Land of Smoke and Ashes

A Song and a Lie

It was decided.

Sam still didn't like it, but as Jewels said succulently, he didn't have to. They only had a few days, and there would be no better plan than the one they had now.

"We basically have a free ticket into the palace on the two days it's going to be the most crowded and chaotic." Jewels jabbed one finger onto the table top, as if to make her point. "There is never going to be a better chance."

"At least," Gwen said grimly, "not until it's already too late."

This pronouncement sent the room into tense silence for several seconds, before Edward groaned and put one hand over his face. "So I seriously have to hear Sam sing? I don't remember signing up for actual torture."

He said it with a completely straight face, which made it even funnier, and even Natalie joined in the laughter in spite of herself. She might not like Edward very much, but she had to admit, the look of long-suffering he cast about at all of them was pretty funny.

The next several days seemed to crawl by. Natalie was impatient to get to her mother, and on top of that, Sam insisted that all of them lay low until then, so the little suite above the inn was crowded, and they ended up getting on one another's nerves quite a bit. For some reason Edward became even more impossible in the days leading up to everything. He became more irritable, snapping at people, and Natalie often heard him pacing back and forth across the floorboards during the night. In the morning he would look pale and drawn, black circles beneath his eyes.

Things were only made worse whenever Sam ventured downstairs to meet some contact or another in the pub, and inevitably came back with grim news each time. The queen's soldiers were apparently restless, and becoming destructive in their idleness. Some of them were harassing local merchants, demanding discounts or free foods and services. One night Sam came back upstairs with a black eye, and from what the rest of them could gather, there had been a brawl downstairs with some of the red-coated men. He stomped into the backroom and shut the door after that, but Jewels, worried though she looked, said the soldier probably looked worse. Soldier or not, you didn't tangle with Sam.

Two nights before the feast, Kira came over. She had a fat brown satchel slung over one shoulder, and she cleared the long dining room table off before dumping the contents on top. It was more silks, much finer this time, than the scraps they had used before. There were pashminas, woven from colors that looked as vibrant blue as the sky on a clear day, and sunshine yellow. And there were fine silk gloves that felt buttery to the touch, and that Natalie longed to slip her fingers into. There were rich purple table runners, and slippery silk napkins, and several items of very fine clothing.

"Take one of the jackets." Kira gestured at one of the piles of fabric, a tangle of pink, blue and orange. "We'll need to look the part again."

"Where did you get these?" Natalie had to force herself to put a blue silk pashmina down to take one of the jackets from the pile. "They're beautiful."

Kira grinned. "I took them ages ago from dad. He has one of the best silk merchants in the land working for him, so he hardly missed them. I use the silk merchant disguise regularly enough, so they get some use." She shook out one of the pink jackets, holding it up for inspection. "Still looks perfect though. The woman does good work."

"I wonder if the queen will try to steal her away from your dad." Natalie thought about the poor silk merchant with broken arms, and shuddered. "Now that she doesn't have one anymore."