I folded my arms over my chest and scowled.
Narine gestured to a large set of double doors. “This lunch will be a good time for me to assess your table manners.”
I couldn’t help the peal of laughter that escaped me. “Narine, please don’t bother. My mother fed us meat on the bone in front of the fireplace since I was a wee babe. I’m not going to be impressing anyone with my table manners.”
She sighed, and I saw the moment she gave up on me. The light died in her eyes as she gave up hope that I would be some refined Jade City queen.
I stopped in the hallway and leaned closer to her, lowering my voice. “Listen, if you really want to try to win this thing, I could ask for another maid. There’s a girl from Grim Hollow that I overheard the king’s lead guard saying was very powerful. Maybe you could be with her?”
She gave me a polite smile. “We can’t switch.”
I figured as much. “Well, then we’ll just do the dress resell thing?”
Another polite smile. “Yes, lady. Thank you. It’s a kindness I won’t forget.”
I felt better about patching things up with her and having an ally, but still felt a little guilty I wasn’t trying to marry the king and win her those one hundred jade coins.
She opened the doors and I stepped inside the room. I was instantly assaulted with the sight of over a hundred women in colored dresses and gold leather sandals.
Holy Hades.
I looked at Narine. “Are we in the right place?” I asked, although in my gut I knew that we were. I knew in that moment that the king had summoned every female of child-bearing age with an ounce of magic in them.
“We are.”She nodded.
I felt simultaneously dirty and relieved. Dirty that we were all dressed the same, given the same dress and sandals like brands on cattle, but relieved that there were so many women there was no way the king would ever pick me as his wife in a sea full of other women. I just wasn’t that special, and my magic still hadn’t even shown itself. With luck, I’d be home by the next full moon and King Valdren would have his wife with her magical baby-making womb.
“Food!” I ran over to the table Kendal was sitting at and took a seat next to her. She was chatting with some of the other girls, and in the middle of the table was a smorgasbord of various cuisine. Meats, cheeses, small fancy breads, and tiny little pies littered the table. I grabbed two of everything and piled my plate high, digging in.
Narine pulled up a chair next to me and watched me.
I moaned, dipping one of the little meat pies into some kind of spicy cheese sauce that I’d never had before. “Holy Hades,” I moaned again.
Narine smacked my shoulder lightly. “No moaning, and no cursing at the dinner table,” she chided.
Kendal snickered, as well as two of the other girls. “Oh, you won’t be teaching this one manners,” Kendal jibed, but smiled so that I knew it was playful. After seeing her faint so many times and hearing from her maid that she’d been crying, my heart felt for her. Back in Cinder I didn’t hang out with her often. I wasn’t a fan of gossip and the latest fashion, so we just didn’t have a lot in common, but here… here we were Cinder girls and we needed to stick together.
I nodded, looking to Narine. “You might as well spend my mealtimes doing something you love. There’s no saving me.” I shoved a gigantic bread roll into my mouth to make a point and Narine visibly shrunk, wincing in slight disgust.
“Alright, well, if you’re sure.”
“I’m shlure.” My voice was muffled through the bread roll. Narine reached up to rub her temples.
Once she left, I swallowed the roll and smiled at my triumph. I wasn’t technically that bad at the dinner table, but I wasn’t about to get some propriety lessons like a Jade City girl. I wanted to eat in peace and talk with Kendal, not learn what the three different sized forks were for.
I lowered my voice to her: “How you doing?”
She gave me a small smile. Her eyes were red like she’d been crying, but she looked better than when we flew here on the king’s back.
“Better now that I’m not riding a dragon,” she said sternly.
I nodded. “Hopefully, you don’t have to do that again,” I told her.
She grinned. “At least not in that way.”
It took me a second to get her meaning and my mouth popped open at the dirty joke. Kendal was a wild card. Proper most days, encouraged others to stay pure, but she also knew the most about bedding a man than anyone else I knew. She claimed it was from visiting her aunt in Gypsy Rock, but now I wondered.