“I don’t have any.”
“Then who cleans and cooks and does the laundry?”
“No one. The house stays clean. Have you heard of dragons being able to enchant things?”
“Yes.”
He waved his hand at the vast hall. “This house is similar to that. It provides everything—meals, clean laundry, entertainment, everything. I don’t have a single servant. You’ll find that your bags will already be in your personal room.”
I shot him a suspicious look. “My personal room? It’s notourroom?”
“I assumed you’d prefer to have privacy given the contractual nature of our marriage. But if you’re open to other arrangements…”
“No,” I said quickly. “Separate rooms suit me fine. Which one is mine?”
“Yours is upstairs and mine is downstairs near the library. Now, you’re the mistress of this house, and you’re free to explore wherever and whenever you like. Each room is enchanted to entertain. There are fountains, arboretums, menageries, pools, rooms for painting and sewing, a library… I’m sure you’ll be very happy here.”
“That does sound intriguing,” I said, impressed against my will.
Rahil took me up a tall, sweeping staircase to reveal a long hallway with many more doors. “I’m afraid I don’t get out much, so I had the house enchanted to provideeverything I desire. I conduct my business affairs from my study and all our needs are provided for by the house.”
“Staying in a house all the time must get dull,” I commented, gazing down the lengthy hallway lined with doors. The manor was enormous, but no estate was big enough to make me feel anything but trapped when I was confined to a single building.
“You’ll discover that the rooms are larger than they appear,” he said with a quiet chuckle. “Explore a bit and you’ll find that out.”
“So, I can go anywhere? Even your study? Your bedroom? I can leave the house entirely?”
He hesitated. “You’re welcome to go anywhere in the house, but if you leave without me, I would be forced to keep your sister in jail instead of petitioning for an early release, and I’m sure you wouldn’t want that. You are of course welcome in my study or bedroom, but I forgot to mention one off-limits area.” He pointed at a small door at the far end of the hallway. If he hadn’t pointed it out, I would have assumed it was some long-forgotten coat closet. Compared to the rest of the manor, that door was downright shabby. Paint was peeling around the edges, the hinges were rusted over, and cracks spiderwebbed across the surface.
“Why not? What’s in it?” I asked, my curiosity instantly piqued. His previous wives had disappeared; had Rahil given them the same rule? Did it contain some dangerous enchantment or wild animal that would destroy anyone who opened the door? Did it hold clues to the mysterious disappearances of his former wives?
“It isn’t for anyone other than me and I keep it locked at all times,” he said. His easygoing, generous personality evaporated in an instant. “Promise me you’ll never enter that room, ever.”
“I won’t go in,” I told him. “But you can’t blame a girl for being curious.”
He turned me away from the forbidden door. “You can be curious about any of the other rooms. I promise you’ll find them wildly enchanting. And speaking of enchantments…” He dug into his vest pocket and held out a small, round object to me. “I got you a wedding gift. I purchased it on the way to our ceremony.”
I took it. Compared to all the fabulous jewelry he’d showered upon me that morning, the palm-sized object was positively plain. “A mirror?”
“A two-way mirror,” he corrected me. “The shopkeeper said it’s also dragon enchanted, just like this house. I instructed the guards to give your sister the other one. You can talk to each other through them, even while she’s in jail.”
My heart leapt and I held the mirror closer. “Really?”
He smiled pleasantly as we continued down the corridor. “Really. Turn it over three times and you’ll be able to see and talk to each other. I thought you might like that to stay connected until Nadia is released.”
“Thank you,” I told him, running my finger around the mirror’s rim. For the first time since Nadia’s arrest, I relaxed a little. “That was very thoughtful of you.”
“I’ll leave you to try it out and speak to your sister in private, and I’ll do my best to stay out of your way while you’re here. But if you ever need me, I’m always at your disposal and happy to oblige you with anything you want. Here’s your room.” He opened a door for me halfway down the hall from the forbidden door and gestured me inside. “I sincerely hope you enjoy yourself.”
I entered, half expecting him to follow me in, but he simply closed the door, his footsteps retreating down thehall. For all my intentions to hate everything about my new living conditions, I couldn’t. These were far grander than the finest quarters I ever could have imagined.
The chamber was much larger than the cramped, dilapidated inn rooms I’d spent most of my life scraping coins for, larger even than the common halls of the worship center where whole families sometimes slept on mats side by side. The walls here shimmered faintly, as though the plaster itself had been dusted with crushed pearls. Thick carpets, dyed deep crimsons and indigos, muffled my footsteps as I walked across them.
A canopy bed loomed at the center of the room, carved from blackwood and inlaid with gold filigree. Its curtains were spun of some gauzy fabric that shimmered between colors when I moved—scarlet one moment, bronze the next. Nadia had always dreamed of such finery. She would love it here.
Unable to resist trying the mirror any longer, I turned it over three times in my hand. The mirror’s surface turned smoky as some sort of whitish haze fogged the glass then dissipated, allowing my sister’s face to swim into focus.
“Nadia!” I burst out, relief in my voice.
