Page 31 of Muse

"I'm not disturbing anything, am I?" she asked, looking down at me. Her lips were pressed into a twitching, nervous smile.

"No, everything's great here," I assured her. "Can we help you with something?"

"No help needed. I only wanted to say hello and introduce myself. I'm Madge Lanceas, and I'll be your enchantress here in Lamida." She grinned broadly, revealing an endearing gap between her two front teeth, and stuck her hand toward me. "You must be Isadore Dellamousa."

I shook her hand and nodded. “I am indeed. It’s very nice to meet you.”

"Likewise," Madge replied, and then she looked past me, over my shoulder at Wrenley. Xe had only just now begun to get up and ambled over to greet the woman who would effectively be our new boss. "That would make you Wrenley Pavone."

“Aren’t I the lucky one?” Wrenley replied with a smirk, and xe pulled their hands from their pockets long enough to shake Madge’s hand.

“I look forward to working with you both and getting to know you better over the coming days,” Madge said. “We unfortunately don’t have much time for all that we need to do, so we’ll be starting very quickly. You’ll only have a few hours to clean up, and then we’ll have a dinner to meet everyone. At dawn tomorrow, our practices will start in earnest. How much experience do you have in silk?”

“Silk?” I echoed in dismay, and I laughed nervously, hoping I misunderstood. “You mean the fabric? I’ve worn it many times.”

Madge chuckled. "No, excuse me, I meant aerial silks for acrobatic performances."

My stomach dropped because, unfortunately, I had not misunderstood. This enchantress really meant for me to do aerial stunts.

When I was growing up, Adora had enrolled me in lessons across all sorts of skill sets to ensure that I was able to handle anything asked of a muse. Aside from the ones focusing on magik, most were about dancing, choreography, and gymnastics.

The one area that Adora drew the line at was aerial acrobatics.

"Nothing but a thin piece of silk to keep my only daughter from plummeting a hundred feet to the cold, hard stage?” Adora had sneered at the very idea. “Not a chance.”

That had been enough to put the fear of aerial silks deep inside me. My natural acrophobia didn’t help anything, and I felt the blood drain from my face as I gaped up at Madge.

“I have never done aerials,” I replied numbly.

The enchantress scowled. “But I specially requested that Calidaonlysend me muses with experience with silks. Why would they send you?”

"She's a fast learner and great with floor acrobatics," Wrenley piped up and clapped a reassuring hand on my shoulder. "I've been trying to get Izzy up into the air for a long time now, and this is the perfect opportunity."

"I don't know about trying it in the King's Court for the very first time is a 'perfect opportunity,'" Madge said with a tight smile. "But since you're here, and we don't have much time, I suppose you will have to do."

“And we will do great!” Wrenley assured her with too much bravado.

"Yes, well, then, I have other muses to greet," Madge said, glancing down the hallway this way and that. "I will see you both at the dinner later on tonight."

“Sounds great,” Wrenley said, and xe closed the door after the enchantress.

“Why did you tell her that I can do the silks?” I asked xer in a fierce whisper.

Xe shrugged. “Because you can, and it’ll be fun.”

Chapter 20

The Kingdom of Lamida was an upside-down place indeed. We’d been here less than a day, and already our roles had been flipped, with Wrenley suddenly the optimist and me the cynic.

The corridors leading up to the dining hall smelled of spun sugar, and my stomach rumbled despite my nerves. Wrenley had spent the afternoon promising me this would all work out, but I couldn't find the same positivity.

A string quartet played a subtly playful tune, elegantly rendering a popular lullaby. It paired well with dinner conversation. The music was low enough that we could easily talk over it but not so quiet that we were forced to listen to one another chew.

The long table was overflowing with pastel-colored pastries and confectionaries. On closer inspection, I did manage to find a few more savory options. Still, even then, they masqueraded as something sweeter. Salted crackers were colored to look like macarons, carrots were purple and white shimmeringunderneath a honeyed glaze, and beets were whipped into a pink mousse atop a buttery roll garnished with bright green dill.

Placards marked our chairs, with our names written in glittering calligraphy. I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw mine beside Wrenley's.

"At least we can sit together," I said.

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