AN~ Sorry it took so long, guys. No excuses. You don't want them. And if you do, you can ask.
QotU: (first one!) What do you plan to be for Halloween? It's coming soon!
After Sabrina made herself blissfully clean, she dressed in a simple, practical pleated brown dress that had slits in places that would make it more convenient to run, all hidden by the pleats, green and gold embroidery that hid the seams of the many pockets, and fitted long sleeves (it was getting cold in Trickster, fall was coming sooner in this more northern place than in her seaside home) with more embroidery, and a scooped neckline that was just low enough that she could store things in yet another pocket, and she did so, sticking a corked bottle of ink, a small wooden pen, and a roll of paper into her chest compartment.
She then left her room, opening the door carefully, deciding to go on a scouting expedition to explore as much of Trickster Castle as she could.
Outside her door, though, she was met by one of the few human servants, with his hand raised to knock on the door. They both drew back, Sabrina to avoid being rapped in the face, the man- well, boy, really- looking nervous, as if she might bite him.
"Sorry," Sabrina said, though it ate at her to apologize for anything, "Is there something you wanted?"
"Prince Mustardseed wants you to come to his rooms," the boy said, and something in his expression gave her pause.
She assumed (correctly, it would turn out), that he thought that she and Mustardseed were going behind the Trickster King's back. And, much as she preferred the other boy, she had to turn thoughts like that aside. So she said, falsely cheerful, "Oh, so he is going to give me the tour he promised! Your King was too busy to, but Mustardseed said he'd show me around the palace. Thank you so much. Would you show me to him?"
The servant boy looked taken aback for a second. She wasn't sure if it was her attitude (surprisingly cheerful and peppy), or what she'd said, but she'd successfully thrown him off balance, which was her aim. So she held back a smug smile as he led her through the halls, careful to step only where he stepped.
She missed once, though, right before making it to Mustardseed's room, and the result was that, as he opened his door, it was to the sight of Sabrina ducking as a spray of some gelatinous goop swung at her. She was just barely too slow, and the ends of her hair were suddenly green and sticky, with some large lumps stuck to them. Cursing silently, she stood up and saw Mustardseed staring at her, and she felt her face reddening. Second impression, and already she looked like a fool to one of the only people in this kingdom who she thought she might get along with.
"My apologies, Your Majesty," Mustardseed said, his face carefully blank. "Won't you come in?"
"Yes, thank you," Sabrina said, walking forward with her head held high. She wouldn't look any more the fool if she could help it.
Mustardseed gave the suddenly gleeful servant boy a look, and he scurried off, still with those careful steps, Sabrina hoped to get some rags to clean up that mess, as the prince shut the door.
"You'll have to watch for more of those," Mustardseed said, "Everyone here is fond of setting things like that up. They consider it an art."
Sabrina nodded absently, but her mind wasn't on what the prince was saying, it was on his suite. There were three standard exits here- the one she'd come in through, one that presumably also led to a combination of dressing room and privy, and one would probably lead to a study and his sleeping chamber. This room was a sitting area designed by a woman or someone with feminine tastes- it was painted in cream and blue, with gold-painted trim (and that trim was extensive and complicated, even more intricate than in her rooms). There was a thick rug, presumably made by one of the Persian Artisans, and the wall behind her held two tapestries that hung opposite his large diamond-paned windows overlooking a garden maze. The tapestries depicted scenes of the maze from within. The center of the room was dominated by several blue couches and a table made out of light-colored wood.
"Is something wrong?" Mustardseed asked, pulling Sabrina back to the conversation. She scolded herself. She was supposed to be able to scan a room and still pay attention to conversations.
"Oh, no, nothing's wrong," Sabrina said hurriedly. "I was just looking around. You've got quite a sitting room."
"Yes," Mustardseed said, and his face was carefully neutral as he said, "It used to be my mother's quarters, for when she needed space from my father. Now that he's... well. She no longer needs a retreat."
So his tastes didn't lie in the opulence his mother's did. That was interesting. She wondered why he didn't redecorate.
