mouth. “Forgive me, my Lord.”
“Nothing to forgive.” He waved it away with a smile. “Let’s say we keep what we discuss between us,” he whispered, leaning closer again. “What Carnelian doesn’t know won’t hurt him. Secrets are best kept between friends anyway, and I think we’ll be great friends indeed.”
His large smile had me shaking my head in amusement, but I knew I had to be careful. That affable smile and shining personality were exactly what made him so skilled in his position, and that’s all this nice act was. He was trying to find information, and I refused to let any slip.
“You’ll be staying in a separate wing with all of the other competitors,” he explained as we turned down a new hallway, but this one was very different from the others.
It led to a large dead-end circle, with eight doors surrounding the space, and nothing else.
Inspecting the area, I realized each door represented a different court, and it didn’t stop at the door either, with the entire section of wall surrounding it decorated in the colors and gems of that particular court.
I glanced longingly at the door for Pearl Court.
The pink door was arched, just like the others, with beautiful white filigree encrusted with pink pearls outlining it.
A mosaic of pearls in various shades of pink reached up to the ceiling.
Each court had a similar one, but Pearl’s depicted an image of our patron goddess, Erodite.
She was said to be the most beautiful of them all, as one would expect from the goddess of love, and they certainly did her justice here.
Her form was almost entirely made of pink pearls, but they had used white and grey ones to outline and enhance her features.
The only outliers were the two bright sparkling diamonds used for her eyes.
As I admired the other depictions of the gods and goddesses of our Pantheon that were created for the entrances to each competitor’s rooms, I noticed diamonds had been worked into each of them in some small way.
While Emrys led me straight to the door for Ruby Court, I examined the red door outlined in black filigree, with the goddess Fortuna being of course, made up of bright red rubies, with black to outline her form and diamonds once again used for her eyes.
The biggest difference was that they had placed diamonds along the arched outline of the door, subtly included between the rubies, and across the dark filigree.
It was clear that a lot of work had gone into creating these rooms, all for a competition held once every few hundred years, if that. I couldn’t imagine having enough space to be able to dedicate this much to such a rarely held event.
Emrys turned the knob, and I was brought into what was, shockingly, a much more tastefully decorated room than I’d been expecting based on the exterior.
I’d been thinking it would be like rubies had been thrown up across the room, but instead I was brought into a small entrance hall done in black with a large crystal chandelier hanging above us.
Walking further in, we came to the large living area.
The space looked nothing like I expected.
The ceilings were high enough to include large arches, connecting each area within the suite of rooms. Ornate silver designs spiraled out across the ceilings from the center point of the chandeliers.
While the walls were a subtly sparkling white flecked with red.
It made it feel open and airy, not consumed and overbearing with the ruby red of the court it was meant for.
Columns flanked the large windows, with rubies and diamonds added into the designs, while long, velvet drapes in a deep burgundy color were pulled to each side of the windows. The view looked out on the gardens, and I found myself wishing I could explore them instead of facing what came next.
“I hope your accommodations are to your satisfaction, Lady Jacinth.” Emrys’s voice stole my attention, having nearly forgotten about his presence as I took in the space I’d be residing. I turned to face him with a fake smile, nodding pleasantly.
“Of course, my Lord.” I agreed, “More than.”
“Good, good. Then let me introduce you to your guard for the remainder of the event,” he said, spiking my alarm instantly.
“Guard?” I asked, trying to maintain my composure. The last thing I needed was one of the king’s guards up my ass while I carried out my mission. “Is that really necessary?”
“Unfortunately, at this time, it is,” Emrys informed me apologetically, but more seriously than he’d said anything thus far. “It’s for your own safety, as well as to maintain the sanctity of the event.”
I tried not to grind my teeth in annoyance, dipping my head deferentially. “Of course.”