Page 10 of Her Dark Reflection

She smiled and stuck out a gloved hand. ‘I’m Senafae,’ she said.

I eyed the proffered hand for a moment, suspicious, before accepting it. ‘Rhiandra.’

‘Sorry if I offended you earlier. I just knew they wouldn’t even look at me if I was standing by you. No one has any business being that beautiful.’ There was no bitterness in her tone and her expression remained friendly.

‘Thank you,’ I said carefully.

‘We’ll probably be competing for attention in the palace, so I should hate you, especially since they hired you without putting you through the rounds of skill testing the rest of us had to suffer through. I could refuse to talk to you and try to best you, but I don’t like fighting battles I’m guaranteed to lose.’

‘You’re very frank.’ I liked her instantly.

She shrugged. ‘I’m no good at plotting. Better to befriend the strongest player than to try to outdo them.’ She grinned, her white teeth dazzling in the low light. ‘Besides, we’re all about to make a pile of money, no matter who is the most popular with His Majesty. And this won’t be my first time at the palace. You go a little crazy if you spend all your time competing with everyone else.’

A handsome coach pulled by a duo of glossy black horses caught my attention as it made its way down the street towards us, and I gestured at it to Senafae. ‘I think this might be our ride.’

‘Finally. If they made us wait any longer, they’d have to reimburse me for all the new shoes I bought for this. My feet were moments away from falling off.’

The three coaches that pulled up before us weren’t marked with the royal crest, but anyone taking an interest would be able to tell they were owned by someone with plenty of money and importance. The wood gleamed, the horses were of a thin-boned, sleek breed that were a far cry from the stocky nags usually populating the streets of Lee Helse, and the fittings were in glistening brass.

‘Can you please give me a hand with these? My fingers are completely numb,’ Senafae said to the driver of the coach nearest us. He was gruff-faced and had a scarf wrapped so high around his neck that his mouth was almost completely obscured. He looked like he was about to deny the request, but Senafae smiled so sweetly, blinking her big green eyes up at him, that he was on the ground and helping with the trunks within a few moments, looking for all the world like he wasn’t sure how he’d wound up doing so.

‘And you say you won’t be able to outplay me,’ I murmured to Senafae, and she flashed that bright smile again.

‘I suppose that would be quite a good speech to give if I wanted to throw you off my scheme,’ she said, climbing into the carriage.

Once I’d settled myself on the bench, I turned to her. ‘What rounds of skills testing did they put the rest of you through?’

‘Dancing, singing, conversation skills. I think they made some girls answer questions on current events and show they knew what diplomatic issues would be up for negotiation during the celebrations.’ She hiked a shoulder, and I just managed to keep the disbelief from my face as the first real niggle of doubt began to whisper at me. I could flirt and strum an instrument, but of the other skills maisera were known for, I was mediocre at best. If I was put through my paces, I’d seem like an imposter.

I ruminated on this as two other girls climbed into the carriage with us. They spent most of the ride ignoring me, which suited me just fine. Senafae talked unceasingly to them both, wondering at who they’d meet at the palace, what we’d be given to eat, whether the king would be a brute in bed, until they thawed enough to allow their mouths to move and began responding to her. They hadn’t stood a chance at hating her, really, though they might hate her later for how easily she broke through their animosity.

The royal palace dominated the very centre of Lee Helse, surrounded by acres of sprawling gardens that obscured it from the eyes of common street dwellers. I’d only ever seen paintings of the building itself, though I’d passed the enormous curling gates set in the middle of a towering wall often enough. When the coaches pulled up at those same gates, I poked my head out the window and watched as two armed guards began opening each one. I tried to avoid looking at the dark stains dotting the road, some overlapping each other. Soot, and other things I didn’t want to think about.

When the guard reached our coach, the door was wrenched open and a ruddy-faced man with a brush moustache peered inside.

‘Tokens please.’

One by one, we handed over the little copper discs we’d been given at the selection, and he eyed each one carefully before handing it back. He shut the door, knocked on the coach twice, and it began to roll on. We sat in tense silence as Senafae trained her eyes on the window and watched the shadowy gardens pass by.

‘There it is,’ she said after several minutes, her voice high with excitement. I peered around her just as the first spires of the palace became visible as slithers of darkness against the indigo sky. The path curved and suddenly there it was, sprawling before us like a huge, bloated dowager dressed in all her finery. A collection of looming buildings fronted with white stone façades, abundant with columns, balconies, and latticed windows; a collection of slim, straight towers, and from some central building, an enormous domed ceiling arched high above.

The coach bypassed the front of the palace, following the road around and pulling up at an inconspicuous side door where a man in the livery of a palace servant awaited us. We poured out of the coaches in a rush of hair and fabric and gathered before the servant, craning our necks as we took in the palace.

The servant was a stout man with heavy brows. He held his hands clenched before him, and I noticed they were chapped and red.

‘Leave your belongings with the coaches and please follow me,’ he said, his voice gruff and cold. We did as commanded, following him through a narrow hall and up a dingy flight of stairs before we were ushered into a large, cheerless room. He stood by the door as we filed past him, then yanked a white cloth from his pocket and rubbed vigorously at the door handle, muttering under his breath as he did. Without another word, he left us there.

I felt a swooping disappointment as I looked around the room, at the bare stone, the sparse furnishings. I hadn’t been expecting to be ushered in the main entrance by a train of footmen all bowing a welcome, but I had expected something a bit grander than we had so far been treated to. I hoped the rest of the palace wasn’t as underwhelming.

I eyed my companions. Some whispered to each other, some were shifting or fidgeting nervously, some stood stock still. A few shot wary glances at me.

‘Do you think we’ll get to eat whatever I smelled cooking in the kitchen?’ Senafae asked.

‘How can you think about eating? Aren’t you nervous?’

‘Nerves make me hungry. And anyway, dreaming of what they eat in this place has been my primary occupation ever since Madam Telfour told me she’d be putting my name forth. I tried oysters last time. Oysters! All the way from the ocean!’

I laughed softly, enjoying her nonchalant attitude, but also wondering whether it was an act.

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