by Rae Brooks
"His face and hair were concealed," Lee said, "but the color of his skin was readily apparent. Then again, the olive color isn't exactly unique amongst Dark District. I'd have wondered if he was possibly a noble only pretending to be from Dark District." Calis could think of no nobles that would do anything like that. He couldn't even think of many nobles who weren't self-centered assholes. The opposite seemed impossible.
Calis ticked off the nobles that might fit the description, but he came up empty. There was not a single person in the Shining District that would risk themselves for others. No, the person had to be from Dark District. But the fact that no one in Dark District knew them was beyond odd. Dark Districters tended to be the most observant people in Telandus. “I’m sure we’ll figure it out,” Calis assured. “Now, let’s go be miserable for an evening, shall we?”
Lee let out a noise akin to a groan, and they headed out of the changing room and down the hallway. The castle had a ballroom, and Calis’s mother had spent quite a bit of time altering it so that it was festive, rather than horrifying. “I notice Lady Avyon was rather put out that you didn’t respond when she called out to you earlier,” Lee said. He was never one to get involved with gossip, but he found Calis’s resistance to marriage a fun topic.
“She is always rather put out,” Calis answered flatly. He was not in the mood to entertain Lee’s jokes.
They headed down the stairwell and towards the ballroom. The entrance of it sat at the back of the grand hall. People were spilling into the grand hall, laughing about things that probably were not funny. Even though Calis didn’t know what the people were talking about—he knew they weren’t legitimate.
The colors of the frilly dresses were bright, unfitting within the halls of the Tsrali castle. Calis was sure Lavus was dressed in his ceremonial all black, just as he always was. He usually encouraged Calis to wear the same, but with all the talk of him getting betrothed, Lavus had waived that particular necessity. Not that his blue coat was any more comfortable than a black one, though it was a tad bit cooler.
The grand hall had a few extra lights spread throughout it, making the carpet look a little less colored. The lanterns were inlaid with mirrors so that the light was projected in stylish fashions across the large room. Lastly, long wooden tables had been added all with white cloths over them, where people would be dining. There was no food on them now, so no one was near them—but later there would be. People almost seemed at ease on this moon.
Or maybe that was just the air of obliviousness. Calis had never learned to tell the difference. Lee and he ducked between a few nobles too involved in a conversation to acknowledge them and headed into the ballroom. Calis had decided that perhaps if he just saw his mother and father—and a few others—he could disappear without being overly missed.
These sorts of events never held any sort of speeches or the like, so that meant that he would only need to make an appearance. And he had not ruled out the possibility of getting down to Dark District to find out how they held balls.
The ballroom was the brightest room in the castle. The walls were interwoven patterns of golden and red, and the roof towered up to the level of the grand hall. If there had been a lot of people in the grand hall, there were tons in here. The laughter filled the air as a soft familiar melody played. No one had started to dance—there was a time and a place for that, but the dance floor was riddled with people socializing.
Women wore their hair in the strangest fashions. They were all bunched on top of their heads—towering towards the ceiling and braided with flowers and diamonds and fabrics that Calis couldn’t identify. Calis had never been envious of noblewomen—for the things they did with their hair seemed positively painful. Very few girls wore their hair down, and the ones that did had it so intricately braided and interwoven with materials that it still couldn’t have been comfortable.
Then, their dresses looked even more uncomfortable than the coats and robes that the men had to wear. The dresses clung desperately to a woman’s upper body and then flowed out towards the bottom, making movement more difficult than usual. Calis couldn’t imagine dancing in one of those dresses. He’d had a hard enough time learning how to dance around those dresses with his partner.
Still, though, he’d never have known that the girls were uncomfortable. All of them looked a measure more excited about the event than the men, who despite doing their best to look pleasant, all seemed a little unhappy about the event. Men were never welcome in Lavus’s castle, and they all knew that.
The rest of the ballroom was a golden and white floor where people would be dancing and a few round tables that could be used for eating a few Hors d’oeuvre. There would be no meals eaten in this room, but there would be disgusting snacks in abundance. At the back of the ballroom, there was a winding staircase that led up to a balcony. The balcony banister was also golden, and a few of the more important people sat upon it, exchanging words. That was where Calis saw his father and mother. Tareth didn’t seem to be present, but Tareth was most certainly flirting with some girl already.
Honestly, Tareth would probably have been better suited to the life of a ruler. He enjoyed the way of the noble far more than Calis, and he knew how to act like a noble should act—in accordance with their father. Calis hated being a prince—almost as much as he hated the coat he was wearing. Yet, Tareth had never been able to step forward and handle simple responsibilities given to him by their father, so Calis had ended up the favorite.
Now, Tareth was so certain that his vie for the kingdom was fruitless, he spent all of his suns harassing Dark District and playing with servant girls. Speaking of servant girls, one appeared behind Calis in a timid manner. When he turned to look at her, regarding her cotton red dress and brown hair, she smiled. “May I get you anything, your highness?” she asked with all the formality she could muster.
