Could he have been walking back from the refinery?
No. That was ridiculous. A thousand blessed rebirths did not produce a terrorist. An outcaste, just maybe, but not a terrorist.
'Hey, Taya!' An icarus with her wings folded down walked into the dining room, waving a letter. 'Message for you!'
'I'm here.' Taya stood, surprised. Mail was usually kept for icarii at the dispatch office. She took the heavy parchment envelope with curiosity. A large, painted wax seal and gold ribbon held it closed.
'I brought it straight from the Octavus estate.' The icarus grinned at her. 'I was told to put it in your hands. I'm glad you're not out flying messages already.'
'You're Ranelle, aren't you?' Taya remembered the younger girl; she'd been a few classes after Taya's.
'Yes.' The girl looked gratified at being recognized. 'That was really amazing, what you did yesterday. Everyone's talking about it. All the fledglings are begging their teachers to run rescue drills today.'
'Thanks.' Embarrassed, Taya turned the envelope over in her hands.
'Well… I'd better get going.' The girl sounded reluctant. 'Bye, Taya.'
'Fly safely.'
Taya felt the whole eyrie's eyes on her as she sat back down. She put the letter on the table and stole a glance at her friends.
'You might as well open it here,' Cassi said pragmatically. 'Whatever it says, it's going to be all over the eyries in a matter of minutes.'
'It'll be a thank-you,' Taya guessed, picking up a butter knife and wiping it clean on a napkin. She eased the seal up, unwilling to break such a beautiful object.
The letter was on vellum, inked in three colors; black for the text, red for the proper names, and gold around each capital letter. Cassi gasped, leaning over her shoulder. Neither of them had ever seen such ornate writing before.
'Must be nice to have that much time to spend on a letter,' Pyke remarked. Cassi elbowed him in the ribs. 'Oh, sorry, the exalted didn't have to spend any time on it. Some poor sap of a dedicate clerk did all the work.'
''To Taya Icarus, Greetings,'' Taya read aloud for her friends. The rest of the dining hall fell silent as everyone listened. Even the cook stood in the doorway, drying a platter. ''To offer thanksgiving and gratitude for your timely rescue of Exalted Viera Octavus and Exalted Ariq Octavus, and to celebrate perils overcome, you are invited as the guest of honor to Estate Octavus for a formal evening of dinner and dancing.’'
The other icarii in the room broke into applause. Taya turned red, reading further. 'Oh, scrap! What am I going to wear?'
Pyke groaned.
'I don't believe that was the first thing to come out of your mouth,' he said with disgust. 'How about an observation about the comparative value of dinner and dancing to the life of a wife and a child? Not to mention your own life, which was equally at risk.'
'What would you want?' Cassilta asked, scornfully.
'A purse of gold masks,' he replied at once. 'Five hundred, a thousand, maybe. Something useful
I notice the exalted didn't send me an invitation.'
'Pyke, you're cute but shallow,' Cassi said. 'Prestige is a lot more useful than money.'
'Sure. That's what they want you to think. That's how they keep us in line. Prestige won't buy an army. Poor people can't fund a revolution.'
'Cassi!' Taya turned to her friend, mentally running through her limited wardrobe. She was an icarus, for the Lady's sake! She didn't own any fancy clothes. 'Can I wear my armature? Please tell me I can wear my wings.'
'You can not wear your wings,' Cassi said firmly. 'Not as the guest of honor. When's the party?'
'Three days from now.'
'No problem. Pyke, tell Dispatch that Taya and I are taking the day off.'
'Why? To go dress shopping? The boss will love that.'
'He will if he wants our caste well-represented in front of the exalteds,' Cassi retorted.
'I'll tell him,' volunteered an icarus from the next table. 'Don't worry, nobody's going to make a fuss. Taya deserves a day off, anyway.'
'Thanks,' Taya said, chewing on her lip as she re-read the invitation. Clothes. She'd never thought about clothes. But a diplomatic envoy would need clothes, right? Why hadn't she thought about that earlier? Oh, Lady, she was going to have to learn how to wear fancy clothes.
Cassi led her out of the dining room and up the three flights of stairs to her bedroom, where Taya set the invitation on top of her bookshelf. She pulled on her groundling boots and a threadbare coat bearing a stylized feather on one lapel, then tucked the slim leather wallet that held her identification papers into the coat's inner pocket. Meanwhile, Cassi was rummaging through Taya's wardrobe, shaking her head.
'How can you only have two dresses and one pair of nice shoes? Don't you ever go out?'
'Yes. In flight leathers.' Taya pulled out her bank book and looked at the balance. She saved as much of her slim salary as she could, but a fancy dress would set her back by months.
Maybe she could rent a dress. Or — did theaters lend out their costumes?
'Didn't Pyke ever take you anyplace nice?'
'Like where? One of his conspiracy meetings? We mostly stayed in and talked.'
Her friend tsked, muttering about brains, biceps and waste — or was it waist? — before closing the wardrobe door.
'Well, this is hopeless. We'll have to start from scratch.'
'Do you think I can find something at the Great Market?'
'A readymade for an exalted's party? Taya, you make me despair for all womankind.' Cassi grabbed her hand and tugged her down the hall to her own room. There she pulled on a jacket and grabbed her purse. 'Don't worry. I have a secret weapon. My nephew just finished his apprenticeship and is opening up his own couture business. You should see his designs. They're fantastic.'
'I can't afford a custom-made dress.'
'Don't be silly. He should pay you to wear one his dresses to the party.' Cassi hurried down the stairs, and Taya followed, feeling out of her depth. 'This could be just the break he needs. Now come on. Jayce is a miracle-worker, but three days isn't much time, and we've got a lot to do.'
Cassi's nephew had rented a hole-in-the-wall shop in a respectable part of Secundus. As soon as Cassi explained Taya's predicament, he canceled all of his appointments and summoned a small army of friends and associates to help. At first Taya questioned the wisdom of putting herself into the hands of a baby-faced twenty- year-old dedicate, but after an hour of gazing at his designs and listening to his rapid-fire orders, she surrendered to his artistic vision and meekly let him do whatever he wanted.
After an hour, Cassi abandoned her to find shoes and jewelry.
'I can't afford jewelry!' Taya yelped as her best friend vanished out the door.
'Don't worry. She'll get it on loan.' Jayce ran a strip of measuring tape around her breasts and Taya flinched. 'Straighten up. You do not want your dress to sag here.'