"Won't you have a seat?" Mustardseed asked.
"Yes, thank you," Sabrina said, smiling as Mustardseed led her to the puffiest of the couches, in front of which were two table settings laden with eggs and toast, and a cup of tea each. She dug in with gusto, realizing how hungry she was as she smelled the food.
Mustardseed ate more slowly, and set his fork and knife down with two pieces of toast left. He waited until Sabrina finished, too, and then said, "You know my brother's going to try to drive you away."
"Of course," Sabrina said calmly, wiping her mouth with her napkin.
"You- oh," Mustardseed said, taken aback.
"Well, it only makes sense," Sabrina said, deciding not to tell him about her explore that morning, "But I'd like to not make it so easy for him, you know? I... I hate to ask this so soon, your highness, but... do you suppose I could be moved to a different room? One with less entrances?"
"Less... entrances?" Mustardseed asked, his face confused.
"Counting the windows, there are twelve ways into my rooms," Sabrina told him, "and most of the mirrors in my dressing room are one-sided, meaning there is a passage behind them that people could use to spy on me. That makes it a bit too easy for your brother, wouldn't you agree?"
Mustardseed, looking at her with wide eyes, said, "Goodness. I had no idea. How do you know this?"
Sabrina winked at him and said, "Trade secret."
"Well, certainly I'll have you moved," Mustardseed said, "But... if your room is that complex, all the other rooms in our palace could be the same. We could be being spied on now, and we wouldn't know."
"We're not," Sabrina said, "but I'd wager there are at least two entrances to this room you don't know about, and more in your other private chambers."
"You know a good deal, don't you?" Mustardseed said, giving her an appraising look.
"It's my job to know," Sabrina said, proud that she'd worked her way higher in his estimation. She had a feeling this was a person whose good opinion she wanted to have.
"What else do you know?" Mustardseed asked, and he sounded genuinely interested, not as if he was testing her.
"I know that your mother plans to send us on a progress this spring, while she stays here to run the kingdom, so your subjects get used to me and you get to gauge your people's opinions, but that we won't be leaving until April twenty-first, because your winters are harsh. I know that your mother also plans to fill the time before we leave with a succession of balls and parties so that the people here in the city will get used to me, and, if we're extremely lucky, begin to accept me, so that the country will follow their lead. I know that you and your mother are the true power behind the throne, but that you'll never be allowed to rule unless Puck dies a truly natural death soon, because you wouldn't be accepted. You're both too much like Magicians for the Tricksters' liking." Sabrina stopped, deciding that that was enough information to share for the moment.
"Anything else?" Mustardseed asked, looking a bit dumbfounded.
"I can't tell you all your secrets," Sabrina told him, teasing. "Then you'd go make new ones, and I'd have to go to the trouble of finding them out all over again."
"Yes, well, good point, I suppose," Mustardseed said. "What if... what if we reached an agreement? In exchange for me making it so you didn't have to eavesdrop to know my secrets, you ascertained how safe my room is. And perhaps my mother's, and my brother's. We don't want any assasins coming along to do to our rulers what's been done to-" He stopped.
"Done to my kingdom's?" Sabrina finished his sentence for him. "Yes, well, it sounds acceptable. You might want to check behind the tapestries first. That's a perfect place to hide a doorway, and almost nobody ever takes them down."
Mustardseed gave her a confused look, but obligingly got up and pulled back the closer tapestry. Sure enough, behind it there was an ill-concealed door. This time the look he gave her was astounded.
Sabrina smirked at him and said, "There's a rumor floating around Sneak that my parents were removed from the equation in order to weaken the rulership of Sneak and make it easier to take over. It backfired. I'm the best of the Sneaks. And what I lack in experience I make up for with good advisers. I know what I'm about, your highness. Please stop underestimating me."
"Yes, I think I shall," Mustardseed said softly.
