Battle Mage: Dragon Mage (Tales of Alus) (28 page)

Colbie laughed at the dragoness, “I’m a battle mage. I doubt that I will be going to any king’s ball unfortunately.”

The salesman looked intently at the young dragoness. Her blond hair and young face made him think her very innocent and perhaps a bit naive. Still, if a customer had the money to spend, he didn’t care what they looked like normally. “Your friend has picked a nice dress, but this one is a mere three golds.”

Whistling at the price, Colbie shook her head. It was a lot of money for either of them. She was about to comment on that being too expensive, when Cheleya said, “If Tilana likes it, then it’s hers.”

“But, Cheleya, it is too much really,” the normally quiet wizard protested at the idea thinking of the cost.

Shaking her head, the dragoness pointed at Colbie’s sword and stated, “How much do you think I can sell a sword like that one? I have six or seven that I can sell along with the gold I have. Three golds mean little to me, Tilana. It will be my gift and I think Orlerin would love to dance with you in that dress, don’t you?”

Her mouth dropping slightly in shock at the girl’s generosity, the wizard seemed unsure what to do.

“This blue really matches your eyes,” the salesman quickly followed up his opening for a sale. “If you would like to try it on, there are rooms over there for that,” he added pointing to a pair of draped closets on the far side of the room.

Colbie shrugged and watched as Tilana was talked into at least trying on the dress. Disappearing into the dressing room, Colbie remembered, “We’re friends of Caraly Antoinear, if that makes any difference by the way.”

Hearing the name the man’s eyes rose in surprise. “The ambassador’s wife? I would not have thought you would run in the same circles. No offense intended.”

Straightening up and trying to look a little haughty like a noble woman, Colbie replied, “Well, she is the one who recommended Heleneva’s. By the way, shouldn’t there be a woman running a dress shop named Heleneva’s?”

“My sister is Heleneva. She is working on alterations for a few dresses. Like I said earlier, there will be several dances and a king’s ball during the tournament week. Winter’s Edge has been looked forward to by the nobles for months.

“The cold has slowed business enough for me to watch over the shop by myself, but we have other employees working in back at the moment,” the man assured the mage. “Now what kind of dress do you think you would be interested in today? If your friend is paying and still wants to see you in a dress, this would be the time to do it. Now wouldn’t it?”

Noting Cheleya looking like she was through already, the mage put up a hand to put the salesman on pause a moment. “Cheleya, have you found what you like?”

The dragoness held a small pile of silk garments. Bottoms and tops numbering five each, the girl smiled and nodded, “I’ll take these. He said that you would like a dress also?”

Holding up both hands to ward off the question, Colbie backed away a step. “No, that’s all right. I think that I will be fine, thanks.”

The salesman held up a fine dress made mostly of a burgundy red with cream highlights on the sleeves. He looked between it and the mage. “Yes, with your coloring and that exquisite hair color, this would look amazing on you.”

“Oh, try it on then,” Cheleya said with a grin. The mage tried to push their insistence away, but had to admit that the dress was beautiful. Finally, the girl gave up and entered the second dressing room.

Tilana was the first to exit looking unsure of herself in the long gown. Cheleya’s face brightened and the dragoness clapped excitedly like a little school girl at her appearance. “You look so beautiful,” the girl responded seeing the wizard.

“It isn’t too much?”

The salesman responded, “That blue truly matches your eyes and with your long raven hair you look marvelous. Don’t you agree?” he finished by asking Cheleya who simply nodded and smiled.

Colbie exited the room holding the top of the dress tightly to her bosom. “It has buttons up the back. How am I supposed to put this on by myself?”

The salesman quickly moved to her back and began doing the buttons as he replied, “These dresses are usually purchased by ladies that have assistants to help them. You aren’t supposed to be able to put them on by yourself, but once you are in them you look like a queen.”

Hardly buying the man’s words, since she knew that it was his job to sell them on the dresses to make money, Colbie waited a moment for him to finish buttoning her into the dress and found a triple mirror to the side of the changing rooms. Her eyes widened at the sight of herself in the fancy dress. With her hair still styled and colored the way Cheleya had put it, the battle mage barely recognized her image. She really did look like some noble woman headed to a ball.

The dragoness appeared in the mirrors behind her smiling at the mage’s appearance. “So should we take this one or do you want to look around at some more?”

“This one’s fine,” the girl replied quickly to avoid having to spend more time in the shop. Colbie hated to admit that she looked so beautiful, when the battle mage had fought so hard and long to be taken seriously being a woman. She was still a young woman deep within and sometimes that girlishness wanted a chance to come out.

Seeing each other in their dresses, the two women complimented one another knowing that if they should need to go to a dance, they would definitely look ready.

Chapter 17- The Two Circles Inn

Evening was beginning to settle over Hala as the three women found the Two Circles Inn. A tall building five stories high, it was near the inner wall separating the inner city from the outer and was slightly taller with crenellations for archers along the roof. Should the outer city ever fall, even public buildings could become places of resistance. It was thinking like that which had prevented the capitol city from ever falling to an enemy, at least no enemy from outside the city.

Legend had it that the immortal Gerid Aramathea, along with the city’s queen, turned against the man calling himself the High King. Though no siege had taken Hala, a man’s greed and evil nature had lost him his throne and the city had closed its doors to him. Over two centuries of war with the Emperor, the capitol had never come close to losing despite many desperate battles fought outside the large, white walls of the outer city.

