Chapter 10
They gave us dresses.
I didn’t understand what for—I’d seen recordings in the school archives. All Hands wore uniforms, not dresses—and especially not dresses with as many sparkles as the one Lida brought for me.
“But…but it’s a trial,” I told her when she insisted that this was what I was supposed to wear. We only had another two hours before the trial began—at seven o’clock sharp, Calren had said just at lunch.
“It is. And this is what you’ll be wearing.” She smiled secretly, like she knew things I didn’t, and I didn’t doubt it for a second.
“Maybe I should just talk to Calren,” I said in wonder—what would a Hand do with a dress?
“No, Miss Reese. There’s no talking to anyone until you’ve gotten ready. Come now. Sit—let me dry your hair.”
She wouldn’t hear about me going to see the other Hands, and she insisted that they weren’t going to be wearing uniforms, either. In the end, I gave in and let her have her way with me. What other choice did I have?
I also asked her—pretty sure over ten times—to stop calling me Miss Reese. She always responded: “Certainly, Miss Reese.” I wasn’t sure whether I found it funny or annoying. Probably a little bit of both.
The dress she made me wear was a deep wine red with a white sash made of a million white stones that tied around my waist and into a large bow at the small of my back.
She tied my hair into a bun on the side, too, and put on a pair of earrings that were made of the same white stones.
The shoes didn’t have high heels on them, though, for which I was thankful, but they were satin, and my feet kept slipping in them. Plenty uncomfortable.
However, when I walked out of the bedroom, I was relieved to find that I was indeed not the only one dressed like I was going to a party. Red and white everywhere—deep wine, scarlet, ivory, pearl—layers of fabric catching the light like magic.
Levana and Anika wore red gowns with silver threading along the seams, one with long sleeves, one with short, loose ones.
Erith wore the sharpest dress of all, the color darker than blood, high collared, all sharp edges around the hems and the sleeves.
She looked regal. Meanwhile Helen’s and Mimi’s dresses were pale, almost all white, with only red ribbons laced through their bodices.
Mimi’s flared skirt had layers of scarlet tulle, too.
They all had their hair wrapped up in low buns, just like me.
They were absolutely breathtaking—and the boys were no less striking.
Russ had a deep red jacket on with a crisp white shirt underneath.
He was already loosening his cuffs, and he was looking a little panicked.
Seth wore all white except for a narrow red tie, and Reggie’s vest was almost identical in color as my dress, while Cook looked plenty uncomfortable in a classic red tailcoat that fit him like it had indeed been made for him.
Silas stood apart in a simple white suit with red stitching along the lapels that fit him so well I had trouble remembering him ever wearing black.
And then March.
The color of his suit matched the almost black-red of Erith’s dress, and the edges of it were a bright red.
The jacket was tailored so that it revealed the shape of his shoulders perfectly, like the fabric was indeed melting on him.
He’d combed his hair back, too, his curls tamed for the moment, and his face was unlike anything I’d ever seen.
He looked at me and shook his head with his lips parted like he was in awe. Like he was confused, then shocked, then in bliss.
His gaze held me in place and I didn’t move an inch until his tongue slid across his lips slowly.
Fuck.
Internally, I moaned. Whatever had gotten into me, I was so desperate to kiss him so suddenly I almost forgot about where we were and jumped in his arms.
Luckily, Calren was there to kindly remind us that the first trial awaited, and so we had to go.
Time seemed to pass in a blur for some reason—I could have sworn I forgot everything as soon as I saw it while we all walked down the stairs, nervous but smiling, thankful to be together.
Then we were outside, walking all the way behind The Ever to the fenced-in arena they’d apparently constructed during the day just for us. It was near the edge of the training area that was half inside the palace.
The sun had all but set, the sky dark, and the voice of Johnny the speaker seemed to come from nowhere and everywhere all at once, and all of a sudden:
“Hear, hear! The time has come, everyone! Welcome to the 31st Turning Trials!”
It became very hard to breathe. Very hard to remember how I even got inside the large wooden fences or how I walked all the way to the center.
I looked around me, at Cook on my left, Silas on my right. All Hands were grouped by courts, as per Calren’s request. March stood between Levana and Helen, just past the Clubs, and I had half a mind to go closer to him, take his hand, feel his warmth so I could ground myself. Just for a moment.