It took the rest of the morning for Mustardseed to find an unused set of rooms worthy of a visiting monarch and a future Trickster Queen that satisfied Sabrina's desire for privacy and security. After they'd reached a conclusion there, Sabrina was going to go explore the palace a bit, but she was summoned to Titania's rooms for luncheon, and she quickly braided her hair in a way that wouldn't show the green goop she hadn't had a chance to remove yet, placing some weights in it so that she could use it as a weapon if she had to, and went to dine with the queen.
"How are you finding Trickster, Sabrina?" Titania asked, sipping a cup of tea while Sabrina settled herself.
"I haven't seen enough to make a proper decision," Sabrina said carefully, "But what I have seen is fascinating." That was true enough. She didn't believe she wanted to live here for the rest of her life, but it was extremely interesting.
"Well, I hope you'll find it to your tastes," Titania said, and there was an implied or I'll know why that made Sabrina think that she perhaps didn't want to tell Titania if she didn't like it.
Titania's set of rooms was even more opulent than Mustardseed's had been, done up in gold and red and mahogany, with a small private sitting room, a large one, a bedchamber, two dressing rooms, a privy, a bathouse, a study, and a library. Thick velvet curtains framed the windows, and there were frescoes on all the walls that weren't covered in expensive tapestries or thick-framed portraits of stern-looking dead people.
It was a Sneak's nightmare. Sabrina could only imagine how hard any bodyguard of Titania's might have to work: how many exits to check, how alert he'd have to be- and of course he wouldn't be allowed in her bedchamber, but there would be just as many dangerous unknowns there.
"Yes, well, I'll certainly tell you once I've seen more of it," Sabrina said, referring to Titania's desire for her opinion of Trickster again.
"Good," Titania said with a tight smile. "My son tells me you've been moved to a different suite. Why, may I ask?"
"I wanted more security," Sabrina said, taking a sip of tea, "and these new rooms give me that. Surely you understand?"
"Yes, of course," Titania said, nibbling delicately on one of a collection of small triangular sandwiches on a green-and-white china platter.
It was Sabrina's turn to pick a subject for conversation. Hopefully this one would last longer than three sentences. "There's to be a ball tonight, yes?"
"Yes, at seven," Titania said, "A servant will be sent to fetch you in time for the feast, though. And if you wish, you may join me for tea beforehand."
"Thank you, but I believe I'll be rather busy unpacking," Sabrina said with a careful smile. Go through another stilted conversation like this one? No thank you! "I'd only gotten a few things out last night, and now that I'm in a new room..."
"Yes, of course, I understand," Titania said, nodding. Sabrina detected the slightest amount of relief visible on her face.
"I understand there's also going to be a festival?" Sabrina asked, placing a small sandwich in her mouth and wishing for some real food.
"Yes, and there you can meet some of the common citizens," Titania said. "The balls won't allow you to do that, but the harvest festival will."
"Well, that sounds lovely," Sabrina said with a false smile that masked her thoughts: I don't think I want to meet anyone from Trickster.
"Another sandwich?" Titania asked.
"Yes, please," Sabrina said. Any food was welcome.
Titania handed Sabrina a sandwich, and while she was munching on it, the older woman filled her teacup again. Sabrina supposed this delicate food had come from Magica, because she couldn't imagine that Tricksters would confine themselves to this fare, unless it was to fool foreigners like her.
"How is your grandmother?" Titania asked.
"She's well, thank you," Sabrina said, swallowing her sandwich, "her joints ache a bit with the change of seasons, but she says she's used to it by now."
"Ah," Titania said with a small smile. "And your sister? How are her studies going?"
"She's begun learning about Magica," Sabrina said, "and it fascinates her."
"I can understand that," Titania said with a smile.
"Do you miss your homeland?" Sabrina asked, picking up her teacup in hopes that she could ward off hunger with the liquid.
"Of course," Titania said, "everyone misses their home. But I still write my friends there, and they visit occasionally. I can't visit, of course."
Sabrina, sensing that she'd finally found a subject that Titania would actually converse about, seized it and said, "I hear it's very beautiful there."
