Chapter 17
Sebastian: The Second Task
Sleep didn’t come easily for Sebastian in the best of times, and this was certainly not the best of times.
Every time he closed his eyes, he saw Lucy’s face as the werewolf attacked her, and more than once, he’d padded into the parlor and stood outside her bedroom door just to listen to her breathing.
He was still awake when she arose at first light to prepare to visit her grandmother.
He met her in the hall, his breath hitching as he caught sight of her.
Today, she’d gone back to wearing a tunic and breeches, combined with her usual red cloak.
He licked his suddenly dry lips and whispered, “Lucy.”
She started at his voice, but the fear melted away from her brow when she saw it was him. “Yes?” she asked. She stepped closer, running a hand down his jaw. “You look like you didn’t sleep a wink.”
“There’s some truth to that,” Sebastian admitted. “Look, I have to know this, and then I won’t ask anything else until the end of the competition: did that werewolf actually—”
“No.” The firmness in Lucy’s voice finally allowed him to relax. “No, I told you, he didn’t. Judah found me and got me out. It was the night of his first transformation, so he doesn’t remember it, but I will always be grateful.”
Sebastian’s brow furrowed. “Did you ever tell—”
“I have to go, Seba, or I’ll be late for the opening ceremony,” Lucy said, stepping away from him. She offered a hesitant smile. “It’s sweet that you still care, though.”
Still care? He stood stock still as he watched her slip out the door. I never stopped caring, Lucy. Once she was out of sight, he shook his head and began preparing for the day.
∞∞∞
Unlike the day before, Sebastian was the first to arrive in the great hall.
His heart was beating out of his chest as he saw each ensemble on the dressmaker’s dummies at the far end of the hall.
The fourth outfit, the one that the team from Zaffyre had created, had a good cut, and it was fairly colorful, but it didn’t stand out as much as his and the one from the team of Umber.
If he’d had to guess which outfit would win, he’d have bet money on one of those two.
As the thought ran through his head, the door opened, and Mai and Aiako entered the room. Mai batted her eyes flirtatiously, but Aiako pointedly did not look at him. She was still working through the sting of his rejection the night before, he guessed.
“Did you sleep well?” Mai asked as she stepped up to their allotted space.
“Not particularly, but thanks for asking,” Sebastian said. He felt his wings flutter nervously behind him and he wished he could curse them with every dirty word he’d learned in the king’s guard. To avoid shocking the ladies, he refrained.
“I’m positive our design will win, Mai,” Aiako said, still not looking at Sebastian. “Everyone else’s is so…common.”
He struggled to keep his face neutral. Common indeed. The design he and Lucy had created together would have stood out even among the designs in Coleur. It was not common in any sense of the room.
Mai seemed to think so, too, but before she could respond, the door flew open again and Tomas and Emilio entered. “Good morning, friends,” Tomas said. “My, Signora Aiako, you were quite right. That fairy wine packs a heavy punch.”
“Fey wine is stronger, but, alas, it is difficult to get in Umber. Coleur is being rather picky about their exports these days,” Mai said.
Aiako scowled. “Don’t pretend you know all about foreign trade, Mai, just because you did a study-abroad in Coleur back in our school days.” Her eyes glittered with malice. “Way back in our school days.”
The door opened again, and Lucy hurried in. She ignored the Umberian designers’ looks of disapproval as she asked, “Am I late?”
“Not yet, honey.” Tomas leered at the way the breeches clung to her legs. Sebastian scowled at him, as the other designer continued, “Come, join us.”
Lucy lowered her head and came to a stop next to Sebastian. “What did I miss?”
“Oh, we were just discussing which outfit would win yesterday’s competition,” Aiako said. “Your design is certainly…interesting.”
Lucy gave a syrupy-sweet smile. “Why, thank you. Sebastian is so talented, isn’t he? And can you believe he’s already creating new and untried techniques? I do appreciate a man who defies the conventional.”
“What are you doing?” Sebastian muttered in her ear.
“Making sure she knows to keep her claws to herself,” Lucy said under her breath. “Unless you want to become her latest boy-toy.”
“No, thank you,” Sebastian murmured, as the last team entered the room, followed by Lady Soto and the three judges.
“Ah, everyone is here on time today! Wonderful!” Lady Soto said, shooting Sebastian and Lucy critical looks.
The emperor nodded and began speaking in rapid Umberian. Lucy translated softly, “He says everyone did a marvelous job on the first challenge. However, there was a clear winner.” She cocked her head as the emperor paused for the breath. “He says the winner of the first challenge is…”
“Well? Who is it?” Sebastian asked, his heart thundering in his ears.
Lucy went white. “Us. He said the winner is the team from Moyar.”
“Really?” Sebastian suddenly let go of every scrap of decorum his father had ever drilled into him. He picked Lucy up by the waist and swung her around in a circle. “We did it!”
“Sebastian!” Lucy protested, her cheeks flaming red. “Put me down.”
“Oh. Sorry,” he mumbled, putting her back on her feet. She smiled and patted his hand as the emperor continued to speak. This time, she did not deign to translate. Sebastian frowned at her. “What did he say?”
“I’m not telling you, on account, that we need you out of the imperial jail, and when you’re tired, you have a bit of a temper. Suffice to say, it was not complimentary,” Lucy whispered, mirth dancing in her eyes.
Sebastian resisted the urge to prove her right. Instead, he forced a smile onto his face. “Well, I suppose I should apologize.”
