Chapter Sixteen
Three days after coming in second at the regatta, Thaddeus was still in a dour mood when he escorted Mavis to Garlin’s annual Origin Pageant, held on the city’s northern shore.
In theory it should have made it easier to poke and prod him into breaking the engagement, but instead, he was too wrapped up in his own sulking to care about her one way or another.
After he made a petulant comment about how boring he expected the afternoon to be while they walked down the beach, Mavis made a point of laughing a little too hard, inserting a very unladylike snort for good measure, but Thaddeus didn’t so much as look at her.
“Normally, I wouldn’t go at all, but you insisted,” Thaddeus said.
Mavis had done just that even though she’d been to similar events in past cities and she knew Thaddeus was right—it would be a bore. But that was precisely the point.
“Oh, of course we have to attend, Thaddeus, don’t be silly.” Mavis injected so much brightness into her voice she was at risk of giving herself a headache. “I love an Origin Pageant—the children are always so talented.”
Thaddeus only gave a grunt in response.
“Just think, soon we’ll have children of our own who will participate in the tradition!” Mavis continued. “I’ve always liked the name Dorcas for a girl.”
“Mm-hmm.”
Mavis gritted her teeth, trying not to let her annoyance show. “It’s perfect, really—we could call her either Dorky or Assy for short—it is nice to have options, don’t you think?”
“Options, yes.” Thaddeus paused. “They must have cheated.”
It was not the first time he’d made the exact same non sequitur in the last three days, and frankly, Mavis was surprised he lasted ten minutes into their walk before making it today.
“Oh, you haven’t been listening to a word I’ve said, have you?” Mavis twisted her mouth into a dramatic pout. “You’re still stuck on losing that ridiculous race.”
“I didn’t lose,” Thaddeus snapped, glaring at her. “Not if they cheated.”
“You said yourself there is no cheating in the regatta,” she reminded him. “And besides, I don’t see how they could have managed anything unsportsmanlike. From what I understand, it was simply the matter of their engine.”
“Well, it isn’t as if you understand much of anything, is it?”
There. Mavis had to smother a triumphant smile. Instead, she stopped short with a gasp, looking at Thaddeus with wide eyes, letting her bottom lip quiver. “Thaddeus!” Fake tears welled up in her eyes. “How could you say something like that to me?”
Thaddeus’s face paled—a common reaction, Mavis had found, when men were faced with female tears. “I’m sorry,” he said in a rush, reaching out to grasp her arms. “Truly, I don’t know what came over me. I’m just in a sore mood. Forgive me, darling?”
Mavis looked away from him and frowned. “I don’t think you’re sorry at all. I’m starting to doubt you even want to marry me.”
Thaddeus sighed. “Don’t be ridiculous, Delphinia.”
Mavis managed a strangled-sounding laugh. “Oh, so now I’m ridiculous too?” She shook off his grip on her arms and stormed ahead, leaving Thaddeus to scramble to catch up.
“I didn’t mean it like that.” Frustration worked its way into his voice, just as Mavis hoped it would. “Of course I want to marry you, Delphinia. What I meant was that it would be ridiculous to say anything else.”
Mavis allowed herself to soften, just a fraction, though she held on to her pout. “I suppose I might forgive you,” she said, sweetening her tone again. “If you could find a way to make it up to me.”
With something shiny and expensive. She didn’t say that part out loud, but it went without saying. In her experience, an apology gift could get her a few hundred extra solas.
Thaddeus’s smile was relieved. “Of course. I know just the thing.”
Mavis suppressed a grin as they continued along the beach. When their destination rose up over the sand bluffs, her breath caught, and she momentarily forgot all about Thaddeus and the con.
She had long grown used to the ornate and gratuitous displays of Luster magic, but the amphitheater that rose up from the beach ahead of them was something else entirely.
As they drew closer, she realized it didn’t merely look like it rose from the beach directly.
It did. The structure was crafted entirely from sand.
There was a large sunken stage at the base surrounded by a half ring of benches that grew higher in tiers, where many Lusters were already sitting, peering down at the empty stage below.
Even after seeing so much Luster magic, Mavis still didn’t understand how such a thing could hold firm, but the amphitheater appeared to be as sturdy as any building made from stone.
“How extraordinary,” she said on a sigh.
He glanced sideways at her, smiling indulgently, like one might at a child who said something precocious, and shrugged. “The Caraways have quite a talent.”
