“That sounds like an excellent idea,” Bastien said. He gestured to a guard, who instantly appeared at his side. “Help Miss Sernan procure transportation to the Crystal Hotel.”
“Yes sir.” The guard bowed, and I bit back a sigh. I didn’t need an escort, but the warning look in Iannis’s eyes was enough to make me think twice about kicking the guard to the curb. We were here on a mission, after all, and squabbling about petty matters wasn’t going to help us get to the bottom of the attack on Iannis and the other delegates.
“Take this,” Iannis said, pulling a leather pouch from the magical vortex that seemed to exist inside his sleeve. I took it from him and resisted the urge to test the weight of the pouch in my hand – I figured such behavior was unbecoming amongst the wealthy, and besides, I could already tell it had significant heft. “That should be more than enough to cover expenses.”
“Thank you.” With nothing left to say, I bowed to the delegates around us, then followed the guard out of the banquet hall, leaving Iannis to fend for himself against the pack of vultures descending on him en masse.
Playing the part Iannis had assigned, I allowed the guard to escort me outside and hail a cab, but stopped short of having him actually accompany me to the hotel. An escort was all well and good, but I didn’t need a babysitter.
As I listened to the clip-clop of the horses’ hooves, I peered through the cab’s curtains and studied the city. Unlike Solantha, the majority of the people walking these broad streets were mages, dressed in robes that varied in color, style, and material. As we passed through a trendy shopping district, I watched a woman glide out of a carriage and take the arm of a man I assumed to be her husband. She was dressed in an ermine-trimmed fuchsia robe and sparkling gemstones, and her dark red hair was twisted up into two elaborate knots at the top of her head. Her husband was dressed in similar fashion, though his robes were black and more masculine in style. The two of them headed into a fancy restaurant, and I wondered if that was just their normal idea of a date night, or if they had important business there. Conversely, just across the street a pair of mages dressed in plain, monochromatic robes walked out of a bookshop, both carrying thick leather tomes in their arms as they chattered earnestly about whatever scholarly topic they were pursuing.
There were humans walking these streets too, nearly as many as there were mages, and though there were a few upper-class citizens around, most humans looked to be lower middle-class workers at best. Interestingly, I didn’t see any shifters around, and I wondered if perhaps there was more of a stigma against them here in the capital city than Dara was letting on. Perhaps we’d made less progress than I’d thought regarding shifter rights. I thought we’d had it bad in Solantha, but at least in my hometown shifters were allowed to share the same streets and walk through the same neighborhoods as everyone else. It was little wonder that Iannis had wanted to disguise me.
The carriage turned off the main street and into the roundabout of the hotel, and I craned my neck so I could catch a glimpse of the building. It was four stories high, constructed of pale stone that you could hardly even see for the rows and rows of windows that circled the round structure. They sparkled in the light of the nearly full moon, catching the rays and reflecting them back in icy splendor, and I had to admit the hotel’s name was well chosen.
The driver handed me down from the carriage, and I pressed a coin into his palm before making my way through the revolving doors. More crystal greeted me here, from the chandeliers dripping from the ceilings to the flower-filled vases sitting atop glass tables. I took a deep breath and inhaled blossoms, perfume, expensive chocolates, and magic. The last scent didn’t surprise me at all, considering there were mages everywhere, lounging in the sitting area or walking between the restaurant to the elevators that led to the rooms upstairs. Judging by their understated but high-quality robes, they were probably companions or assistants to the delegates who had flown into the Convention, forced to languish here at this fancy hotel while the delegates were enjoying their exclusive dinner.
I received curious stares from the mages in the sitting area, but I ignored them and approached the concierge instead. A human female with chestnut hair, wearing a starched white shirt and light blue vest, looked up at me through her wire-rimmed glasses, then straightened and smiled as she caught sight of my mage robes.
“Good evening, ma’am, and welcome to the Crystal Hotel,” she said. “How can I help you this evening?”