Calis looked at her for a long moment. Her short brown hair seemed much more natural, and far more comfortable than the other girls’ in the room. She was a new servant, Calis recounted, as he had not seen her before. With a quick smile and shake of his head, he dismissed her. “I’m alright, thank you, miss,” he said.
As always, his correspondence startled her and she flushed a little at being called miss by the prince. She would probably run back to the kitchen prattling to her friends all about it. Good for her, Calis thought, Tareth and my father treat our servants with such disdain that they deserve any moment of happiness they can find.
Unsure what to do, the girl cast a quick glance at Lee, who nodded to her, and then she bobbed a curtsy before she was hurrying back into the crowds of people. “You know that vigilante we met last sun,” Lee started as Calis watched the girl go, “apparently came into the castle and stole one of Tareth’s own servant girls right out from under him.” The smugness in his voice was not hard to catch.
Calis was caught off guard by his own laughter. He could only imagine how furious Tareth must have been at that turn of events. In fact, Calis was very surprised that Lavus had not gotten involved. But no, Tareth would probably have done everything in his power to hide that particular misfortune. Maybe he had successfully kept Lavus from finding out. All the better for this Phantom Blade, then. Since Lavus’s involvement would have put his life in much graver danger. Had he not realized that before he’d taken such a heavy risk coming to the Tsrali castle? Calis felt a swell of admiration at this person that he did not know. That was some measure of bravery.
“Tareth must have been beside himself,” Calis said thoughtfully. Though, his mind was desperately trying to figure out how this phantom of a boy could have gotten into the castle without drawing too much attention. There was a moat around it, by the Light. How had he managed it?
The thought was an interesting one, but Calis had other affairs to attend to for now. Perhaps this Phantom Blade would be present at the dance in Dark District, though Calis severely doubted it. If he was attending any such dance, then he would go as himself—whoever that
was. Calis felt a greater desire to go to the other festival now. “I should go present myself to Father,” Calis commented. “I’ll find you again later, my friend.”
With a swift nod, Lee was already looking for a place to hide in plain sight. He did a very good job of avoiding the glances of girls who threw themselves at him, sometimes for the sole purpose of being near Calis, but sometimes with the intention of being with Lee himself. He was handsome, Calis thought, though he spent none of the time with his appearance that most did—and so he was not as noticeable as some others. Much like Calis. The only reason Calis was noticed and called ‘dashing,’ ‘handsome,’ and all other sorts of names was because he was the prince. His pale skin probably contributed to that as well—and his height. Aside from that, his hair was short, and his dress was ordinary.
While Lee headed off to some remote corner to hide until Calis found him again, Calis made his way through the thick of the crowd towards the stairs. His first order of business would be to speak with his parents, then to speak with a few of the women, and possibly Tareth. Perhaps he would use his old headache routine so that people would contribute his premature absence immediately to that.
He hadn’t decided when a woman’s voice stopped him in his tracks. “Prince Tsrali!” she said with the demanding nature that only a noblewoman could possess. The only voice that Calis deemed more annoying was his own mother’s. But this voice was not his mother’s, this was the voice he had been avoiding for a sun—one could say that he agreed to go to Dokak to get away from this woman. He turned to see her, though, as there was no escape this time that wouldn’t have earned him quite the reprimanding.
There she was. Lady Avyon, dressed in a light pink dress that frilled out more than most of the other’s women’s. The top of the dress was a deep pink, bringing attention to the swell of her breasts. She wore soft, white gloves that went to her elbows and lined them with lace. Her hair was nothing unordinary. It was all drawn up on the top of her head, stretched out to be as tall as it could, and interwoven with pearls. Calis forced a smile. “Lady Avyon,” he said with as much cheer as he could find.
It wasn’t much.
The woman wasn’t unattractive. In fact, she was probably one of the most attractive women that Calis had been graced with the pleasure of meeting. Her skin was pale, and her hair was an ebony color that highlighted the green of her eyes. She was taller than most women, but still short enough to complement Calis’s own height. Then again, Calis wasn’t sure there was a woman alive tall enough to match his height.
Her eyes were excited, as if she was looking upon a new toy—and she was a little girl again. Calis supposed he should have been flattered, but as it was, he was just rather uncomfortable. He had no way of addressing her, and if he did end up marrying her, he was sure that she would end up unhappy with him.
That bothered him.
“I tried to get your attention earlier,” she said, excitement buzzing in her voice, “but you were so wrapped up in the festivities that I guess you didn’t hear me!”
Calis had heard her, and he had not been at all wrapped up in the festivities—except figuring out a way to get away from them. Still, he wasn’t about to admit that to this perfectly nice, young lady. Instead, he smiled. “My apologies, then, my lady,” he said soothingly.
Lady Avyon brightened almost instantly, as though she had feared that he would be as rude as he’d thought about being. “I’m sorry that you did not find the fortune of a wife in Dokak, your highness.” Her voice was not very sorrowful.
Though, he didn’t blame her, and he didn’t find any fault with her not being sorrowful—as he wasn’t either. He just didn’t understand why she had to act as though she were. “I certainly don’t need your apologies on that matter,” he answered swiftly.