The Caraways could manipulate earth—a gift that apparently included sand as well.
“Maximus Caraway and I went to school together,” Thaddeus continued. “When we were boys, he would build life-size fortresses when we played at battles.”
When they came to the steps that led to the first row of benches, Thaddeus offered to help Mavis up, but she hesitated, finding it difficult to believe that the sand structure wouldn’t crumble beneath her feet. Thaddeus smirked, leaving behind indulgence for outright condescension.
“The Caraways’ magic has held for decades, Delphinia—it won’t break for you.”
Mavis forced a smile just as she forced herself to accept his hand and allow him to lead her up the steps. He was right—Mavis felt as if she were walking on solid stone.
“Do you know any of the children in the pageant this year?” she asked as they made their way up to the second level, where their seats were.
“Only in passing.”
Mavis had seen half a dozen Origin Pageants over the last few years, each in a different city.
While the details changed, at its heart it was always the same—the Luster youth put on a production to retell the story of how their ancestors were blessed with magic, using their newly developed gifts to add flourishes to the story wherever they could.
Mavis knew it was less about the story itself, which everyone surely knew by heart, and more an excuse for Luster families to show off the gifts of their progeny.
It was also an excuse for a party, though that was something the Lusters never seemed to need an excuse for.
As more Lusters filed in, their fine day dresses and linen suits so at odds with the backdrop of the beach, waiters began to mill around the tiers, offering flutes of champagne and hors d’oeuvres.
Mavis herself took an oyster shell filled with caviar and made a show of slurping it loudly, though once again, Thaddeus didn’t seem to notice.
This time, it wasn’t entirely his fault, she acknowledged.
The amphitheater was doing such excellent work amplifying the chatter of everyone else that Mavis’s show of rudeness got drowned out.
“I thought Oriana would have beaten us here.” Thaddeus’s cool gray eyes scanned the seats that were quickly filling up.
“Who is the lucky man taking her out today?” Mavis asked, searching the crowd herself, though while she told herself she, too, was looking for Oriana’s blond curls, she knew that wasn’t the full truth.
“Arden Ryskamp.”
The name, coming from Thaddeus’s mouth, had no right to surprise Mavis.
She wanted Arden to court Oriana, and she needed Thaddeus to approve of the match.
It was the only way she would be able to buy her freedom.
Still, she couldn’t help feeling like someone had dropped a cube of ice down the back of her dress.
“Oh?” she managed. “I didn’t realize he had jumped into the running. He’s an excellent choice.”
“Is he?” Thaddeus’s disinterest was evident in the way his eyes scanned the crowd. “All I know about him is he’s penniless.”
“Oh, only at the moment.” Mavis waved her hand dismissively.
“I understand his aunt is naming him her heir.” A small fib, but by Mavis’s standard it barely counted as one at all.
Time would turn it true. “But I knew him when Dagwood and I lived in Strall—he was considered quite the eligible bachelor, you know. His lineage is quite impressive.”
Thaddeus shrugged. “I’m certain it is.”
“You know, I think Oriana and Mr. Ryskamp just might suit,” Mavis told him after a thoughtful pause.
“I’ll believe that when I see it. I’m beginning to doubt that anyone will suit my sister. One of the Gods of Old themselves could appear at our door with a bouquet of flowers and a sonnet crafted to honor her beauty, and she would still turn up her nose and slam the door in his face.”
Before Mavis could respond, she caught sight of Arden entering the amphitheater with his aunt on one arm and Oriana on the other.
Oriana looked lovely as ever in a pale-blue-and-white-striped dress edged in scalloped lace, but Mavis barely noticed her beside Arden.
Despite the crowd around them, Arden’s eyes found hers right away, as if there were no one else in the world at all.
She hadn’t thought to send him any other suggestions for how to dress since her engagement ball, but it turned out she didn’t need to—he looked handsome in a dark-blue linen suit that fit him well.
He nodded toward her before his aunt tugged at his arm.
Philomena Gellis held a parasol in one hand, blocking out the afternoon sun’s harsh light, but even with its defense, Mavis noted that she didn’t look well.
Her skin had a sallow pallor to it, and she seemed to be holding on to Arden more for support than for the sake of decorum.
She said something to Arden that made him frown, his eyes sweeping across the amphitheater before finding Mavis once more, then moving to her left, where three seats remained vacant.