"Yes," Titania said, her eyes getting wistful, "You've never seen a sunrise 'til you've seen it in the mountains. The air is clearer there, and the colors are more intense. And the snow, and the treeline... It's a wonderful place."
Sabrina had never actually seen a sunrise, not a real one. The cliffs surrounding Sneak in a vague semi-circle from the northwestern border to the southeast meant that it got light far before the sun came up. But she doubted that the mountains could have a sunset more beautiful than that great red globe sinking down into the sparkling ocean. She didn't mention that, of course. Instead, she said, "I'd like to see it someday. If..."
Titania came out of her reverie and said, "Yes, well, we all hope things don't turn out too badly. Now, if you'll excuse me, Sabrina, I have a meeting to attend."
"Yes, of course," Sabrina said, snatching two last sandwiches and slipping them into one of her pockets as she stood, "Thank you for inviting me. I'm sorry to have kept you."
"It's no problem," Titania said, with a smile that didn't reach her eyes as she ushered Sabrina out the door. "I shall see you this evening."
Sabrina nodded with an equally false smile and left, heading back to her room carefully, watching her steps the whole way. Why had Titania invited her if she wasn't going to make an effort to talk? It was just rude!
She was so busy fuming about Titania's behavior that she forgot to pay attention to where she was going, until she felt a tripwire catch on her shoe, and suddenly a swarm of spiders was released from the far side of the wall. Large, fuzzy spiders. She shuddered and ran down the hallway, probably setting off more traps as she went, but not caring, the separate pieces of her pleated skirt flying away from her legs in all directions as she ran desperately to avoid the spiders, which, thankfully, didn't follow her.
She got turned around during her run, and it took her a long while to find her way back to her rooms, because, after that incident, she was very careful about how she stepped. Finally, she made it to her new rooms and leaned against the inside of the door with a relieved sigh.
Her new rooms were on the floor above her old ones, and they were a pink opulence that matched the rest of the castle that she'd seen (unfortunately), but they only had three hidden doors- one in the ceiling, one in the floor, and one behind a portrait of an amused-looking blonde girl on the far wall. She had no closet, but her dressing room was large enough to make up for that, and- praise all deities, the rose-painted enamel bathtub was full of steaming water.
After she cleaned herself again, Sabrina dressed in a specially designed corset which allowed complete freedom of movement, didn't constrict her, and had enough metal rods in it to keep her from being stabbed no matter what, a breastband with a built-in pocket, a short pair of breeches with more pockets, and a long pair of pretty gloves with grips.
Then she unpacked, which took the rest of the afternoon. She'd just finished getting into her dress- a large pink thing with a number of bows, pockets in odd places such as its puffed sleeves, and an enormous hoopskirt with a new design that would allow it to fold up easily if she needed to fit through a tight space (like her door) when the same young servant boy from before came and knocked on her door.
She took a deep breath before opening the door. It was time.
AN~
Some review replies:
Athena: Waiting forever for it? How? What? Also I don't remember what I said about other stories, could you refresh my memory?
Book Geek: Thanks!
Dunwannalogin: You're one in a long line of people to suggest that. I'll tell you what I told them: There are two reasons it can't be Pinocchio. 1) He's a stick in the mud who would never like Trickster. 2) I have Plans for him.
Nello Orella: Why do you have PMs shut off? I was going to respond to your nice long review in one, but now I have to do it here. If you see any more of the super-complex sentences in the future, could you copy-paste them into a review for me so I know which ones to fix when I edit? You have a point about Puck. I'm going to pretend it's on purpose because of the alternate universe and because he's sixteen here, not eleven, but I may make his immaturities shine through a bit more. The plans-and-stuff for pranks are on purpose, though, because his pranks are so complex that he has to make plans for them, otherwise they couldn't exist. Even in the books a lot of them are like that.
PenguinLoverGurl: All right. QotDs. :) I doubt they wear pillow shoes. The trapdoors have ladders. How's your dad doing?
kingsvillereader: I thought I'd looked you up and not found you. Huh. Thanks!
