I sat down on the chair again and felt Circle’s gentle hands in my hair. The second maid joined her. At first her movements were tentative until she assured herself that contact with me wouldn’t fatal. Soon their quick fingers had my hair braided into an elaborate up-do that I thought was quite flattering and exotic. They slipped a long sheer blouse over my head. Next came a tunic with sleeves like bells and flowing trousers in blues and purples that accentuated the emerald necklace. The tunic was heavy with gold threads and gems. As I admired myself in the mirror, Circle held out a pair of elbow-length gloves. I frowned because the only gloves I had seen today were on people who were trying to hurt Sean and me.
“I’m supposed to wear those?”
“The housekeeper ordered this one to present these to your ladyship,” Circle said, holding the gloves out while bowing her head. The gloves trembled in her grasp. “Sworn Assets generally wear gloves.”
“I thought I just proved that I don’t kill random people with my hands and arms. You don’t have to treat me like a mad dog. If the housekeeper asks you about it, you may tell her that my preferences are not irrelevant.” I felt her stomach clench in fear and regretted my harsh words. “You may inform Sean that I’m ready.”
The second maid sped out of the room and I turned back to the mirror. It was hard not to stare at myself with a hairstyle this exquisite. Ordinarily my locks lay long and loose over my shoulders or secured in ponytails when on horseback or playing sports. This tight updo of braids woven around waves and curls was nothing like I had ever seen on Earth. The closest I could come to explaining it would be to combine women’s hairstyles from various historical periods into something new and original.
“I like it,” Sean said when he came in. He leaned against the bedroom door and smiled.
“I like your new look too.” The saturated colors of his tunic accentuated his dark hair and blue eyes. He was so fine that I forgot to breathe. Black silky gloves made his arms look as if he had dipped them in oil. When he saw me looking at them, he held up his hands and spread his fingers.
“Since I’m the Sworn Enemy and a weak missusan, the housekeeper thought that I should wear these,” he said.
“I got that same suggestion, but I’m not keen on gloves.”
His diamond eyes rested on my neck. “You’re really rocking those emeralds and your hair is incredible. You look crazy beautiful.”
My heart fluttered. I opened my senses toward him in the way I did with my maids, but I couldn’t discern his feelings, not the way I could the servants. I wondered if that was because he was from a different Great House.
“Thank you.” Hot blood flooded my cheeks. “And you look really good too.”
He didn’t miss my blush. “You don’t hear that very often, do you?”
“I guess I hear it as much as any other girl.”
“No, you don’t. You hear it less because you’re beautiful in the first place. Everybody figures you already know and don’t need to hear it.” Sean pointed toward the exit. “Shall we?”
“Yes, but I think lunch is here,” I said, unable to look at him because I was afraid he would see how insanely happy his words had made me.
In the living room, one of my footmen was taking dishes from a huge tray and putting them on a table on the far side of the room away from the windows. One tall, heavily upholstered chair had been pulled up. The air was filled with savory and sweet spices. A footman and maid were pulling an ornately carved screen out from the wall.
“Would you like some lunch before our walk?” I said lightly. I hoped he wouldn’t recall my earlier remark about this being a date. “And what are they doing with those screens?”
Sean grinned. “I guess no one’s told you that in Geminay people don’t eat in front of each other. It’s considered an intimate act, you know, like having sex. They keep eating private because they’re taking something into their body. At the House of Picard my servants would turn their backs or run out of the room when I so much as put a glass of water to my mouth.”
“Seriously?”
“It’s because many of the people here can sense each other’s emotions through their skin.” Sean gestured toward his clothing and mine. “That’s why people around here wear lots of clothes and don’t eat in front of each other. They’d never lounge around a pool in swimwear or walk around unclothed in front of each other the way we do in locker rooms. Only lovers get naked together.”
First he mentioned nudity and then brought up lovers? I felt a blush coming on and quickly made a joke. “So having a restaurant here would be like having a brothel?”
Sean laughed. “Something like that. Let’s see what they brought you for lunch.”
