Chapter 21 #2
“Take this,” Iannis said, pulling a leather pouch from the magical vortex that seemed to exist inside his sleeve.
I took it from him and resisted the urge to test the weight of the pouch in my hand – I figured such behavior was unbecoming amongst the wealthy, and besides, I could already tell it had significant heft.
“That should be more than enough to cover expenses.”
“Thank you.” With nothing left to say, I bowed to the delegates around us, then followed the guard out of the banquet hall, leaving Iannis to fend for himself against the pack of vultures descending on him en masse.
Playing the part Iannis had assigned, I allowed the guard to escort me outside and hail a cab, but stopped short of having him actually accompany me to the hotel. An escort was all well and good, but I didn’t need a babysitter.
As I listened to the clip-clop of the horses’ hooves, I peered through the cab’s curtains and studied the city.
Unlike Solantha, the majority of the people walking these broad streets were mages, dressed in robes that varied in color, style, and material.
As we passed through a trendy shopping district, I watched a woman glide out of a carriage and take the arm of a man I assumed to be her husband.
She was dressed in an ermine-trimmed fuchsia robe and sparkling gemstones, and her dark red hair was twisted up into two elaborate knots at the top of her head.
Her husband was dressed in similar fashion, though his robes were black and more masculine in style.
The two of them headed into a fancy restaurant, and I wondered if that was just their normal idea of a date night, or if they had important business there.
Conversely, just across the street a pair of mages dressed in plain, monochromatic robes walked out of a bookshop, both carrying thick leather tomes in their arms as they chattered earnestly about whatever scholarly topic they were pursuing.
There were humans walking these streets too, nearly as many as there were mages, and though there were a few upper-class citizens around, most humans looked to be lower middle-class workers at best. Interestingly, I didn’t see any shifters around, and I wondered if perhaps there was more of a stigma against them here in the capital city than Dara was letting on.
Perhaps we’d made less progress than I’d thought regarding shifter rights.
I thought we’d had it bad in Solantha, but at least in my hometown shifters were allowed to share the same streets and walk through the same neighborhoods as everyone else.
It was little wonder that Iannis had wanted to disguise me.
The carriage turned off the main street and into the roundabout of the hotel, and I craned my neck so I could catch a glimpse of the building.
It was four stories high, constructed of pale stone that you could hardly even see for the rows and rows of windows that circled the round structure.
They sparkled in the light of the nearly full moon, catching the rays and reflecting them back in icy splendor, and I had to admit the hotel’s name was well chosen.
The driver handed me down from the carriage, and I pressed a coin into his palm before making my way through the revolving doors.
More crystal greeted me here, from the chandeliers dripping from the ceilings to the flower-filled vases sitting atop glass tables.
I took a deep breath and inhaled blossoms, perfume, expensive chocolates, and magic.
The last scent didn’t surprise me at all, considering there were mages everywhere, lounging in the sitting area or walking between the restaurant to the elevators that led to the rooms upstairs.
Judging by their understated but high-quality robes, they were probably companions or assistants to the delegates who had flown into the Convention, forced to languish here at this fancy hotel while the delegates were enjoying their exclusive dinner.
I received curious stares from the mages in the sitting area, but I ignored them and approached the concierge instead.
A human female with chestnut hair, wearing a starched white shirt and light blue vest, looked up at me through her wire-rimmed glasses, then straightened and smiled as she caught sight of my mage robes.
“Good evening, ma’am, and welcome to the Crystal Hotel,” she said. “How can I help you this evening?”
“I believe you have rooms reserved for the delegation from Canalo,” I told her. “Can I have the keys now, to inspect them?”
A frown creased the woman’s smooth forehead.
“The delegates from Canalo?” She pulled a large, leather-bound book from a drawer and placed it atop the desk, which like many other things in this hotel seemed to be entirely carved from crystal.
“We already checked in the delegates from Canalo – one delegate to be precise. A Mr. Cirin Garidano.”
“Yes, he was the only one who could make it out initially,” I said, impatience tinging my voice.
“The rest of the delegation was delayed, but we are here now. Unless you’d rather I tell the Chief Mage of Canalo that the Crystal Hotel took his money and then gave the rooms to someone else? ” I arched an eyebrow at the concierge.
