The purple smoke faded away to reveal her feet first. They were bare, as mine were, but she had golden anklets hung with tiny beaten coins that would clink softly with every step. The dark, earthy green of her skirt was shown next, swishing loosely above the anklets but hugging her hips. A matching coin belt encircled the top of the skirt, adding more music to her movements.
Heads were beginning to turn; those who had somehow missed the initial spectacle now saw the new dancer as her top, a purple wrap wound about her from a single band of fabric, was revealed. And finally, the face... and as she was shown in her new glory, I learned the magic of the conclave. As a bartender, she had been identifiable because she had dark red hair. But she had looked normal. She was pretty enough, but wouldn't have drawn a second look on the street, and certainly didn't steal attention from even the shyest of dancers.
Shade was gorgeous, in a way that looked natural and effortless. Her hair was tousled, as if she'd ridden in a car with the windows down for an hour. Yet the tumble of hair couldn't hide her eyes. I hadn't noticed before, but they were a piercing ethereal green. They shone through her mask like cat's eyes, her green vivid against the darker green and black lace.
"Safe to say we can start the bidding at 1000?" she asked, smiling wickedly.
Kleon moved before any other pirate could, appearing out of nowhere to lean over my shoulder and slam gold on the bar.
"Deal." He said. "Though that's 1500, more than enough for your scrawny self. Sound good to you?"
His question was directed at Vidan, but it was Shade who answered, leaving no room for doubt as to who was currently running the show.
"1500!? I mean, that could work. I know it's not exactly cheap, but I figured someone else would be man enough to stop you from getting what... a sixth girl?"
The calm shattered as the pirates started yelling, each fighting to have his bid heard over his comrades'. Shade smirked at Kleon and flipped her hair back over her shoulder, watching the chaos she had created. Some of the men on the far side of the hall had even gone so far as to begin climbing onto their crewmates in an effort to catch the new dancer's eye, as if the added height would make a man louder.
"You there!" Shade called out, voice cutting through the clamor. "What did you say?"
"I said that I would be willing to pay 1600." The man repeated, straining slightly to be heard across the hall.
"1600," she repeated, shrugging in mock apology at Kleon. "1600 from Jumé-falio! That makes him current high bidder! Not that he wins. Remember lads, I'm your last chance at a woman this year!"
"1650," Obsidarian called out.
"It's about time!" She laughed. "We were all beginning to wonder! You're first mate to Flame's crew right? And it's taken you this long to try to buy a girl?"
"I will raise to 1700." Jumé said.
Shade grinned, looking down at Obsidarian. "You're going to take that? An underling rising up to swipe a girl out from under you? He's not first mate any more you know. You don't have to listen to him."
"1800 then!" Obsidarian agreed, laughing. "Sorry Jumé, but I have deeper pockets than you, it would be best for you to give up now. You can save what pride you've got left."
Shade paused, leaning over and cupping her hand to her ear. The men laughed at the gesture, knowing Jumé had given up.
"I'd have thought that someone who served Mají-jalio so proudly had a little more backbone. Guess your coat-tail riding doesn't work so well when you opposed your new captain's presence from the very beginning." She taunted.
But Jumé didn't take the bait, and maintained his silence from the other side of the room.
The crowd began to buzz again as they looked for a new man to challenge Obsidarian. Most of them couldn't afford to drop 1800 on a girl, even if they convinced themselves that they could share.
Shade threw her hands up, shrugging again as she began to pace between the columns of her section of the bar.
"Anyone else?"
"2000" Kleon said.
Shade ignored him, scanning the crowd until she found another likely bidder.
"Vinyé!" she called out. "You've come a long way in the past two years. So tell me... why don't you buy a second girl? It would match a man of your standing, seeing as you have more crew than Flame and Storm put together!"
"I've already got one," he said. "I've never needed another."
"But wouldn't your girl like a friend? I'm sure she'd be grateful."
Vinyé looked at Bliss, who was hanging on to his arm. She giggled on cue, pressing herself against him.
"2200 then," Vinyé ceded.
