“What did you have in mind?” Axes hacked away at a nearby tree.
“You need a better dress.”
“What?”
She sat up. “For the next night race. A better dress.”
My tongue ran across my teeth. I looked down at my crossed ankles.
“Oh, never mind. If you think your uncle won’t…I’m sorry, Ari. I didn’t mean to be rude.”
I offered her a warm smile. “It’s okay.” She didn’t know everything I had here was a gift given to me by a man I barely knew, not some well-meaning uncle.
“You know what, forget him.” She pressed her hands to her knees. “My father has a tab at a local dressmaker’s shop. Said I should get all the clothes I need to feel more comfortable here.” She bit her lip. “And as long as you’re not comfortable, I’m not. So it only makes sense for you to come with me and let me buy you a dress.”
My mouth was hanging open by the time she finished.
“Come on, Ari.” She stood and extended her hand. “I think you’re going to like this.”
The dressmaker’s shop was warmly lit by frosted glass lamps on lace-covered tables and a dangly crystal chandelier. There were bolts of fabric on one wall and a stunning beaded dress in the window, but the only other items inside were two leather chairs, a trio of mirrors, and a short stool.
The bell on the door tinkled as we entered, and before we’d taken two steps, a man in a pristine suit floated toward us, his hands clasped at his waist, his face already tipping forward in a bow.
His arm flared out as he paused before us. “Your Highness, what an honor.”
Vanya smiled brightly at me.
The dress fitting was an unusual experience for me, but Vanya dispelled all the tension and awkwardness of being measured, of being questioned on fabrics, on styles, and on the cut of the bodice. I felt a bit like one of my sister’s dolls. Though the dressmaker nodded to everything she said, clearly enjoying serving royalty, he hesitated slightly when she saiddrop-waistedandjust below the knees. I let her order me adress I never would have ordered on my own, a fully impractical evening dress in what she convinced me was the up-and-coming trend for all the most fashionable ladies. I’d seen these loose-fitting dresses on several of the girls at the night race, and Vanya assured me her new dress was also in the same style. Evie would be proud.
As we walked back to the school from the train station, a voice called out from behind us.
“Hatchlings!”
We both stiffened, thinking it was Luther coming to yell at us, but when we turned, Shep was jogging toward us, a derby hat on his head, a suitcase in one hand. He’d left a few days ago to attend his older sister’s wedding in Brookedale, a town south of Treston.
“How was the wedding?” I said as he paused, removed his hat, and bowed his head at us.
“When my family gets together, it’s always a little tense. My mother, you see, is from a noble house, but my father is a haberdasher.” He shrugged.
“Oh,” I said, unsure what to say next.
Vanya, never at a loss for words, jumped in with, “I bet the conversations are positively sparking.”
“Like wildfires,” he said with a grin. “But that’s what you get when someone marries for love.”
The strangeness of his statement was eclipsed as Vanya looped her arm through mine. “See, Ari, people likehim.They’ll come around about you, too.”
Blush flooded my face, and I tossed Vanya a silencing glare.
Shep, however, chuckled. “When I turned seventeen, my grandfather sponsored me, glad to see me bonded with a dragon and bringing honor back to his family name, rather than pursuing a career in hatmaking. When I first started at CardanLott, I tried to keep my background a secret, but it’s hard to keep secrets at this school.”
I almost choked on my next breath, but I managed to pass it off as a slight sniffle.
As we walked under the archway into the school’s courtyard, Shep pulled off his hat, almost reverently, as he looked up at the words etched over the school’s front doors. “So you can see why I pushed so hard to be the best.”
When we reached the door to the common room, Shep held it open for us. Vanya slipped inside first. As she vanished inside, Shep propped against the door and asked, “Where are you headed after class today?”
“Probably the library,” I admitted.
