I swallowed hard. “I’ll apologize to Vilqa in the morning.” I looked down at my feet. “But everyone should make more of an effort to get to know them. They’re part of the team so they should be friends with all of us. I was trying to make them feel welcome.” I forced myself to meet Kyra’s eyes again. “And I don’t have any special feelings for Amena, either. I’ll try not to come between you two again.”
It was Kyra’s turn to blush, which stood out on her pale skin even in the low light. “Amena and I are just friends, too.”
I searched her face. Sometimes, I thought I saw real affection in her, like when she comforted me after Nexita’s betrayal, but I couldn’t tell if it was wishful thinking. “So this is only about Vilqa’s feelings?”
Kyra bit her lip and nodded.
My eyes went to her lips. I couldn’t think straight when she was so close. “Are you sure? I’ve been trying to think about how to tell you… I mean, I wasn’t sure if you wanted to hear it—and there hasn’t really been a good time…”
Kyra turned even redder, the blush spreading all the way down her long, graceful neck. Goddess, I must have been staring like an idiot, because she put her hand on my arm. “What are you babbling on about?”
“I—I don’t know.” I took a step back, pulling away from her touch before I did something stupid. “My head’s all foggy from being tired and I’ve lost the thought. I didn’t mean to cause any more trouble, so I’ll try to fix it in the morning, okay?”
“I guess that’s a good idea.” She turned away from me, hiding her face and stepping aside from the cabin door. “Get some sleep while you can.”
I scooted past her. “Yeah, who knows what could happen tomorrow? Haha.” I faked a laugh, trying to sound lighthearted.
She opened her mouth like she wanted to say something else, then she just shook her head.
I could tell she was still upset, and I wanted to make it better. But since whatever bothered her was probably my fault, I didn’t know if I could fix it. So instead I murmured good night and opened the door.
She hesitated, then followed me into the cabin which was pitch black.
I felt her hand brush against mine in the darkness, then she climbed into her bunk. I touched the edge of my bed to be sure I didn’t bang my head and got in without making too much noise. But I lay awake for a while afterward, trying to pick out the sound of Kyra’s breathing from the others, replaying the whole scene in my head. What did she mean?
Amena’s manager came through for all of us. The next day, Amena went out early and came back with work permits saying we were her new backup dancers, except for Deryt, who she claimed as a bodyguard. With some simple disguises, we could go into town with her.
On the train ride, I sat next to Vilqa and tried to think of a casual way to bring up what Kyra had told me. “So, last night,” I began, clearing my throat. “I heard you were upset about something?”
Vilqa shrugged. “It’s not a big deal. I guess I’ve been overwhelmed by everything, and I was feeling tired.”
“Huh.” I lifted my hand to pat their shoulder, but I saw Kyra looking at me from across the aisle, so I stopped myself from physical contact. I didn’t want to give anyone the wrong idea. “Yeah, it’s a lot to take in. But are you getting along with everyone?”
Vilqa shrugged again. “Sure, I mean, I’m still getting to know you guys.” They smirked. “I’m still getting over the shock that Amena is this famous singer. No one else is a celebrity, right? You’re not secretly an author or something?”
I chuckled. “Nope, I wish. Most of us are—were—ordinary apprentices. I was a novice, but I guess I gave that up when I ran away.” I looked around our little group. “You should talk to the others, too, get to know them. I want us all to be friends.”
“Have you been friends for a long time?”
“Oh, no, I’ve only met everyone in the past two months.” I pointed at Amena and Deryt, who were sitting together. “Those two grew up together in the north, but the rest of us were strangers until this started. My sister says I make friends too easy. With us, though, I felt like we were meant to be together. Tika says it’s one of my powers to sense who has the potential to be a divine warrior, but I think I can see the good in people.”
Vilqa frowned. “This is the sister who keeps trying to kill you? Sounds like she’s jealous.”
I sighed. No one seemed to understand how complicated things were between Nexita and me.
