“Why does the ma?tre need to charge the guests so much?” a taller, bronze-skinned girl asked.
“You’ll learn that the guests’ money has its uses.”
I understood needing money to buy things, but the ma?tre was the most powerful suminaire in all the world. “Why does he need maids, for that matter?” I added. “Can’t he command the hotel to clean itself?”
“Not quite. There are enchantments that clean some spills along with other minor tasks. There used to be enchantments that made beds until a guest overslept and the bed made itself, trapping that poor wealthy guest under pressed sheets.” She seemed to be holding in a laugh. “The guests are always changing, the rooms always adjusted for what we need. Enchantments aren’t effective in an endless state of change. The ma?tre would have to implement new ones constantly.”
“Then why doesn’t he?”
She shrugged. “He’s told me enchantments take time. A team of maids is more equipped to handle everything seamlessly without involving him. He prefers it that way.”
As Béatrice spoke, sun rays began dancing across our faces. The painted clouds shifted to pinks and purples, as if the sun was setting inside this very room.
Béatrice looked toward the ceiling. “Here you will see magic unlike anything you’ve experienced. It’s all to impress the guests, but that doesn’t mean you can’t appreciate it as well.”
She stroked the steel butterfly on her shoulder. Its metal wings flapped on their own. She must be a suminaire.
Doors opened. The groups of new workers started filing out.
The maids began to move until Béatrice shouted, “One more thing! Every seventh evening we have a little soirée to bring on midnight. Tonight is the first of the summer and I can’t risk new maids wandering through the lobby. You will take dinner in your rooms. Your work begins tomorrow at dawn in the second-floor laundry room.” She then excused us so she could speak with a stout, pale woman in a chef’s uniform.
Before I could take a step, the stunning, blue-wigged woman appeared at my sister’s side. The same crème de rose paste Maman would use sparingly caked this woman’s cheeks.
“You must be Zosa. Aren’t you pretty? Follow me, sweet.” The woman wrapped her fingers around my sister’s wrist.
It was so sudden that, on instinct, I held Zosa back.
The woman smacked my hand away with a tasseled fan. “No fretting. This exquisite little morsel will be working for me nightly. She’s my newest chanteuse.” She looked me over while fingering something nestled in her cleavage, a silver bird’s talon on a chain. “And who are you?”
“Her sister.”
“Ah.” Her lashes fluttered. She nodded at someone behind me. Béatrice appeared at my side. “If your new maid wishes to keep the position she has, she won’t get in my way,” she said to Béatrice.
Zosa’s shoulders bunched. She turned to me, unsure, until her new boss took her arm and pulled her out of the room.
I stood there after the door shut, frozen. It felt exactly like the time Zosa had slipped under the eastern gate in Aligney’s stone wall and disappeared. I’d run around, frantic, until an hour later when she turned up clutching fistfuls of wildflowers.
That same feeling screamed to run after her now. Calm down. Zosa is perfectly safe inside, I reminded myself. You’ll see her later. Besides, the hotel wasn’t open country.
“It appears your sister works for Madame des Rêves,” Béatrice said.
Madame of Dreams. The title reminded me of the fanciful stage names decorating colorful posters around the vieux quais. It couldn’t be the woman’s real name. “Her uniform was similar to Yrsa’s. Do they work together?”
“You could say that. The pair of them have worked very closely with the ma?tre for as long as I’ve been here.” Her mouth turned down as she spoke. “But they have different duties. Yrsa is in charge of the salon, whereas Madame des Rêves heads the performers and puts on the soirées.”
“Does that mean Zosa will sing tonight?”
“Maybe.” Béatrice led me to the door. “In the coming days, you can find her. Catch up. For now, I need you to go to your room. Dawn isn’t negotiable.”
I halted. “The coming days? But Zosa and I share a room.”
“I heard about that little arrangement. Very last minute. There are endless rooms inside. Your sister will be given one near the other performers.” With that, she shooed me away and shut the door in my face. I was too shocked to be offended.