The Assembly had thought of everything. Even my shame.
“Thank you,” I said again, quieter this time. “They’re exquisite. I just…wasn’t expecting it.”
Catrin moved to the next chest, flipping the lid with ease. “These are for court. You’ll look like a goddess in the green one with your hair done up just like it is now. It will bring out your eyes like nothing else. Oh, and ablue one that would look stunning! The fancier ones are for when you’re meeting nobles. But any of them will do when one of the princes calls for you.”
“Am I to wear one of these dresses tonight?”
“Oh yes, Mage Isca. I’ve already chosen one.”
The crimson dress she pulled out was embroidered with gold—the exact same color Emrys’s cloak had been in Caervorn.
“That one…” I hesitated, worried about rebuffing her since she was so amiable. “We should save that one for a brighter day when the color will really shine.”
Catrin responded as if a god had come down from the sky and graced her with the undeniable truth. “Lady Mage, you have an eye for fashion!”
All my fashion knowledge had been gleaned while mending clothes with my mother. What I actually had was an aversion to wearinghiscolor.
Mouth suddenly dry, I picked up the water in the oddly wide-mouthed goblet, which was flecked with rose petals. Almost too pretty to drink. I lifted it to my lips just as Catrin gasped.
“That’s for yourhands, my lady!”
Heat flooded my cheeks. Of course it was.Peasant. I wanted to bury my face in my hands.
I could tell she was stifling a laugh when she looked at me sidelong. “You’re a diplomat, then?”
“Not exactly.” I brushed a few crumbs from my lap and stood. “I’ve been sent because of my magic. I can…calm tempers. Ease tensions. That sort of thing.”
Catrin’s eyes lit up. “Oh! Then surely you’ve come to help Prince Emrys. Gods know he needs it. He’s the sort that growls before he speaks, but he’s not bad. Not once you know him.”
I raised a brow. “Is that what they say?”
“Not…always with those words.” She shrugged.
“I met him once before,” I said dryly. “He wasn’t anything like his brother.”
Catrin winced. “Ah. Well. He’s not…smooth like Nisien, is he? But he’s got a good heart, underneath the curse and the scowl.”
The curse? Nisien had called it a condition. But diving into it on my first day would only overwhelm me more than I already was.
So I replied simply, “I’ll take your word for it.”
With a final fuss over the hem of one gown and the rearranging of a cushion that didn’t need it, Catrin eventually took her leave to prepare my bath, promising to return shortly. As the door closed behind her, I finally exhaled.
I crossed to the writing desk tucked beneath the window. The parchment and ink set had likely been meant for reports to the Assembly, but Nisien had said I could write to my family. There was so much I could never say to them. But I could write the truths that mattered most: I was alive. I was warm. I was fed.
But I was still afraid. Terrified of what came next. I didn’t know how to fix the man I’d met thrice now—who’d turned from me each time. I didn’t even know the problems that faced this kingdom, these princes. And I had no idea how to act as a diplomat, much less a lady of the court.
As I dipped the quill in ink and began a letter to my mother, all the emotions I’d been suppressing since leaving Caervorn—the grief, the anger, the lingering fear—crashed over me. Tears covered the surface of the first sheet of paper, but a steady hand wrote the second.
Chapter 14
Isca
Having Catrin help me bathe and wash my hair was…an experience. She complained about the dirt of the road seeping into my skin as she attacked my scalp, under my fingernails, even behind my ears. Relaxing in the hot water made enduring her abuse of my skin worth it.
Spending five days in the saddle had left the entire lower half of my body aching, but the warm water offered some relief. She even had a pleasant-smelling salve for the soreness waiting for me to use whenever I needed it.
Being from a big family with many sisters, I wasn’t particularly shy about my body in front of her. My only embarrassment came after the bath, when I saw my jutting ribs and hip bones reflected in the polished bronze mirror she set up in the changing area. At least I could work toward solving that issue little by little each day if my meals were to be as sumptuous as the snack Catrin had laid out for me earlier.
