On Thin Ice (Prequel to Guild)

Chapter Sixteen: Venom of the Snake

                 Dinner could never just be dinner in the Dragon Court. Never would the Kimsura fortress receive an invitation from their Snake Court counterparts and expect to sit down to friendly conversation and music. For some reason, Yuina's family to-be saw everything as a threat. Everything from laughter to lullabies.

Fortunately, there were songs not even they could silence. Invitations not even they could decline.

Especially since this banquet was for Dai.

And because the Snake Court was throwing this banquet to celebrate Dai's rise to shogun, the Dragon Court would attend.

But they would make tonight much harder than it needed to be.

"By Utsukushi-sa, your hair is getting long!" Nuân commented to herself as she yanked a comb through Yuina's dark hair. The young lady bit down on her lip to keep from screaming... or at least from cursing in ancient Shirub. It helped, but made her watering eyes all the worse.

"Keep brushing that hard," laughed Bo, coming up behind his wife in the vanity mirror with his basket of tiny blooms. He set it on the ledge and wrapped an arm around her. "And she won't have any left."

Yuina stuck out her tongue and Nuân whirled around, threatening to whack the gardener with her comb. Bo put up his hands.

And quick as a whip, he shot past his wife and plucked something from his basket.

"BO!"

"A peace offering," he said, presenting the dresser with a pretty pink rose from the imperial greenhouses. An illegal pink rose.

The other maids merely sighed and continued arranging her hair. If they'd wanted to report the man for his flower-poaching, they would have done so already. Perhaps they wished their husbands would do the same for them every once and awhile.

Nuân Lâm accepted the flower, shaking her head in spite of her smile and Yuki made her envy known by knocking her feet against the bed frame.

But her father was prepared. He called the child over to tuck a yellow blossom behind her ear. She beamed, and Bo gave one to match.

"Miss Nuân?"

Back to work. Nuân Lâm, ever the ideal servant, reported for duty. She smiled guiltily at the young maid: a girl no older than fourteen.

She indicated the princess's hair. "Are we ready for the flowers?"

"No flowers today. The Mistress says-"

"What?" Yuina coughed, sitting straight up on her cushion.

Bo spun on his heel. "No flowers! But-"

"Mistress Naoki specifically informed us that we are not to make her look soft, or childish, or weak. No flowers. Just..." She selected a single ivy leaf from the basket. "Leaves and wooden ornaments."

"But I like the flowers!"

"I know, My Lady. I know. But it will come off badly on the house."

Shoulders sagged. Heart sank like a stone in water and Yuina frowned at her reflection in the mirror. She looked too old, too stiff. Too mean.

And tonight, she'd have to act the part.

Yuina scowled.

She doubted Jia and Osamu were making this big a deal of things. Perhaps over the baby, but dinner? Dinner wasn't worth the hassle.

Flowers, apparently, were.

Yuina blinked and Bo had Dai trapped in the foyer, trying to recruit him for the cause.