The Phoenix People

Chapter Thirty-Seven

Once I understood my task for the night, the council split off into two groups. The councilwoman led me away with one of them. I wasn't sure why we had separated until we entered a room filled with costumes and I realized that we had separated by gender to change.

To my shock, the councilwomen wasted no time in stripping down to their shifts. I uncertainly followed their lead, trying not to feel self-conscious.

Since there were four women in here and seven council members in total, that left three men. I was pleasantly surprised that the women outnumbered the men - there were few Highborn females in positions of power. I glanced around at the brave Lowborns who were making their society better than that of the Highborns.

Their spokeswoman was as pale as a porcelain doll. Her rich brown hair fell in short, thick tresses around her shoulders. She was stunning.

Another woman had chocolate brown skin. Her hair was short and frizzy. She was a very curvy woman, not overweight but by no means skinny, either. She was just as beautiful as the first.

The third woman had heavily freckled skin that was nearly as white as the spokeswoman's underneath all of the tiny dots. Her hair was a fiery auburn and several large scars across her bared back spoke of a painful past, one that she had obviously put behind her.

The final woman had darker skin - but that was nowhere near the shade of the second woman - and was rather plain-looking and painfully skinny. I watched her bones work under the thin layer of flesh as she changed and shuddered, quickly pulling on the cream white dress that I had chosen to hide this reaction.

"I fell as though I am rather at a social disadvantage, you all knowing my name and me not knowing any of yours," I said awkwardly after the silence had stretched on for quite some time.

The spokeswoman smiled and said, "You can call me A."

"Just A?" I raised my eyebrows.

"Just A."

The curvy woman said, "I'm M."

"Call me L," contributed the freckled woman.

"I'm H," whispered the skinny one.

"Your names are letters?" I asked incredulously.

"No, of course not," L replied humorously.

"Nobody can know our true names outside of the council," M explained gently, shooting me a smile that I immediately returned - I had a good feeling about her.

A interrupted this conversation by thrusting a mask into my hands. "Here. Put this on."

I examined the object. It was a mask constructed to cover my eyes and some of my right cheek, while leaving half of my lips bare. It was snow white, with gold lining the edges and the eye holes. At its top, it curved up to stretch over my hairline slightly.

If it was a Highborn-made mask, it would stick to the wearer's face without the need of a strap. I slowly fitted it over my features and held it there for several seconds before carefully removing my hands. Sure enough, the mask stayed.

"You look lovely, Princess," M complimented me. She was wearing a red mask that covered the entirety of her face. It complemented her dark skin and hair beautifully.

"You, too," I told her genuinely, glancing at the other women. They, too, wore masks that completely covered their faces - I was the only person sporting an incomplete one. A had a blue mask. L wore a green, H a pink. Their dresses all corresponded in color to their masks, as mine did. With all of their condemning features hidden, they looked like Highborns.

"Are we ready to go?" A asked. We all nodded in reply.

"Okay. Let's go."

*

The male council members were to pose as our beaus, I soon discovered. I, however, was posing as a romantically available woman in order for our plan to work.

A coca-skinned man who would be accompanying H wordlessly handed me two tiny daggers attached to armbands.

Rolling up my billowing sleeves, I attached the armbands around my upper forearm and pushed the daggers into a waiting position so they were prepared to spring forward. When a certain part of the armband was pressed upon, the dagger would spring forward to rest in my awaiting palm. The council's spokeswoman had explained this to me while briefing me on the plans for the evening.

We exited into the same alley that we had used while moving to the Phoenix People's headquarters. There, as per usual, August's wagon awaited us within the shadows.

We quickly climbed aboard and started off at a brisk pace, August murmuring hello to all of us before silently turning his focus to his job.

"Do you want to practice unsheathing your daggers?" the man who had given them to me asked. I nodded and he stood, gesturing for me to carefully do the same.

We got in a waltzing position, my hands cupping the back of his neck and his hands resting on my hips.

Carefully making sure my arms were angled upwards so as not to impale the poor man, I pressed my forearm firmly yet gently against his shoulder. As it was supposed to, the knife sprung forward, stopping at the base of my fingers and lightly brushing the man's low-hanging curls.

"Perfect," he praised, grinning.

I gently pressed my arm against his back again and the knife retracted.

"We're in Highborn territory," August suddenly called over his shoulder, a note of fear entering his voice.

A pang of nervousness shot through me as well. Stomach twisting, I crouched down low in my seat so as to avoid being seen.

A grabbed my shoulder and hauled me back upright. "Act natural," she hissed tightly.

Right - I had forgotten. For now, I wasn't in hiding; I was simply a Highborn attending a royal ball.

But who was I supposed to be?

I obviously couldn't be the missing princess. I certainly couldn't be the traitor Highborn. It felt odd, having no concrete identity for an entire night. It felt as though I was adrift, floating aimlessly through the world.

By the gods, your nerves are truly getting to you, Alexia.

Soon, much too soon, I could see the castle coming into vide. A moment of panic overtook me as another terrible thought struck.

"How are we going to get past the guards?" I demanded. The castle had always been heavily fortified, even more so after Audric had taken over - and I couldn't imagine that the situation had been helped by my disappearance.

"Leave that to us," A murmured. Although I now knew what the council members looked and sounded like, A still seemed unable to shake the habit of being the only one to speak, and the others seemed content to keep it that way.

You can trust the council. You have so far, I reminded myself.

August pulled up to a stop at the palace gate. "Guests for the ball," he announced airily.

"Invitations?"

August dug into his pocket for eight crisply folded sheets of paper and handed them over. After a quick examination of them, the guard let us through.

There was a magical quality to royal invitations so they could not be forged. However A and her comrades had gotten these, they were the real thing - and incredibly illegal in the hands of Lowborns.

The list of our offenses was quickly growing.