But Calren was there, his clothes and hat a rich olive, which made his eyes come alive.
He had his cane in one hand, the other with his thumb hooked in the pocket of his olive-colored vest where one of his clocks was.
My Life Clock was on my person, clasped to the inside of the dress and into a tiny pocket Lida said was made specifically for it.
“Breathe, boys and girls. You look awfully pale. The casters are going to catch all of it up there,” he said, nodding his head up at the crowd—no, at the two large screens on top of two large pillars on the other side of the tiered seats that were currently showing the symbols of the courts.
I’d been trying to ignore them. The screens and the people.
So many people.
I swallowed hard, told myself to breathe. I was here now, wasn’t I? I could do this with or without an audience. It’s what I came here for—to play. This was all part of the trial. All of it.
With that thought in my mind, I convinced myself to finally take in my surroundings, just to overcome my panic.
Behind us, there were quite possibly hundreds of people in row upon row of tiered seats, white and red.
They were on their feet, screaming and cheering, holding up signs with my name on them—and the queens were there, too.
In a box made of glass in the very middle of those seats, isolated from others, but still part of the crowd.
They stood in front of their chairs and watched us from the distance, no more than forty feet away, if I had to guess.
And in front of us was a dome that most definitely hadn’t been there the day before.
There’d been trees in its stead when we were running laps in the training arena.
Trees—not a giant dome made of thick glass, half frosted so that we couldn’t see anything but darkness inside it.
Silver moonlight slid on the surface of it like it was slippery, and the archway in the middle, some thirty feet ahead, had no doors, only raw darkness on the other side.
Where did that thing even come from? And where did those doors lead?
Yes, I tried to reason with myself, breathe deeply, calm my fears, but it didn’t work. My gut was still turning relentlessly.
“Calren, this doesn’t feel right,” I said before I could catch the words between my teeth.
If only the queens came a little closer.
If I could just speak to the Red Queen, just to remind her of what she said at the cocktail party—one mistake.
We had one mistake, and I was so sure I would make it the moment the trial started.
If she assured me that it would be all right, maybe I wouldn’t feel as though I was walking straight into a bad loop.
“It really doesn’t,” Mimi said next, and she was breathing heavier than me. “It just…it feels wrong.”
“Hey—breathe with me, Mim-Mim,” Calren said, and I was sure he called her that on purpose.
Mimi had told us about her little sister, how the first ever word she’d ever uttered when she was just one year old was Mim-Mim and it had stuck since.
Her family, her friends, even her teachers now called her that.
And it worked to calm her down a little. Mimi closed her eyes and nodded, drew in a deep breath.
“You, too, Ora. Breathe,” Silas whispered from my side, and farther away, March looked at me like he was this close to breaking formation and running for me.
The idea that he’d get in trouble snapped me out of it somehow, and I mouthed, I’m okay, even though I wasn’t.
“We’re in this together,” Cook said from my other side. “We’ll be all right.”
All those bad thoughts in my head came to a halt for a second. Those words.
Time’s Teeth, he was right. We were all here, weren’t we?
“Exactly. Plus—it’s a party,” Silas said. “What could possibly go wrong?”
A party.
“What’s it going to be like in there, Calren?
” I asked. “A party in the trials?” I shook my head, looked behind us at the crowd.
I didn’t see that part in the recordings.
Never did they show an audience—only parts of the games.
Never did they say that people were allowed all the way inside, or that they would be holding signs with the Hands’ names on them while they cheered.
“Is it a game we’ll know how to play?” Erith wondered.
“We’re not going to embarrass ourselves, are we?” Levana.
“You could never,” Calren said. “You’ve beaten hundreds of applicants to be here today. You’ve attended your lectures and you’ve done everything Asha and Hector required from you since you got here.” Holy Hour, we had. “You’re as ready as you can be.”
Calren was absolutely right.
We’d learned about courts and timekeeping, even if we only touched on the basics.
Our muscles were already used to running, and our hands were used to climbing.
We’d all completed all the tests that Asha and Hector had given us.
It was only for three days, but if they thought three days were enough, they had to be.