The footman had set out on the dining table at least three dozen teacup-sized covered dishes. One by one Sean and I lifted off the lids to peek inside. The food smelled wonderful, fragrant with sweet and tangy herbs and spices. Everything was soft and wet, like different sorts of stews and custards. There were no plates or silverware.
“These people must like washing dishes,” I said. “So, do you want to be scandalous and eat in front of each other?”
“I like scandalous.” Sean turned to the servants. “Bring another chair, and then all may depart.”
One footman brought Sean a chair while the other set up another screen so that the table was hidden from the view of anyone who entered the apartment. As soon as we were alone, Sean put one of the teacups to his mouth, tossing it back the way people did with shots of whiskey at Mom and Dad’s parties.
“Everything here has the texture of baby food,” Sean explained as he set the empty teacup down. “The highborn Original People think it’s low class to have to do any kind of physical labor, and to them chewing is work. Try something. The food is really good.”
“Is that why there’s no silverware?”
“Or napkins. It’s gauche to spill,” he said with a laugh.
“I don’t know where to start,” I said as I chose a teacup.
Together Sean and I emptied the teacups, commenting on the taste as we worked our way across the table. The flavors seemed to be from all the different cuisines I had ever tasted on Earth and some that were completely new to me. Eating this way reminded me of opening a box of assorted chocolates and biting in to find out what I had. As Sean and I ate, we talked about Geminay. I told him how my maids tiptoed around me like I was a poisonous snake who could strike at any moment.
“Once they get to know you, they’ll relax. They don’t know that you’re a good person, but they’ll see it.”
I fiddled with the lid on one of the cups, pleased that he thought I was a good person. “They got stuck with us, you know. They didn’t ask to be assigned to the missusans. It must be like being made to go to spring ball with an ugly boy.”
Sean laughed. “Like that would ever happen to you.”
“Last spring I went to a charity ball with Martin, and he’s ugly on the inside.”
“He is, but you’re not.” Sean held my eyes. “You know, Martin bragged about how his date was the hottest girl any of us had ever seen. That night you wore a midnight blue gown with crystals across the bodice and up over the shoulders. Your hair was up, like now. Martin danced some dances with you, and the rest of the time you were with your three cute friends. And then the DJ put on an old-fashioned 1970s rock song and you were out on the floor with an older guy that I guess is your dad.”
I fumbled one of the little lids because I knew where his story was going. I wanted to slide under the table and never come out.
“You were there.”
“Yeah. Mom works for the charity that held the ball. At the end of the night I saw you slip out of the ballroom through a side door and hide in the service hall behind a door,” Sean said quietly. “Martin went looking for you.”
My lip twitched at the memory. Knowing what he did, I wondered why Sean was still sitting here with me. “Are you the one who called him away when he got close to finding me? You lied. You told him I had gone to the buffet. And when you came back later, you gave me your handkerchief.”
“You were crying.”
“And you didn’t ask why.”
“I knew why.” Sean began to stack the little lids like they were building blocks. “Martin said that you only looked smoking hot with a loud emphasis on the word ‘looked.’”
My eyes reddened. I still had tears to shed from that night. “Before that night we’d never kissed, and the first thing he did was jam his tongue into my mouth. It freaked me out and I pulled away. He rolled his eyes at me, like he’d been cheated.”
“He thought you would—”
“I know what he thought,” I said sharply. “Are you the one who told my friends where to find me?”
“Yeah.”
“I remember how when you handed me your handkerchief our fingers touched briefly and made a spark. Back then I thought it was static. Aren’t you going to ask me why I didn’t dump Martin that night?”
“No. I knew.”
“What did you know?”
“That Martin wasn’t willing to let you go. He wanted to win, and he would say or do whatever he had to so that he would have the most beautiful girl in the room. To him you were a challenge, an ice queen to melt. He deserved you simply by being Martin Leonard.”
“Everyone talked like I should be grateful for having a boyfriend like him.” I started lining up the little cups. “The next day I completely meant to break up with him, but before I had a chance to say anything, he called and apologized for coming on so strong. He said he was overcome with how pretty I looked. He said that he would respect my sensitivity.”