Vilqa put their arm around me. “It’s okay, you have a big heart and you want to trust people. Your friends are protecting you.” They smiled around at everyone. “And I’m glad they have your back. It’s a good team.”
Janera, who was sitting on the bench in front of us, turned around in her seat and smiled at Vilqa. “Yeah, you get it. The first time I saw this little girl trip and fall on her face in the temple, I knew I had to look out for her.”
I flinched, but Vilqa laughed. “So, Riwenne’s not just clumsy in life-threatening situations?”
Janera grinned. “No, she can get into a scrape over anything. I think she was running late to the class that morning and didn’t look where she was going.”
Kyra piped up from across the aisle. “She probably overslept. I was her roommate, and I always had to nag her about being on time. She’s a big slob, too. She used to leave her dirty clothes all over the floor before she had magic to clean them up.”
Vilqa laughed even harder. “Oh, that’s rich. How’d you even get to be a priestess in the first place?”
Before I could answer, Deryt turned toward us. “That’s what I said! I was with her on Choosing Day and we both ended up with the engineers, which didn’t make sense either. She didn’t know the first thing about mechanics. When the priestess said she belonged in the temple, my jaw hit the floor!”
Now everyone was laughing at me. I wanted to say both of my parents had manipulated the test, but they’d already moved on to another humiliating story about me. At least they were getting along.
I slumped back in the seat and looked out the window. The smog was even thicker in the town, so I couldn’t see as far. The buildings had been getting taller and now we were approaching downtown Ruraqie, which was a cluster of skyscrapers. If there had been cable cars strung between them, it would almost look like Lyndamon. I felt a pang of homesickness.
The train slowed down as it came into Owaqao Station. I saw a concert hall called The Grand Fountain Theater across the street and pointed. “Hey, is that where you’ll be singing?” I asked Amena.
Amena glanced at the hall and sniffed. “We haven’t worked out the details yet, but Bymonten didn’t think this place was big enough. He’s looking at open air venues where we can fit more people.”
My eyes widened. The concert hall looked at least as big as The Beautiful Fiddle where we’d seen her perform in the city.
The train stopped with a final squealing of the brakes. We joined the flow of other passengers out. The station was chaos, with everyone rushing in different directions. Signs pointed to the various exits, but they only had street names. How did anyone know where to go?
“This way,” Amena shouted over the din and waved for us to follow. She led us outside to a trolley, like the cable cars of Lyndamon but on narrow rails in the middle of the street. By her direction, we hopped off after a few stops in front of an enormous lakeside hotel called The G.
The G was a sleek tower of metal and glass. A uniformed attendant opened the door for us and bowed her head, even though we looked like peasants. The high-ceilinged lobby gleamed with polished surfaces—mirrors on the walls, marble floors, and furniture made of steel.
A man with long red hair and an outfit that reminded of me outrageous city fashions clapped his hands when he saw Amena. “Darling!” he cried. This must be Bymonten.
Amena walked up to him with a smile. “Here we all are,” she said, including us with a sweep of her hand, but not bothering with introductions. “This place looks lovely.
Is my room ready? I’d like to freshen up before we start rehearsals.”
Bymonten looked us over and dismissed most of us with a brief glance, but his gaze lingered on Deryt. “I could have found you a bodyguard if you’d asked,” he said in a haughty tone. “Well, come along. We’ve got a lot to do in the next few days, so there’s no time to dawdle.”
He led us past the main bank of elevators to a private entrance. “This only serves the upper floors,” he said, gesturing for Amena to go inside. “Your, uh, dancers should go to the front desk if they want to book rooms at the hotel.”
“I prefer to keep them with me for now,” Amena said smoothly. So we piled into the elevator with her.
The private elevator was larger than any lift I’d been in Lyndamon, fitting all of us. I watched with fascination as the operator slid the doors closed and pulled the lever.