The woman’s skin turned ice-white, and she quickly excused herself before hurrying into a back room, presumably to consult with someone. A few moments later, a manager came out, and there was some hurried discussion as they tried to figure out what to do.
“Ma’am, I apologize for the inconvenience, but it does appear that your rooms were mistakenly assigned to other guests.
” The manager bowed his head, sounding very apologetic.
“I can recommend another hotel for your delegates to stay in, if you’d like, and we shall of course refund your deposit and provide compensation for the inconvenience. ”
“Compensation?” I hissed, curling my fingers around the edge of the reception desk and leaning in close.
“Are you suggesting that I tell Lord Iannis, the Chief Mage of Canalo, that the Crystal Hotel was so desperate for coin that they couldn’t hold his reservation for a few days?
And that your idea of ‘compensation’ is to give him money when he has more than enough gold? ”
The manager’s cheek’s reddened. “We are not desperate,” he said stiffly. “This is a prestigious hotel, and our hotel rooms are very much in demand. You can’t expect us to hold a room for an entire week.”
“Very well,” I said lightly, easing back from the counter. “I’ll simply mention to the other delegates that the Crystal Hotel would rather turn out a Chief Mage in favor of putting up some vacationers instead. I’m sure you will be very popular at the next Convention.” I turned away.
“Wait!” the manager cried as I took a step toward the exit.
I paused, looking over my shoulder at him. “Yes?”
“Please, come back ma’am.” The manager gave me a pained smile. “I’m sure that we can work something out.”
It took them nearly twenty minutes, but with some fancy maneuvering they managed to vacate the original suite for Iannis.
However, as I had no reservation, they couldn’t get a separate room for me, so I was given the choice between sharing a suite with the Finance Secretary and the other delegates, or taking the extra room in Iannis’s suite.
I wasn’t exactly comfortable with either, but I had a lot of questions for Iannis so I figured sharing a suite with him would be my best bet. So I smiled and thanked the concierge, then took the keys to our suite and made my way up to the third floor by way of one of the elevators.
The suite was pretty much what I expected – white couches, carpeting, and curtains; crystal vases and glass tables; and huge windows that overlooked the city as well as the Eastern Sea beyond.
Too tired to enjoy the view, I wandered into the smaller bedroom and flopped onto the bed, then groaned as my body sank into the soft mattress.
Turning my head, I noticed a phone on my nightstand, so I picked it up and asked the operator to connect me to the Golden Tree Inn. The phone rang for a few moments before someone from the front desk answered, and I asked them to connect me to Annia’s room.
“H’llo?” a sleepy voice slurred.
“Hey there. Just wanted to check in and see if you got that feather mattress you’ve been dreaming about.”
“Oh hell yeah.” Annia groaned, and I had the idea she was stretching her back. “This bed is ridiculously comfortable, and the room is incredible. Amazing what you can buy with a huge pouch of gold. It’s almost enough to make me forget about cashing in on the bounty. Almost.”
“Hey, well if you want to share some of that bounty money with yours truly, my pockets are wide open.” I chuckled a little.
Iannis had given Annia said huge pouch of gold, along with the Golden Tree Inn as a recommendation for lodgings since she couldn’t very well stay with us.
The airship we had commandeered would be confiscated by the Federation since it belonged to the Resistance, but Iannis planned to hook her up with another pilot with a larger ship, and the two of them would lead reinforcements back to the Resistance camp to round up the rebel soldiers.
“So what’s the Convention like?” Annia asked, sounding marginally more alert now. “I hope you’re not getting too much snob on you from all that elbow-rubbing.”
I snorted. “I don’t think I’m in any danger of that,” I told her. “The mage who greeted us kicked me out of the Capitol Building because they were hosting a delegates-only dinner. I was sent off to procure hotel rooms and clothing for everyone instead.”
“Clothing?” Annia perked right up at that. “Does that mean you’re going shopping?”
I paused. “I guess I am,” I said reluctantly. “Although considering how late it is, not until tomorrow morning.”
“Well, the pilot I’m supposed to meet up with isn’t getting in until the afternoon, so I’ll meet you in the shopping district at what, ten a.m.? We’ll make a girls’ date out of it.”
I snorted with laughter. “I’m not sure how Iannis is going to feel about the two of us parading around Dara spending his gold.”
“Well then, we’ll just have to make it worthwhile, won’t we?”