“Because he has none?” Sean set the last cup down roughly enough to rattle its lid. “I’m sick of talking about Martin. Let’s get out of here.”
“And go where?”
He pushed aside the screens and led me to the front door. “I’ll show you. Give me your hand. Come on. I have a surprise for you.”
Sean and I hurried past our surprised maids and footmen down the stairs. I almost had to run to keep up with him as we ran between the Sworn Assets’ building and the palace. The footmen made a mad dash around me to get ahead of Sean. They flung open a pair of doors that accessed a lake with a pink-sand beach fringed by plants with huge violet blossoms and red leaves. Waterfalls splashed down from high overhead off the walls behind us. This area was a tropical paradise, Shizanna style.
“All I need is a cold drink with pineapple and a little umbrella,” I said as I took off my sandals. “How did you know this was here?”
“I could see it from my window.” Sean kicked off his shoes. “Let’s explore.”
I hesitated. “We’re waiting to find out whether they’re going to kill us, and you want to play on a beach?”
“They made this place for us. They know that humans like swimming.”
“So this is our habitat? Like zoo animals?”
Sean chuckled. “Like whatever it is that we are. Let me show you something.” He went to the water and cupped his hands. When he opened his fingers, the water hovered over his palms in the shape of a ball. Then Sean put his finger in the ball and it formed a snowflake that fractured and threw around blue and violet light as if it had a pink flame inside. Then the water reformed into a six-pointed star for a few moments before changing into the shape of my face.
“No way.” I reached out and touched it with my finger. “How did you do that?”
“Once they let me out of my apartment at the House of Picard, this is what I did every day—I mean not day because we don’t have days here—but whatever it is they call large blocks of time. To keep from going out of my mind with boredom, I swam and played in the water of their beach. Hardly anyone ever went there and I’ll bet it’s the same here.” He held out his hand to me. “But I’m not lonely now. Follow me.”
Sean started walking, and then he started running. I ran with him through the surf, kicking up the water and laughing. It seemed like we were on a Caribbean beach during sunset’s soft pink light. Sean grabbed me and swung me around. We fell laughing to the blush- colored sand.
“Teach me to do that thing with the water,” I said.
“Sure. Let me show you something else. Come on.”
I followed Sean toward the rocks, and we clambered up the highest waterfall. Several times the rocks were so high that Sean had to pull me up. He was so strong that it felt like he could lift my entire weight with one arm. When we got to the top, there was a deep still pool like a pink glass mirror where the water collected before it spilled over the side. Sean sat down and put his feet in the water and patted the space next to him.
I sat down. “So what did you want to show me?”
“This.”
Sean raised his hands and the water began to sparkle and churn. Then the surface glittered as if with pink jewels, and the glitters started to rise. As Sean moved his fingers, the glitters formed into shapes. First it was a galloping horse, then a quarterback running with the football, and finally a deer feeding on a bush.
“How do you do that?” I asked.
Sean put down his hands and the crystals dropped like rain into the pool.
“I noticed that I could take a water droplet off my finger and make it float when I was in the bathtub at the Picard palace. The first time that happened I thought I was hallucinating, but then I reminded myself that the rules of physics are different here. After that it became a game for me.”
“Can everyone here do that?”
“No, I don’t think so. When my footmen saw what I was doing, they almost passed out. I could feel their fear from across the room.”
“It’s like magic.”
“Yeah, magic or the ability to manipulate energy. Remember what the footman was saying about us being lucky because we got the best of the Original People? I think we got that and the best of humanity. I mean, this is our planet, and we Sworn Assets have been hybridized for so many generations to carry energy. Now not only can we carry it, we can manipulate it. I think the Mechanics have lost control of the process.”
“And got us.”
“Yeah. And we’re a lot more than they bargained for.”
“Teach me those tricks.”
“Okay. Let’s start small.” He put his finger into the pool and brought out a droplet of water. “Give me your hand.” He ever so gently let the droplet move down his fingertip where it lingered for a moment before reaching down to touch mine.