Snowblind {complete}

Dry - Emperor

Chowa poked Lanna awake from her cot on the workshop floor. Lanna had a small room but scant chance to sleep in it. Chowa demanded her assistant get a shower and allow Epen to dress her.

'Why?' Lanna frowned. 'I don't need to be pretty to crush roots and pump bellows.' She spoke without thinking, eyes and mind still heavy with sleep. The sour look on Chowa's face acted like a bucket of cold water.

'We present our labours to the Emperor. Stop questioning me and let Epen take care of your appearance. I am not going to have you disgrace me.'

Lanna liked showers so moved to the tiny room without complaint. The warm water relaxed her and she had never felt so clean. Chowa made a substance that foamed in the water and took grease and dirt from skin. The clans washed in water from a bucket in the thaw and in the long freeze built sweat lodges. You could spend evenings in the warmth, sharing news and gossip as your skin cleansed itself – or at least the women did.

The talk would turn raw among the older women, and the younger women would listen. They would all be expected to choose; they needed to know what to do to get with child. Once they rolled in the snow on exiting the lodge, the heat wouldn't be the only reason Lanna felt flushed. The biting chill would be needed to get those hot expectations from her mind.

With a sigh Lanna shut off the shower and exited. Once out, Epen took her by the arm and led her a short way up the corridor to his room. She counted the almost invisible doors between his room and the workshop, more adept now at picking out the subtle seams in the wood.

He indicated for her to sit on a small stool before a copper reflector and then he attacked her hair with comb and oil. A half an hour later, her frizzy brown curls had transformed to smooth undulating waves. He didn't twist her hair up like Chowa's but kept it loose over her shoulders, using silver pins to keep it back from her face.

He then dressed her, much to her disgruntlement, in a tunic of white and black linen. He spoke little through the process and when he did it was to give her instructions.

'You are to support Misra Chowa. The court can do without knowing of your lack of social graces so best you don't talk.'

Lanna thought his words wise but part of her bristled. That part of her would have been rather vocal once, but after leaving the village she'd had to mute that side of her character.

She emerged from Epen's room to find Chowa transformed – a vision in jade and gold. The green silks that she wore were the finest Lanna had seen, the cuffs of the long shimmering sleeves embroidered with tiny bright birds. The garment covered Chowa in so many layers, Lanna couldn't make out her original body shape.

Chowa's hair fell over her shoulders in a black wave; a spider's web of gold thread lay over it, studded with beads of jade.

'You're beautiful,' Lanna couldn't help herself from saying.

'I need to be. I have to present three months' work to the Emperor and hope he approves of it.'

Chowa gave an irritated sigh then motioned to Frez. He also wore loose linen, and his blond hair gleamed a deep honey with scented oil. His linens gaped at the front to show the hairless planes of his chest.

He caught Lanna ogling him and grinned, and she cursed him under her breath. Even if he'd betrayed her trust, that didn't stop him being handsome.

'We clean up well,' he said to her with a chuckle.

Epen gave a light cough to remind them this wasn't the time for chatter, and Lanna blushed and followed Chowa as she started up the corridor, appearing to glide rather than walk – her upper body still, each step flowing into the next with no pause. Lanna did her best to imitate her, moving as lightly as her large feet and well-muscled legs allowed.