The history, while not completely lost on the women, was less impressive than the expansive building’s size in front of them. Even the White Mare, which had been a good size building for the northern town, would be dwarfed by the Two Circles Inn. Made of dark gray stone, it was closer to the coloring of the inner keep than the outer white walls. The entry doors reminded them that this was considered the rich part of the city as glass doors in golden frames were all that barred their way. Powerful inner doors could be thrown if need arose, but the Two Circles was meant to instill a richness of decor right from the golden threshold.

Pushing through the tall doors, rising almost two feet above the petite dragoness, the women nearly stopped upon entry. Four large stone columns ran the length of a huge room. The stone was made of black and brown polished to glisten in the lamplight in the evening and helped hold the twelve foot high ceiling above them. Gold highlights were everywhere from molding above to the trim on the tables lining the walls.

The center tables for the official restaurant had table cloths of intricate black and brown patterns to match the nearby columns, while the outer tables were of black polished wood. It was along the outer walls covered in rich wood to cover the outer stone that they found Orlerin and Evantus waiting for them.

The packs were noticeably missing and their leader quickly stated at their questioning looks, “I had to drop the ambassador’s name, but they still had a couple of rooms on the third floor near the back.”

“Third floor? How many floors does this place have? And I thought that ambassador said this place wasn’t expensive. This can’t be cheap,” Colbie questioned as she stood holding a long bag by a hook for hanging her dress.

“Five floors,” Evantus quickly dismissed her question as he asked, “And what is in the bag? I thought you went to find clothes for Cheleya. She has a normal bag, but you two seem to have picked up more things.” He pointed at the covered dress looking like he was waiting for Colbie to admit to her moment of weakness.

“We picked up gowns in case we need to dance,” the mage confessed and waited for her friend to tease her. It didn’t take long.

“You? In a dress? I have got to see this!” he said reaching for the garment bag. Colbie slapped his hand away.

“I’m not going to let you get it all dirty with your hands,” the red head said with a frown guarding her new dress. “You two will look like fools if you don’t have at least dress uniforms, you know.”

Waving off the worry easily, Evan replied, “Then maybe Cheleya can make our regular clothes look nicer, if that happens. I don’t even think this place will have musicians for a dance here. It’s so fancy they probably don’t want to scuff the stone floor.” He pointed to the black and golden tan floor tiles that reflected almost as well as a mirror. The whole entry area was certainly a well polished floor that looked like people had never been allowed to step on the tiles, but it was an illusion since the Two Circles was actually one of the elite places to dine for nobles and the rich.

Pushing away from his chair Orlerin took Tilana’s package from her hands as he said, “Come on. We’ll take you to the rooms.”

Even Evantus looked ready to leave. The ostentatious restaurant was beyond the basic tastes of the mage, though he supposed that someone rich wanted to be surrounded by expensive looking things.

The mage took Cheleya’s pack for the dragoness. It was a much easier load than the one he had when looking for the inn in the first place. His first trip to the rooms would have been worse if not for the help of the young men employed to carry the patrons’ luggage. Since they were all walking to the rooms together, the men in uniform working near the desk on their right continued to do their work all but ignoring them.

Finding the walk a lot longer than expected to get to their room, Cheleya was glad that Evan had carried her pack, even if she was pretty sure that she could have walked up the two flights of stairs to the room either way. It also left her the opportunity to take in the opulence of the rest of the inn. Stone and expensive wood highlighted the hallways while the dark, stained, wood banisters assisting each staircase lay across gold painted balusters. More of the black and golden tan stone made the center of the stairs look richer and probably was more durable as well. The shine was even there, though dusty foot prints could be seen more often as the staff needed to attend them again.

“They went all out everywhere, didn’t they?” Colbie noted as they finished the long walk to the back of the third floor. While the building was large, it could have been a longer walk. “I can’t believe that there are two more floors above us. Who would want to spend a lot of money to stay on the fifth floor and walk up even more stairs?”

Orlerin smiled and shook his head, “The top floor has a special elevator designed by wizards to go from the first floor to the top. They pay for the extra view and privacy afforded them by its distance from those who have to walk the stairways. Evan and I watched a couple parties that looked like they were royalty from all the luggage brought in by the carriers. The device is on the opposite side from the stairs hidden by the restaurant walls, so we couldn’t see the exact process used to run the lift.”

Shaking her head as she considered the frivolous use of magic for an inn, Colbie commented, “I thought Southwall didn’t waste its wizards on such things. Staron doesn’t have enough to bother with the needs of a simple inn. Let the rich walk, heaven forbid.”

“The city is old enough that is could have existed before the coming of the emperor and his armies,” Tilana suggested as Orlerin produced the key for the girls’ room and opened the door.

Two large beds covered with red coverlets traced with gold leaf patterns and ornate dark wood headboards greeted the women directly before them as they entered. A large room, it was a bit less expensive looking than the lobby and restaurant area but only just. Two wardrobes made of the same dark stain and matching woodwork sat on either side of the room, while a pair of dressers was placed on either side of the entry door. With a center nightstand, a fancy lamp set on top, and more of the gold plated lamps spread around the room, the inn room was larger than the one in Televal and more ornate, but a second door lay open on the right wall.

“Is that a bath room?” Colbie asked noticing a stone floor peeking from the open door that matched the coloring of the rest of the inn.

“According to the bell hop who escorted us to the rooms earlier, they have hot and cold running water for the tub and sink,” Evantus replied with a grin. “You even get a commode instead of a single shared restroom on each floor.”

Many towns and cities had adopted indoor plumbing over the centuries mostly thanks to the wizards who had long ago discovered ways to bring such amenities into civilized places like Hala. Unfortunately, there was still great cost to run and build such facilities so many inns used one or two restrooms per floor. Bath houses were mostly communal, while personal homes often had to warm their water for baths with a hearth’s fire.