The twins faced each other in a seemingly silent conversation. Finally, Sido released Béatrice’s shoulder. “Two hours.”
“That won’t do,” Béatrice argued. “Three hours. What if I can’t find the proper part?”
“Two. Or we’ll come looking for you.” With that, they left us.
After being inside for weeks, two hours sounded like an eternity, but Béatrice didn’t share my enthusiasm.
She jerked me across the threshold. “I suppose two hours will have to be enough. Because we’re here.”
I looked around. Here stole my breath. A large square stretched before us lined with cobblestones and flanked by fountains adorned with nude statues. Beyond was a city landscape carved from pale blue stone.
This color reminded me of the agate stones Zosa would dig up around Durc. Except those were rough-hewn and mucky with barnacles, while this—god—this wasn’t any of those things.
“Pick up your jaw and move. The ma?tre will be out soon with invitations, and we don’t have much time.”
Béatrice was right. Just like in Durc, a crowd of folk who looked no different than the residents of the vieux quais gathered around the hotel.
After witnessing the chest shaped from pink urd yesterday, it was clear that Alastair must demand a staggering price from guests in order to buy his hotel access. That must be why I hadn’t seen a single guest inside who wasn’t ridiculously wealthy.
The thought stopped me in my tracks. Lack of wealth was a barrier to entry, I realized.
Everyone had a chance at winning an invitation. It was part of the draw, why the hotel attracted the crowds it did, and why all these people stood here now, their eyes filled with hope. Most of these people looked no wealthier than me.
In Durc, wealthy people like Bézier had won invitations over the years, but so had many poorer folk, and I’d never heard of a single person being turned away. There weren’t any poor guests inside the hotel that I’d seen. I didn’t understand how this could work. More people began to crowd around us.
“This way.” Béatrice dragged me to a shop at the edge of the square that sold fancy dresses and not faucet parts.
“Aren’t we supposed to be in a hurry?”
“There’s always time for a dress store,” she said, her attention landing on a lavish silver skirt. The shop girl noticed and pulled it down, holding it up to Béatrice’s waist until Béatrice shooed the girl away.
I knew wealthy guests left her tips. She had some means. “You could purchase a pretty dress and quit your ogling.”
“I don’t need one now.”
“But I thought you wanted to impress a certain suminaire?”
Last week, Béatrice had strolled into the kitchens with swollen lips and a secretive smile, the lace collar of her maid’s frock curiously changed from white to a bright shade of coral. Before I could question her about her collar, she eagerly confided that she’d become very close with the tattooed suminaire with the citrine feather.
I was thrilled for her. Béatrice deserved all the joy she could squeeze from inside that place. We all did.
She ignored my prodding and ran her fingers over another dress. When I gave her a pointed look, she sighed. “Something new is tempting, ma chérie. But not from here. I’m saving to shop somewhere else.”
“Where?” I asked, but she had already wandered down another aisle. “I thought you had to find faucet parts,” I called out.
“She doesn’t. The faucet was my idea.”
I jolted. Bel stood at the shop’s entrance leaking blood from a split lip. His knuckles were grazed, his dark hair sticking out in all directions. His vivid brown eyes fixed on me. I wasn’t prepared for the sight of him so soon after yesterday in that suite.
I cleared my throat. “What happened to you?”
He held up a floral brooch studded with sapphires and diamonds that looked like it cost a fortune. “Artéfacts aren’t always the easiest to come by.”
“Took you long enough.” Béatrice swept up and proceeded to tell Bel about our ordeal with the twins.
“This was your idea?” I gaped at him.
He shrugged. “I’m not allowed to bring anyone outside with me.”
But Béatrice was allowed an escort. “Why now?”
“I thought you might enjoy an afternoon away from the hotel,” he said, but there had to be more to it. He was too calculated to arrange all of this for my benefit alone. He turned to Béatrice. “We’ll meet you back at the hotel’s entrance before the twins come looking.”