Chapter 5

Threwon continued: “Today each of you will be meeting with actual clients of the Estate, established men and women who frequent our great family. For some of you, this will be your first time meeting them. Follow your upper members’ leads and you will be just fine. And remember your training.”

A buzz went through the room at the maiden’s words. Some looked intrigued; others, like Elodie, had no reaction whatsoever. I gathered these were the ones who had met these “clients” before, and knew what they wanted with us.

I turned to Dornell, who was frowning. “What do you suppose we’re going to be doing? I’ve never seen anyone that matches Threwon’s description.”

Dornell shook his head. “I don’t know. I know the Estate takes clients, but you know as much as I do about what they want with us. My guess is we’ll be acting as servants of some kind.”

“I hope not” I grumbled. I directed a dark look at Threwon, who wasn’t facing this way. “It’s certainly what we’ve all been trained to do; but don’t you think if that were the case, and we were all to become cooks and cleaners, that someone would have told us that would be our purpose after all these years? Because I might just want to have a say in that!”

Dornell’s slanted eyes turned on me. “This wasn’t all for free, you know. One way or another, we’re each going to have to make a living out there in the world when we eventually leave this place. Being a servant can be pretty lucrative, listening to some of the maidens talk.”

“But at what cost?”

I stole another glance at Elodie, still standing there with a serene look on her face. If I was going to be the servant to some lord or lady, that might put a significant roadblock in the way of me courting Ellie, even if we happened to work at the same establishment. And I was determined to tell her how I felt about her one day – at least once I turned eighteen, which everyone knew was the gateway to adulthood.

I looked back at Dornell. “And I don’t much fancy us being eye-candy for the rest of our lives.”

He gave me an ironic look. “It’s what you’ve always been, V. I haven’t heard you complain much about it until now”.

“That’s… Just because I don’t say I mind it doesn’t mean I don’t.”

Maiden Threwon turned her gaze over the two of us. “Questions, gentlemen? Or shall I proceed to explain what it is you’ll be doing today so that you don’t both fail spectacularly?”

I opened my mouth, but Dornell beat me to it, which was unusual. “No, Lady. Our apologies. Please continue.”

Threwon nodded, and then narrowed her eyes at him. “And how should you properly phrase that sentence?”

I watched while my friend reddened beside me, and my heart wrenched. I decided that he’d had enough torment for one day.

“What he means, Lady, is yes, Lady, and we do apologize. We shall follow your orders, of course, and loyally.”

I dipped my words in honey as I spoke them, even punctuating my response with a small flourish that was somewhere between a bow and a nod. Elegant, but not too flowery, and with just the right amount of hesitance as to convey that I knew we were in the wrong.

Threwon smiled and closed her eyes briefly. “Yes” she said, “ well done. That was a sufficient response given the offense. You are always a treat to behold, Mr. Veille.”

I blushed, not particularly pleased by her words, but she continued speaking to the room without another glance at myself or Dornell. “As not all of you seem quite ready, I will give you another five minutes to compose yourselves, and to make the finishing touches on your wardrobe. Five minutes, but no longer; a client is never to be kept waiting.”

And with that, maiden Threwon walked back over to the doorway and vanished, no doubt lurking just on the other side of it, counting down the seconds.

A collective sigh went out from several of us, followed by a quiet flurry of activity of people rushing around, digging through their drawers, examining themselves in the mirror, and the like.

I turned to Dornell, who was still blushing slightly. “It’s gonna be fine, Dorny. You don’t usually make that kind of slip – besides, how bad can these clients be, anyway? We’re still only kids. I’m sure the maidens are just trying to scare us into a perfect performance so that they can gloat over how well they’ve trained us.”

I took his hand, and squeezed it warmly. Slowly, Dornell composed himself, and turned to look at me sheepishly.

“Sorry” he said. “I’m sure you’re right.”

Dornell was never certain about anything; it simply wasn’t in his nature. I respected that, as I did his attempts at optimism, which were most likely for my sake.

