The councilor’s face spread into an ominous grin. Glaring at Onric, he opened his mouth and began to speak in the same dark language he had used earlier. Instantly, the light began to dim.
Ashlin’s words came back to him, that the magic came from singing.
Onric pulled back his arm and landed his fist against Lord Munney’s jaw.
The man immediately stopped singing as his head reeled back from the impact.
“Do not let him use his voice,” Onric said to the guards, who quickly fastened a makeshift restraint and placed it over the man’s mouth before he could fully recover.
“Take him to the dungeon,” Onric ordered, “and open the doors. We are safe.” He sighed in relief, until a final thought entered his mind. “Arrest that woman,” he called out, pointing towards Ashlin’s stepmother.
Chapter 33
Her heart racing, Ashlin kept her hands behind her back. As soon as they were out of sight of the palace entrance, Drirsi dropped her arm.
“Are you alright, miss?” he asked.
She nodded. “I think so.” She looked at the guards around her, wanting to believe in Onric but not sure she trusted his guards to blindly carry out his orders, especially after how quickly the crowd had turned against her in the chaos. “Where are you taking me?”
“Do not worry, miss,” Drirsi responded. “We were carefully watching every section of the great hall this entire evening. We saw you with His Highness by the tapestry when the attack happened. We are taking you to the stables, not the dungeon.”
Ashlin sighed in relief.
Moments later, she was standing in the stable, pulling off her glass shoes while one of the guards saddled Blossom.
“Get out of here quickly,” Drirsi said, “and go hide yourself somewhere. I would stay hidden for a few days if I were you, as we cannot guarantee your safety should someone see you and recognize you.”
Ashlin nodded, looking around for a place to hide her shoes. She would not be able to ride while wearing them, and she had no way to bring them with her. She ran her thumb over the feathered texture for the last time and slipped them under a pile of hay in Blossom’s stall. “I’m ready,” she said.
One of the guards helped her onto Blossom and handed her the reins.
“Thank you,” she said. “Keep the rest of them safe.” She urged Blossom into a trot and took off into the dark night.
She wanted to go home and grab her few things before going to Mistress Cedrice’s shop, but it was too dangerous. At the thought of home, she realized that she no longer felt any attachment to the old stone mansion. It had once been a place of refuge, but now it was merely a house. Hopefully she could go back there one day and retrieve her father’s books.
At the moment, though, she was eager to start her new life as an apprentice seamstress. All things considered, she’d had a rather incredible night. She had let go of her cruel family, confronted her stepmother, apologized to Onric, and experienced her first kiss. If not for the magical attack, it would have been a perfect evening.
As she quickly guided Blossom through the dark streets, her mind went back to the attack. It was exactly what she had expected a Majis attack to look and feel like, even though it was quite the opposite of her experiences with the needle and Mistress Cedrice. She had been right about the singing, though. The attacker had used a deep chant to create his orb.
The horse grew confused when she turned his head right towards the center of the city rather than left towards the outskirts, but he followed her lead. She patted his neck. “Thank you, Blossom.”
Slipping into an alley beside the shop, she slid off the tall animal, landing with her bare feet on the muddy ground below. She tucked the reins under his saddle and kissed his soft forehead. “Go home, boy. Go home to your master.” She slapped his neck and pushed him back out onto the street. He nudged her a few times with his head, then pranced down the road.
Ashlin gathered her blue skirt in her arms, waiting in the shadowed alleyway until Blossom disappeared so she would not draw attention to herself. The skirt felt rough under her fingers, and she looked down to see that the dress had reverted to its old form, ripped and torn as it had been before the enchantment.
She sighed. For some reason, that small fact, more than any other, seemed to signify that this magical night was over. Prince Onric would no doubt search for her at her old house, but he would not know where to find her, and she would not know when it would be safe to go out in public again.
For a moment, she briefly wished she could have kept the swan-like glass shoes. Even though they were not the same as her mother’s figurine, they had made her feel as though that treasured item had been restored. Hopefully Blossom would not choke on the shard of glass that was now sitting in his pile of food.
Chapter 34
Ashlin spent the next morning beginning construction on a new dress for herself. Mistress Cedrice had given her a length of rose-colored linen for the task.
“You are my apprentice now, child,” the older woman had insisted, “and I must make sure you look orderly enough to welcome my customers.”
Ashlin had gratefully accepted her gift and happily gone to work. It did not feel like work when she was doing her very favorite thing, in her very favorite place, after having slept in long past dawn that morning.
The bell on the front door rang, and Ashlin shrank behind the crates in the back room. Until she received news of how the ball had ended last night, she did not want to show her face.
