SWNOVELS Fireblade: Chapter 4
FALINA HURRIES DOWN the marble corridor and pushes me into another large room at the end.
“Quickly now. You can eat later.”
The tempting bowl of kebabs is whisked from my hand and deposited on a side table, before she hauls me into an adjacent room with a large bathtub.
“Get in! I’ll hide your clothes and weapons.”
I feel sure that warm scented water doesn’t sit around here waiting for unexpected guests.
“Whose bath is it meant to be?”
“One of the girls. But your need is greater.”
I suppose she means I stink so I don’t argue. Too much fighting and getting whisked off from place to place to even eat, let alone get the chance to be choosy about whose clothing I’m forced to borrow for a disguise. I peel off clothes and harness, feeling a tug of uncertainty as Falina gathers up my weapons and hurries out. I just have to trust that I will be able to get them back again when this emergency is over.
It feels wonderful to sink into warm perfumed water, but I assume I don’t have much time for relaxing so I scrub hastily. Just as well, as Falina is back remarkably quickly.
“Your things are safely hidden in the false bottom of one of our travel boxes. I will show you as soon as there is time. Put these on.” She drops a pile of clothes on the side dresser and hands me a towel.
Curious, I walk over to the clothes, trailing a set of footprint-puddles across the cool marble floor. The silky fabric feels smooth and sleek against my fingers but when I hold up the garment I stop and turn back to Falina in disbelief.
“You don’t seriously expect me to wear this, do you?”
The thing is voluminous enough to cover me from neck to toe––but the diaphanous turquoise silk is almost completely see-through. What Falina is wearing is flimsy enough, but this takes the style to a whole new level.
“You don’t like it?” She looks worried. “I am so sorry. I thought the blue would go with your lovely unusual auburn hair.” She runs painted fingernails through her glossy jet-black hair with a generous look of envy at my russet tangle.
I’m still feeling alarmed. “Blue is fine. There just needs to be more of it!”
“Oh.” Now she looks really worried. “But you will need to look like the rest of us if you are to remain inconspicuous. We will be required to entertain the Khalim on Shan’domir’s behalf as well as serve food and drink. The other girls are just now getting changed. I must also hurry.” She disappears through the doorway.
Well, I guess that explains why there was a bath sitting here waiting for someone to jump into it. I give a resigned sigh and drape myself in the gauzy blue silk. The leggings and sleeves tie at wrists and ankles, so at least it should be easy to move around even if it comes to a fight. I have to grudgingly admit there are extra layers where they are essential, but the thought of ‘entertaining’ in this outfit is a painful reminder that I still haven’t been able to free my sister from a similar yet worse situation in the Rose Mansion, back in Corinium.
I follow the direction Falina took and find her with a dozen other girls in the next room and just as she said, they are all wearing similar almost-transparent costumes. Falina grabs my arm and draws me in to face the others.
“Everyone, this is Ariel.”
The girls respond with simpering smiles and a ripple of fluttering eyelashes. I don’t think for a minute I am going to be able to blend inconspicuously if this is how we are meant to present ourselves to our royal audience.
Falina is still concerned with keeping to schedule.
“There will be time for better introductions when we have finished our serving and entertaining duties.” She steps back and gives me another anxious look. “You can dance, can’t you?”
“Erm, yes… depends what kind of dancing is expected?”
“Just stay at the back of the group and copy the others, and you will be fine. Two of the other girls will serve the food, so you don’t need to learn how to do that.”
“When do we start?”
“Now.”
“What! If there’s no time to practice, wouldn’t I be better off hiding somewhere?”
“The Khalim never fully trusts his guests. His agents will be checking every room and closet before he goes to his apartments to sleep tonight.”
I give a resigned sigh. “Fine. Lead on.”
No wonder their travel luggage has secret compartments for hiding anything that might be an embarrassment. Pity there is nothing large enough to conceal a human.
I follow the others into Shan’domir’s salon and stay at the back of the group as we stand in deferential silence, presumably waiting for the command to begin. I catch a glimpse of the Khalim, leaning back on one of the couches in earnest conversation with Shan’domir. He is almost as tall as the trader-spy and considerably wider, but what I notice most are his piercing dark eyes and hooked nose. He looks like the kind of ruler to command fear in his subjects and I am starting to understand Shan’domir’s uneasy relationship with his powerful ally a little better.
I’m so absorbed with studying this man that it is a few moments before I notice that the music has started. It is strangely haunting and unlike anything I have heard before in Samaran––and yet there is something familiar about it, like an undertone of harmonics hovering just beneath the surface.
The Khalim gives a careless wave without interrupting his conversation and Falina steps forward to begin the dance. Luckily it seems that the style here is for everyone to follow the same set of movements, making it easier for me to concentrate on copying the girl directly in front of me while trying to stay concealed from the Khalim’s sightline as best I can.
After a few awkward steps I start to notice something strange and yet familiar with these movements, just as I had with the music. I had fully expected to be tripping over my own feet in an attempt to copy something so completely foreign and different… and yet I find myself merging with the haunting rhythms of the sound while my body eases into the patterns the girls’ limbs are weaving in the scented air.
It feels wonderful, exhilarating, and within moments I’m loving every tingling twist and stretch of it, just like the very first time I joined the whole Eldrin Kingsguard in the training cave at Maratic…
The sharp reality of what is happening suddenly floods into me in a rush of clarity.
This is a dance of sword-forms!
The forms are almost identical to those practiced by the Eldrin. There are variations, but the main disguise of it is the emphasis on a graceful, sinuous dance-flow of rhythm and movement, the ones I had noticed when I first saw Falina walk into the salon. The variations are new to me and yet they come naturally as if I am being carried through them by the music itself… just as I had been able to intuit the Eldrin sword-forms by letting the deep, resonant sound of Maratic flow through me and guide my limbs.
Now all the simpering and eyelash-fluttering is starting to make sense, along with the delicate, flimsy, feminine clothes and the deferential mannerisms. These girls are Shan’domir’s bodyguards, highly trained Nishan assassins like their master. Wherever they go, they can stay fit and practice their fighting forms without arousing suspicion. Their main constraint will be to avoid revealing who they really are if their fight-skills are suddenly called upon––just as I had to fake it, back in that grimy alleyway earlier today.
The exhilarating flow of shared form and sound is a painful reminder of how much I miss my time with the Eldrin. And with Marin. Part of me wants the bittersweet memories to continue––but at the same time my curiosity is burning to get to the end of this entertainment and discover more from Falina about her mysterious team.
The end of the dance finally arrives, with a respectful salute to the illustrious ruler.
What comes next is a shock.
The Khalim lets his eyes roam lasciviously over the girls’ bodies for several long minutes as if he is choosing from an array of sweetmeats. Then he looks me straight in the eye and points.
“Shan’domir, my friend, you must give me this one. Such glorious hair and unusual beauty. Where did you find her?”