Lady Avyon seemed to take this as an indication that he was glad that he had not gotten married in Dokak, and she probably thought the reason for that had something to do with her. Calis didn’t bother assuaging that. “Well, as this ball is for you—I expect to share at least one dance with you,” she said. That was more direct than she was ordinarily, perhaps their time apart had changed her—if only a little.
Calis offered a smile and a nod of his head. “And you shall have it,” he said. “But for now, I must go present myself to my parents so they know that their guest of honor has not remained in his bed for this lovely evening.” But, oh, how he wanted to.
The woman seemed to accept this excuse, and he was able to get up the stairs without another interruption. He decided that it was alright that he’d found Lady Avyon, or rather, that she had found him. Now he wouldn’t have to go to the trouble of locating her while he didn’t have the excuse of finding his parents to rid himself of her. He rounded the white marble staircase up to the balcony where his parents still chatted with some of the wealthier nobles.
As he approached, his mother was the first to notice him. Claudia was where Calis got most of his looks. She had his pale skin and blue-green eyes, as well as the soft blond hair. Even the sharp features, though Calis’s sharp jawline was from his father. She grinned when she saw him. “Ah, Calis! There you are!”
Everyone standing next to her looked to him with her words. Most of them smiled, some of them remained expressionless. He bowed as graciously as he could. “Thank you, Mother, Father—this is wonderful. I never anticipated any such event would be held in my honor.”
“You’ve earned it, my son,” Lavus answered immediately. In fact, he cut off Claudia’s attempt at words. She didn’t seem to notice—she never did. “That treaty with Dokak has everyone in high spirits.”
Some of the other nobles put in their agreement on the issue, and a few of them actually sounded like they meant it. Calis just accepted the appreciation as graciously as he could. He hadn’t done much in Dokak—other than talking a few nobles out of the idea that his father was the brute that everyone said he was. In all reality, he felt a bit guilty about it—since he didn’t know that his father wasn’t that brute.
Lavus had never done anything merciful, or shown any sort of affection that would convince anyone otherwise. Calis had even lied a few times about his father to further his argument. There really was no wonder none of the other lands wanted to follow Telandus—what with the rumors travelers to and from the place spread.
The king of Telandus was an angry man, and he was without mercy. Lavus hanged peasants and nobles alike for crimes that no more harmed him than a fly on the street. The inhabitants of the few lands that he’d conquered had been treated as slaves and prisoners, and most of them were still servants—if they weren’t, then rest assured, they lived in Dark District. Lavus may pretend to be nice enough at events like these, but he was never happy—never alright with another’s presence, not even Calis’s.
He had long since regarded Calis as a threat, and had only been pacified when his son had taken so little interest in ruling early. That may have been part of the reason all of Calis’s shortcomings were oversights in the king’s eyes. Calis could do no wrong, because Calis would not have been the threat that Tareth may have been. Tareth had Lavus’s ambition—and he wanted the throne. But he was too frightened of their father to attempt anything now.
“You look so handsome.” Claudia finally spoke after all the men that wanted to congratulate Calis were finished and had gone about their business.
Now the only two people standing with Calis were his parents, and yet he felt just as uncomfortable. “Thank you, Mother,” he responded automatically. Claudia was not the heartless, conniving creature that Lavus was, but she certainly had her own agenda. She loved her sons, though she did not love Lavus—and Calis would not have been surprised if even she had some plot to kill him.
Lavus was dressed in his typical black suit, with his hair combed back almost too perfectly. His face was smoothed into an expressionless stone as he observed the people who had just started to dance. His vest was different from the coats of the other men, and he stood ou
t like a noble in Dark District.
Claudia wore a soft, golden dress and seemed to fit the environment much more than Lavus. One would never have expected that the two of them were a couple, if everyone hadn’t already known of their relationship. Claudia had been the wealthiest and most powerful woman available to Lavus, and that was why he had married her. “Have you seen Lady Avyon?” his mother asked with a smile. “She was searching for you.”
“I did,” Calis said immediately. Better to look like he had been here socializing, at least. Now they might think he had actually arrived early. “I promised her a dance.”
“She was none too upset that you hadn’t found a betrothed in Dokak, then again, I’m fairly certain none of the young ladies of Telandus were disappointed in that. I am surprised, though, surely you enjoyed the variety of women over there. You have grown up with these women—and I am a little surprised.”
Calis didn’t know if he believed that. This conversation was probably just another way of his mother’s probing about why he didn’t seem interested in obtaining a wife. Why should he be? What would he gain from being tied to a woman? Nothing. “Yes, well, perhaps I enjoy familiarity more than you thought, Mother.”
Lavus deemed the conversation worth entering again, and he regarded his wife and son with a cool complacency before he ventured forward with a smile. “That’s my son,” he said, almost sounding proud. “Dokak is a lesser nation, so any woman from there is worth could be doubled by many in Telandus.”
Sure, Calis thought bitterly, that was why I wasn’t interested in any of them. It had nothing to do with the fact that each and every one of them was precisely the same as the air-headed women that I’m forced to correspond with here every sun. But yes, Father, live in your dark and desolate world where everything and anything can be solved by wealth and position.