“Don’t you dare,” Lucy muttered, barely loud enough for him to hear, then returning her attention to the emperor. “Oh, now he’s announcing the team who will leave the competition.”
Although he knew their team was safe, Sebastian’s heart continued to thud rapidly, as he wondered who the unlucky team would be. Secretly, he hoped it would be the team from Umber. He was tired of their flirting with him and cattiness toward Lucy.
“The team who will be leaving today is the team from Feldgrau. No surprise there. Theirs lacked a certain…something,” Lucy said.
Lady Bauer’s hands flew to her mouth, and she began to sob loudly.
Lord Koch kept his back straight, but from the way his jaw clenched, Sebastian knew he was angry.
The other designers shifted uncomfortably, unsure what they should do in the face of such distress.
Lady Soto took pity on them, or perhaps this was just her job at that point.
She gestured for them to follow her, and moments later, there were only three teams standing before the emperor.
“Well…that was unexpected,” Lucy said, fiddling with a loose thread on the corner of her cloak.
Sebastian took her hand to stop her from unraveling the garment, and she stilled.
Her attention snapped to the emperor as he continued to speak.
“He says that we all did excellent work, and he is confident that the best teams are still in place. Incidentally, we’re all invited to the street fair this afternoon, before we finish the work on our second task. ”
“Oh, how kind of him to invite us to a street fair that’s open to the public,” Sebastian mumbled under his breath.
Lucy elbowed him as she continued to listen. “For this second task, we’re to create an outfit that shows why the emperor is the perfect ruler of Umber. We can use any material or style we want, but we must include an element depicting the history of Umber.”
Sebastian nodded. Of course, the emperor would want the outfit for the parade to illustrate both his power as ruler and his country’s heritage. After all, this whole competition was to celebrate Umber’s 500th anniversary. “Anything else?”
“We have one hour for planning, then we’ll break for tea.
After tea, we’ll have four hours this to complete the design, then we are welcome to attend the street fair or take a nap.
We’re not to work on our designs between 2:30 and 4:30.
At 4:30, we’re to be back in our studios, and we have four more hours of work.
Our work is to stop promptly at 8:30 in the evening. ”
“Sounds like we have our day all planned out for us,” Sebastian said.
Lucy grimaced. “I hope they’ve stocked our work room with Umberian history books. I barely know anything about their history. They didn’t exactly let the maids in the classrooms while the teachers were teaching at Farraday.”
“I know some,” Sebastian admitted. “Before Oliver focused on medicine, he had a love of history. I borrowed his books a few times for a bit of light reading.”
“If we succeed in this challenge, we’re going to have to buy him an entire case of Fey wine,” Lucy mumbled.
“Considering we’re both here because he couldn’t keep his big mouth shut, I disagree with the premise, though I acknowledge you’re probably right,” Sebastian said.
The emperor clapped his hands and made a shooing motion. Lucy rolled her eyes. “We’re dismissed. Our time starts now.”
“Okay,” Sebastian said, turning on his heel and marched out of the room, with Lucy trailing behind him.
He picked up the pace as his mind began to sort through various concepts, discarding each one in turn.
He needed something…something that would stand out.
As his thoughts picked up speed, so did his feet.
He was so focused, he almost didn’t hear Lucy shouting his name.
“Sebastian! Slow down!” Lucy called, panting as she practically ran to keep up with him.
Sebastian stopped and turned to her abruptly, causing her to run into him. “Sorry,” he said, steadying her before she fell. “I got caught up in my head.”
“What were you thinking about?” Lucy asked.
“Our aspect of Umberian history,” he said, his dark eyes sparking. “I have an idea of what we can do, but I’m not sure if you’ll like it.”
“Okay,” Lucy said, eying him warily. “What are you thinking?”
Sebastian pulled her into his studio and sat down on the stool by the drafting table.
“Well, according to Umberian legend, the first emperor of Umber was at a loss to help his people through a time of political turmoil. He sought the help of a wise wizard, who told him that in order to lead, he must be as wise as an owl, as fierce as a tiger, and as cunning as a fox. So the emperor went to the king of the owls and asked for his wisdom. The owl king refused, saying that wisdom had to be earned and not given.”
“That was rude!” Lucy protested.
“Owls aren’t usually very kind creatures, or at least, they aren’t to the people of Umber,” Sebastian shrugged. “Then, the emperor went to the tiger king and asked him to make him fierce. The tiger king also refused and tried to kill the emperor for his temerity.”
“Well, tigers aren’t really very nice either, I suppose,” Lucy said, shaking her head.
“Exactly,” Sebastian grinned. “So then the emperor turned to the foxes. The foxes had no kings, only a wise old vixen. She listened to the emperor’s plea for his people, and he moved her so much with the love for his people that she granted him what he asked for.
The wise vixen turned him into a fox and told him to protect his skulk with all that he had.
She promised that he’d be able to transform back and forth from his fox and human form as many times as he needed. ”
“Was he the first kitsuné?” Lucy breathed.
“According to legend,” Sebastian nodded.
“In his fox form, he could get the upper hand on his political opponents, and in his human form, he could lead his people with all the wisdom of an owl and the ferocity of a tiger. But here’s my idea: what if we created a traditional kamishimo with the emperor meeting with a fox, like in the story? ”
“I love it!” Lucy said, her dark eyes sparking with inspiration. “And you’ve just given me another idea.”