The Gold in the Dark

Chapter Eleven

In slightly better spirits after a bath, Tia was just about to pen a letter to Natlin when there was a quiet knock at the door. She opened it to find Wynna standing outside, completely transformed. She was wearing a peach dress accented with ivory ribbons. The dress nipped in tight at the waist, the light fabric of the skirt flowing gently about her ankles. She'd released her hair from the prison of her dance bun, and it floated around her shoulders in curls of gold.

"Tomorrow's our day off, so a lot of the older students are going out tonight. Did you want to come?" Wynna's eyes alighted on the pen, ink, and paper on the desk. "Or if you're busy..."

"No, no, I'd love to come!" she said. She wanted to see Haplyr, to taste this new city. Letter-writing could wait. "Where are we going?"

"Everyone's talking about this new dance hall nearby. Like we didn't spend enough time during the day dancing, right?"

"It sounds wonderful," she said, and she meant it.

"Do you need a dress? I can lend you one." Wynna was eyeing the bags on the floor, still waiting to be unpacked.

"Yes, please," she said, breathing an internal sigh of relief. She'd been debating whether to wear one of her faded, utilitarian work dresses or her green travel frock, still dusty from the road.

"Back in a moment," Wynna said, and she proved true to her word, returning with arms laden with dresses of every color imaginable. Tia's eyes swam with frills, lace, beads, and embroidery. She'd never seen such beautiful clothing in her life.

"Where did you get all these?"

"We get a small stipend each month," Wynna said. "Some spend it on books or snacks or send it home to family, but my roommate and I happen to like fashion, so we pool our funds..."

"I love them!" she gushed, running her fingers over the soft fabrics.

The next hour went by in a whirl as she tried on dresses for Wynna, who would take a step back, observe in silence, then deliver her expert opinion. "That color makes you look sallow." "It fits well at the bust, but the waist..." "It suits you well, but velvet's a bit heavy for the season, don't you think?" Wynna's eyes finally lit up when she donned a delicate, light mint gown. Tiny golden beads dotted the fabric here and there, and loose chiffon sleeves billowed around her arms.

"That's the one!" Wynna proclaimed in triumph. "Now let's do something about your hair," she said over her shoulder with a wink as she darted back to her room to grab more supplies. When she returned, she sat Tia on the bed and attacked her hair with combs, brushes, and pins. Only after a final dusting of red on the cheeks and a smudge of black grease applied to the lashes was she satisfied.

"Just in time," she said, the seventh hour bell sounding in the distance. Voices were echoing in the corridor outside; it sounded like half the academy was going.

They joined the crowd in the hallway. From the look of it, almost everyone from the eighth-, ninth-, and tenth-year classes was going, though Selitta was thankfully nowhere in sight. The younger girls milled about underfoot, eyes wide as saucers. Wynna explained that only students fourteen and older were allowed out unsupervised. "I mean, that's the official rule. But we always managed to sneak out, of course."

After a sufficient amount of primping and chatter, everyone was ready to go, and they made their way out of the academy, all the girls visions of indigo, ruby, violet, and blush. They joined the boys in the courtyard, who'd taken care to do themselves up smart. Tia couldn't help scanning the crowd for the gray-eyed boy, and she spied him on the edge of the crowd, looking handsome in a burgundy and black vest and talking to the sleepy-eyed girl he'd partnered with in class. A shock coursed up and down her body when he felt her gaze and met it, and she averted her eyes.