The five minutes were up in what felt like under two. Without announcement, maiden Threwon stepped back into the room; and, without any further ado, she headed right back out again. That was as much signal as we were getting that we should follow her.

We each filed into a line heading out of the doorway. I stepped in behind a girl named Zaevia, who was two years ahead of me, and taller than I was to boot.

I tried sneaking glances past her, hoping to get a better look at Elodie, who was near the front, but she caught me looking and rolled her eyes at me.

“Don’t trip over yourself, or you’re in trouble” she said.

I swallowed. “Sorry” I murmured. Then, struck by a sudden thought, I asked her, “hey, you’ve done this before, right? What exactly can we expect from a client? Ellie wouldn’t tell us anything.”

Zaevia's face went suddenly blank. She snapped her glance back to the front of the line, where maiden Threwon walked, and didn’t immediately answer.

I’d almost given up expecting a reply when she whispered, “just stay calm and smile. And try not to react too much to anything. If you start getting goosebumps, it helps to bite your tongue. Just don’t do it too hard, or it’ll be noticeable.”

“Goosebumps?” I replied, feeling very confused. “Are we going to be cold? Are we going to have to just stand there and be stared at for a while? Demons, I hope not!”

But Zaevia, it seemed, had said all that she was going to say on the matter. She did not speak to me again as we moved quietly across the polished mahogany floors, weaving between bookshelves and furniture on our journey to wherever Threwon was taking us.

It didn’t strike me as odd that we walked for quite a while before stopping. Mannerly Hall was massive, and I wasn’t sure I’d even explored every part there was to explore in the five years since it became my home. Most of our education had taken place in the same few “rooms”, though they weren’t really rooms at all, of course, but more like semi-sheltered spaces set up around the hall and mostly enclosed by bookshelves and by tall furniture. Some of them were surrounded by actual walls that served no other purpose, but nowhere truly felt like it was apart from the grand cathedral-like space that was the Hall.

Most of my knowledge of this place had come from touring it outside of lessons, which we weren’t exactly encouraged to do – but somewhere along the line, someone must have recognized the need for children to get to know their home a little better, and so nobody really minded when they caught one of us sneaking around in the evenings, or even after dark. So long as we weren’t out past our bedtime and we didn’t go near the exits, or, wrath of the Fae, actually try leaving the Hall.

My heart skipped a beat when I realized we were now headed toward one of the large arched doorways leading out of Mannerly Hall. Scattered murmurs arose from the other young members of the group, each of them probably thinking the same things as I was:

“No way, there’s got to be a mistake!”

“She can’t be taking us through it!”

“Oh, I hope so!”

“I bet she’ll turn away.”

But as we continued towards the archway, maiden Threwon showed no signs of changing course. Indeed; the pair of guards which flanked the massive doors actually nodded to her as we approached, and began making ready to open the doors before us.

“Maiden” one guard said with a nod as we stopped short of them. One of his hands rested upon a handle affixed to the door, and even the handle appeared to be longer than his arm.

Threwon curtsied to the guards with much more fluid grace than I would’ve expected her to possess. “Gentlemen” she greeted them, “these children will be leaving the Mannerly Hall for likely a few hours, on behalf of Madam Dro having invited them to entertain some of her clients.”

The other guard whistled, looking over each of us in turn. My eyes narrowed when his gaze lingered upon Ellie for much longer than I thought was necessary, though it lingered on me next for almost as long, or perhaps even longer.

“They look perfect to me, maiden Threwon” the guard said, blowing a kiss to no one in particular.

I almost sneered at the guard’s sloppy performance of a kiss before recognizing how ridiculous that would’ve been. “Madam Dro’s really outdone herself with these young people.”

Maiden Threwon’s face was blank as she regarded their faces, then the doorway. “May we perhaps pass then? We don’t want to be late.”

That got the guards jumping into action. Each of them gripped one of those large handles with both hands, and began to pull.

Slowly – and with what looked to be a surprising amount of effort – the bulky doors swung outward and open soundlessly, for the first time I’d ever seen them do before in my life.