No one spoke as the elevator climbed higher. I counted floors up to twelve before we stopped. The operator opened the metal grate doors and announced, “Here is the penthouse. Please enjoy your stay at The G.”
We were in a short hallway with only one set of double doors at the other end. Bymonten produced a key from his pocket and opened them with a flourish.
I trailed after Amena as she explored the rooms, gaping at everything around me. There was a seating area with a dining table and couches, three bedrooms with their own bathrooms, windows looking over downtown and the lake, and patios on either side. The master bathroom had a bathtub so big I could almost swim in it. All the furniture was carved from dark wood with white cushions and expensive-looking artwork hung on the walls. I’d never seen so much luxury in my life.
Amena finished her tour and nodded to Bymonten. “This will do. Make sure they give keys to each of my guests.”
Bymonten frowned. “Well, if you think it won’t be too cramped.” He opened a door and revealed a closet full of clothing. “I had your regular clothes brought here, but the costumers have your performance outfits at the studio. There’s not enough time to make something new so they’ll alter something you’ve already got.”
They talked about more details for the upcoming concert, but I was too distracted to pay attention. When he left, I stuck my hand up. “Dibs on taking the first bath in the big tub!”
Kyra sighed. “I think the master suite is supposed to be for Amena. Deryt should take the other single bedroom, so the four of us will have to share the two beds in the last room.” She raised her eyebrow at me. “I hope you don’t kick in your sleep.”
I flopped down onto a couch. “Even this would be better to sleep on than the bunks on the airship.”
Amena came out of the closet, carrying an armful of clothing. “There’s no time to take a bath or anything else. We’ve got to get dressed for rehearsal, which means clothes you can move in.”
I lifted my head. “Or we could take a nap first to make sure everyone’s rested? I think some of us might be a little cranky from going to bed so late.”
“You get cranky no matter when you went to bed,” Kyra said.
“No time!” Amena repeated. She threw a blouse at my head. “Didn’t you hear? Bymonten got the concert booked for the day after the trade festival. I thought we might have better luck on a full moon. That means we have only ten days to get ready, counting today!”
I jumped to my feet. “I didn’t know it would be so soon!”
We scrambled to change our clothes and get out the door. My heart was pounding. I would be on stage in just ten days!
21
The Trade Festival
For the next ten days, we spent every waking hour staggering to and from rehearsals. Bymonten had rented a studio nearby to practice in, two stops away by trolley, which was lucky because my legs could barely carry me to my bed after dance classes.
The choreographer for the show was a man named Warawa with curly blue hair and a gentle voice. For training us, he was as strict as Tika had been for combat practice. He started every session with an hour of stretching before we got to dance a single step. I thought we were flexible from weeks of running across rooftops and swimming to the bottom of the ocean. Warawa forced us to contort into positions I didn’t think were humanly possible.
He claimed the dance routines were so basic, a small child could perform them, but he insisted on us repeating every step dozens of times with clockwork precision. We began with Amena’s most popular songs, starting and stopping over and over until even I was getting sick of hearing them.
We didn’t get to see Amena, or Deryt and Uqra who followed her everywhere, during most of our practices. She was busy coordinating everything else with Bymonten, from working out arrangements for her new songs with other musicians to attending press events promoting the concert. The music was prerecorded on a disk played on a gramophone, and Warawa could move the stylus to start the music at any point of the song. Which meant he could go back and play the same phrase again and again.
On the first day of rehearsal, we stayed at the studio much later than I expected. By the time we finished and went outside, it was night. I groaned when I thought about how early we’d have to get up.
“It’ll be brutal at the dawn ceremony tomorrow,” I said with a sigh. I turned to Warawa. “Where is the nearest temple, anyway?” I didn’t want to pray to Chysa, but we’d have to go with everyone else so we didn’t stand out.
“Who knows? There might be a few to the south,” Warawa said with a vague wave. “Most people around here don’t bother with the old rituals anymore. We’re forced to send most of our sunstones to the city anyway, so why should we put in the effort to make something we can’t keep?”
