“I’m eager to meet them as well,” I said honestly.
I was even more excited to leave this room and get a look at the rest of the castle. Kem helped me put on the dress and fastened it for me.
Like the nightgown, it was soft and light, in spite of all the decorative detail.
“I am feeling much stronger, but I’m not sure I’ll be able to walk down the stairs. Does this castle have a mechanical lift?” I asked.
“No, but you won’t need one,” Kem said. “I’m an Evanescer.”
“What’s that?”
“Oh. I forgot you didn’t grow up around Fae. It’s my glamour. Evanescing is a form of travel. It comes in very handy with all the flights of stairs in this place.”
She laughed. “I can bring along a passenger if the distance isn’t very far.”
“So you’re going to… carry me downstairs?” I asked in a dubious tone.
Kem was an Elf but a small one. She didn’t look strong enough to pick me up.
“Sort of. You’ll see. Are you ready?”
I nodded, and she stepped close, wrapping her arms around my shoulders in a light embrace.
“Here we go,” she said.
There was a sudden rush of air and a sensation I could only describe as dizziness, though that wasn’t quite accurate. The room around us seemed to dissolve, and the next thing I knew, we were in a completely different room.
When it came into focus, I looked around, taking in a long, rectangular carved oak table, surrounded by at least twenty chairs.
Beyond it at one end of the large room, there was a fireplace large enough for a man to stand inside, its impressive mantel carved of what appeared to be gray marble. The firelight glinted off the hearth’s back wall panel which looked like it was coated in pure silver.
Elegant sideboards stood against each wall of the cavernous room, and two huge sparkling crystal chandeliers blazed with candlelight overhead.
The high walls were covered with rich red fabric bearing a subtle embossed pattern and studded with framed paintings.
The vaulted ceiling soared two stories high, supported by twelve massive columns of red alabaster that surrounded the room.
A beautiful ceiling mural was framed by an elaborately carved and gilded cornice. The painting within its borders was breathtaking, a depiction of some Fae goddess greeting the morning sun—I wasn’t sure which one she was. Smaller murals anchored each corner.
Returning my gaze to the long table, I noticed it was set on one end with fine china and silverware of the same sort I’d seen the night of the ball at Seaspire.
The rest of it was covered with food.
Lots and lots of food. Platters and bowls of it.
“Is there to be a dinner party then?” I asked, surprised.
“Oh no,” Kem giggled. “We don’t have those here. This is for you.”
I looked at the endless bowls and platters stretching down the long table.
“For me? All of it? I couldn’t begin to eat even a fraction of this,” I told her.
“I know. Chef didn’t know your food preferences, and he wanted to make sure there was something you liked.”
The excess of it all shocked me. The amount of food displayed here could probably feed my village for an entire week. I wished Kem could use her Evanescing glamour to transport it all to them.
“Can you stand for a moment while I pull out your chair?” she asked. “They’re very heavy.”
