He was wrong.
And there were more on the gown itself.
Seed pearls were sewn into swirling patterns across my robes, and when the two front panels parted as I walked, a sash of crimson gossamer could be seen circling my waist.
Unlike touching the potent blood of the deceased dowager empress, the pearls only bore a dull sting. Still, I felt an echo of the oysters’ ghostlike misery. I exhaled, but their auras remained trapped inside my breast. I should be thankful. They would keep me grounded tonight, focused on one type of energy instead of the myriad bound to come.
A large but limited number of nobles dined regularly at the palace. I had grown used to their presence, but tonight would be different. Tonight, both the first and second class of court ranks would be in attendance. I’d heard Councilor Ilyin say that would be nearly seven hundred people.
I fretted over their numbers while Lenka and her maids wrapped long locks of my hair around a heated iron until they fell in soft curls. That my hair should be unbound was another of Valko’s requests. By the time my maids were finished with me, I felt like nothing more than the emperor’s doll.
I stared in my gold-framed looking glass. I could have seen more of myself in the full-length mirror of the ballet room, but I kept that place secret. Besides, I had no desire to see any farther than the sparkling rubies at my throat—seven to match those in the emperor’s crown.
“May I go now?” I asked, eager to escape the maids’ prodding hands. The three hours they had spent in my rooms felt like ten.
As her eyes swept over me, Lenka beamed like I was Izolda reborn. “Of course. Your guard is waiting to escort you.”
I followed her to the door, but no one was outside. Lenka’s shriveled lips pinched together. She craned her neck down the corridor. “Yuri!” she hissed.
The guard who had captured Pia’s heart stood conversing at Anton’s open door. He startled, jerking his gaze in our direction. Anton’s door thudded shut.
Lenka clapped her bony hands at him. “Get down here, you idle boy!”
Yuri had the sort of ruddy skin that was always in a constant flush. Now it crept to his jawline and ears. He jogged down the hallway and bobbed nervously on his feet upon reaching us. “My apologies.” He gave me a little bow—the first time he ever had. I hoped he wouldn’t do it again. Things had always been informal between us.
With a farewell to my maids and one last bit of fussing from Lenka over some excess powder on my chin, Yuri and I set off down the long corridor and began our descent down two twirling flights of stairs. The strained repression in his aura made it difficult to breathe, let alone speak. I wanted to ask why he’d been conversing with the prince, but I kept my lips sealed. Yuri attended to more people in the palace than myself, including the emperor, so why not Anton? Still, I couldn’t brush my curiosity aside. The young guard seemed to have been infected with the prince’s air of mystery just by lingering too long at his door.
“You look very nice tonight,” he said at length.
“Thank you,” I replied, and glanced askance at him. It wasn’t that I didn’t think him sincere, but I sensed he was trying to distract me from something. Was he in on Anton’s scheme, whatever the prince meant to have happen tonight, specifically midnight on Morva’s Eve? The thought sent a ripple of anger through my chest. Why had Anton confided in one of his attendants, but never me?
After the ice broke between us, Yuri kept up a babble of one-sided conversation—the increased number of guards outside the palace; his first impressions of Floquart de Bonpré, whom he saw arrive with his entourage of Estens; whether Pia had mentioned if she’d be serving in the ballroom or shut away in the kitchens. His nervous prattle continued until we reached the orchestra’s door to the ballroom, a more covert entrance than the great double doors, where the hundreds of guests must be lined up and ready for the grand procession.
My empty stomach fluttered with their eagerness. I hoped that would be the worst I’d experience from their auras tonight, though I doubted I would be so lucky.
“You will see Pia,” I said before Yuri took his leave of me. “She has a surprise in store.” I smiled, and unable to resist myself, added, “Though I doubt it will happen at midnight.”
A jolt of shock ran up my legs. My stomach cramped with anxiety—and something darker I couldn’t name.