Some of them giggled. One little girl in a pink dress, no more than four, jumped up and down and squealed. “Pretty ponies!”
I smiled despite myself and waved at them. I’d never been mistaken for a noble lady before. The boys laughed and ducked behind the fountain while the little girls waved back. “She waved at me,” a girl with brown curls and freckles bragged.
“Us, she waved atus,” said another.
I turned to Vander to find him grinning. “Children are funny, aren’t they,LadyAesira?”
“I bet you’d melt those little girls’ hearts if you waved,NoblemanVander.”
He chuckled and waved at them. Now the giggling little girls were the ones to run for cover.
I leaned closer to him. “Imagine how they would react if we were in assassin garb.”
“More impressive than nobility,” he added with a sly smile. “And rarer to see in public.” Vander turned Lady Sora to a stable post in front of The Spellbound Lady’s Shoppe. The whimsical dresses hanging in the window were much too fine for someone like me. This couldn’t be the place he intended for me to shop at. It was far beyond what my apprentice stipend could afford. Most of my clothes back home were hand-sewn by my mother and grandmother and, while they were excellent seamstresses, we lacked the funds to purchase new material often.
I slid off Stormbreaker and patted his soft neck before I tied him to the post. I caught my lower lip between my teeth when Vander marched for the shoppe. He pulled the door open and gestured for me to go ahead.
“Um, are you aware how much apprentices are paid?” I looked up at the sign with gold lettering hanging above my head.
He rolled his eyes, slipped his arm around my lower back, and guided me inside. “Clothes and magic all in one place.” It smelled like mint and fresh-cut flowers. The entire right side of the room was filled with ladies’ clothing, from colorful dresses and skirts to pretty blouses and leather boots. Bright, milky-white walls with golden sconces, cornice flourishes, and crown molding. A handful of ladies in fine day dresses rifled through the clothes racks.
On the left, separated by an ornate archway, was the opposite: black walls, an especially gaudy full-length gilded mirror in the corner, and burning incense. A variety of crystals in all shapes and sizes, as well as leatherbound books and other trinkets, lined the shelves. An ivory bird with tail feathers as long as my forearm sat on a perch next to the counter. It let out a squawk from its large gray beak. “Vander. Vander.”
I blinked in surprise. “It talks—andknows your name.”
Vander bobbed his head, unfazed. At a round table, three ladies in dark-shaded dresses turned to acknowledge us. “Welcome in,” one of them called but didn’t rise.
“Is that you, Vander Vierroson?” came a light airy voice. My attention pulled to the corner of the room where a woman had blended in with the bouquets of dark blooms, and the paperNighthaven Daily.She lowered it enough to reveal her eyes and brunette and gray mixed hair tied up into a graceful knot on her head.
I spotted the crystal ball in front of her, and a mage’s staff leaned up against the wall, though she didn’t wear the robes of the mage guild. The white feather sticking out of her hair was curious. From the bird by the counter? She set the news scroll down.
The bird squawked again. “Vander. Cookie.”
He grumbled. “I forgot his treat. He’s vicious when he doesn’t get it.”
How often did he frequent this place? “Do you shop often for women’s clothes?”
The woman, possibly in her fifties, but it was hard to tell with her supple skin, lifted her heavy maroon skirts. Her heeled shoes tapped loudly on the wood floor. I noticed the raven-shaped bonecarved earrings bobbing just above her shoulders and smiled.
She quickly kissed Vander’s cheek, then the other. “It’s good to see you, sweetheart. I was just talking with your mother a few days ago about how I haven’t seen you in too long. Will you be at the family celebration for Midsummer this year? King Sigurd said he missed you last time. You are the charming one in the family after all.”
I was surprised he brought me to meet someone from his family and even more that he had invites to parties with the king. I knew his mother was a royal cousin, but I wasn’t familiar with how the upper societies worked.
He inclined his head. “I will have to see when the time gets closer, you know how busy I am these days. You’re the only reason I’d attend.” She laughed and her eyes softened.
He gestured to me. “This is Aesira, my apprentice. Aesira, this is my Aunt Murial.”
“Oh, hello, dear, lovely to meet you.”
“You as well. I like your shop. Are you a mage?”
“Why thank you, dear, and yes, I’m a mage. One of the few in the family.”
“She likes to brag about it,” Vander added.
Murial let out a “ha!” and held out her hand for a greeting, and when our palms touched, a shock went up my arm. Jerking back, she put her hand to her chest and let out a sharp breath. I tucked my hand casually behind my back, shaking out the strange sensation. What was that?
She blinked at me. “Where are you from?”