I glanced around the busy street with surprise. Despite the late hour, downtown was full of lights. Many businesses were still open and full of customers, and trolleys went clanging by. “How do you power all this without sunstones?”
Warawa beamed. “Coal! It burns better than wood and it’s cheaper than getting a priestess to power a crystal by hand. Our mines give us a steady supply, which is how the town’s been able to grow so much.” He pointed to a nearby lamp. “The gas lights keep the town lit all night long.”
“People stay awake all night?” Janera asked, stifling a yawn.
Warawa nodded. “Some people work the night shift at the factories. There’s twenty-hour diners and entertainment going on.” He patted Janera on the shoulder. “You’ll get used to our schedule before long. In the meantime, go get some sleep. Our next session starts at nine tomorrow morning.”
We didn’t have to be anywhere until nine in the morning? That was the best news I’d heard all day! I could already picture sleeping in late in that big, comfortable bed in the penthouse. If my legs hadn’t turned to jelly, I would have skipped back to the hotel.
There were other luxuries, too. Amena didn’t want us going out where someone might recognize one of us, so she had our meals sent up to the penthouse. The hotel kitchens cooked up delicacies like fresh pastries, crusty bread, slow-roasted llama, and deep-fried potatoes. I hadn’t eaten this well since leaving Damon Temple.
The sad part was that we didn’t have the chance to explore anywhere in Ruraqie. I wanted to learn more about these people and how they were different from the city dwellers I knew. What did they believe about Chysa and the story of banishing her sister? How did they feel about the empire? Amena and Deryt had told us everyone on the mainland was suffering to serve the cities, but it seemed like Ruraqie did pretty well for itself. Most people didn’t have a fancy penthouse to sleep in, but they had nice clothes, good food and coal to burn.
Warawa would drop hints in his practice sessions. He boasted about Ruraqie’s technology, with inventions that didn’t come from the Ministry of R&D in Lyndamon, but he complained that their cultural scene was much smaller. “All anyone cares about here is making money. There’s no art for the sake of art,” he said. “Pop stars like Amena are fun, but I wish I could choreograph a show with some real depth.”
“He probab
ly wishes he could work with some real dancers, too,” Vilqa muttered under their breath. But we were learning the routines, however basic, and it seemed like we might be able pull off this concert.
One afternoon, Bymonten and the others swept into the dance studio. He and Warawa greeted each other with air kisses on either cheek. Then Bymonten held out a record disk with a dramatic flourish.
“Here it is!” he announced. “The first demo of Amena’s new material. All the usual disclaimers, don’t share it with anyone, only use it here for practice, and so on.”
I glanced at Amena, but she didn’t look excited or nervous. How could she be so calm? I guess this was all routine for her by now.
Warawa clapped his hands together and snatched the disk from Bymonten. “Of course I won’t leak anything,” he said. He tossed the paper envelope aside and sashayed over to the gramophone. “Shall we have a listen?”
Bymonten and Amena took the only chairs, so the rest of us had to sit on the floor. At least we’d get a breather. Warawa leaned against the wall over the gramophone like he could read the grooves in the disk as the stylus traced over them. The room fell silent as the first notes of “Maiden of Light” drifted out of the flared horn.
Warawa turned to Bymonten with a skeptical look. “There’s a very strong religious theme, isn’t there? Do you think it’ll play well with the local audience?”
Bymonten waved his hands, looking flustered. “You need to understand my vision,” he said, as if the whole thing was his idea. “We’re working on a new image for Amena. She’s had a spiritual awakening. The songs express her renewed devotion not only for the gods but also her friends, the community and her belief in herself.” He smiled at her. “It’s all very empowering.”
Amena smiled back, but said nothing to correct him. She seemed content to let him speak for her.
I glanced at Deryt, who was covering his mouth with his hand. His face was turning red like he was trying not to laugh.
Riwenne & the Bionic Witches Page 17