"She's going to make me do it again," Kleon muttered. "Damn that girl."
"3000!" he called out.
Shade looked back to Obsidarian hopefully, but my first mate threw up his hands and surrendered to my handler. Vinyé shook his head slowly as he retreated from the bar, he already had a girl.
Vidan jumped into the conversation and decreed Shade as sold to Kleon. Kleon pushed through the crowd to the stage to give Vidan the gold, and then returned to the bar to formally claim Shade. The girl crossed her arms and refused to come down to meet him, and he impatiently tapped the newest thin gold band around his wrist. Shade dropped to the floor, eyes narrowed at her new handler.
"I should put a collar on you," he muttered darkly. "It'd serve you right. I could drag you around on a little leash then, and I'd enjoy it. But no, I'm a forgiving man. So you'll be getting this instead."
Kleon pulled a golden heart from his pocket and threaded it onto a sheer green ribbon the color of Shade's skirt. He motioned for Shade to turn around and offer him the back of her neck, but she snatched the necklace instead, tying it on herself.
"Don't even try," she warned, stalking away from us as the music restarted and people began to dance once more.
But Shade was new to this game. Kleon slowly counted to thirty, and then reached for one of the six golden bands around his wrist.
"Return and apologize," he commanded.
My handler walked away from the bar, taking one of the couches in the lounge area nearest the end of the bar and the dance floor. He didn't command me to follow him, but I did anyway, settling myself beside him on a worn leather couch. We didn't have to wait long for Shade, but it was longer than I'd expected, knowing she was only thirty seconds away when Kleon summoned her.
When Shade emerged from the crowd it was obvious what had delayed her. The girl was fighting the compulsion with everything she had, leaning back to the point where she was practically defying gravity even as her feet continued to scuffle toward us.
I couldn't help but smile at her antics. I didn't like the magic any more than she did, but at least I'd never made a fool of myself by showing it. Kleon tapped his foot to show impatience, but the smirk on his face that betrayed how much fun he was having.
Shade scowled when she finally came to a halt before us, eyes narrowed as she tried to keep her mouth shut.
"Sorry," she said, teeth gritted. "Next time I'll remember to step on your foot too."
"I'm giving you one chance," he said. "You can either keep your attitude in check, or I can force you to keep all of your smart comments to yourself for the year. Stop being so ungrateful, you know why I did it."
Shade crossed her arms. "It doesn't mean I have to like it. The point was to be normal Kleon."
"Normal girls don't smash pirates over the head before announcing that they want to be a dancer," he countered.
Shade had no answer for Kleon. She grabbed my wrist and pulled me off the couch.
"We're going to dance," she announced. "Don't bother us without a reason. See if you can remember the original definition of 'handler'."
"Original definition?" I asked once we were away from Kleon.
"I will explain," she promised. "But first I want to dance! I've wanted to come out here for a year Saldré! Let me live a little."
So we danced. I twisted around to the pulse of the beat, while Shade rolled to the very essence of the song. Her every movement was fluid, with actions causing rippling reactions that flowed until they coursed out of the palms held above her head. We whirled around, each changing partners every dozen measures or so until we were both dizzy, sweaty, and shaking with laughter.
"Now that's the way to dance!" She said.
I nodded, signaling to a bartender as Shade and I sat down. "I've never had so much fun dancing," I admitted. "I thought people didn't pass off partners anymore."
"I wasn't giving them a choice," Shade said, laughing as her former coworkers flocked to our place on the bar to congratulate her. "I was reaching for the next guy's hand before the first one got a better hold!"
The girls all laughed, but quickly retreated to their own sections before we could talk further. Shade winked outlandishly at the one girl that remained near us.
"Now it's my turn to order the drinks," she said, grinning broadly. "And I'll take two firesweet spheres for Saldré and me."
The bartender turned to walk away, and then froze.
"That's three parts dark chocolate, milk chocolate, and light chocolate, two parts for caramel and butterscotch, and a half part cherry cordial," Shade added. "It's easy enough to make."
"You don't have those materials," the bartender said softly. "I'm sorry, but that's not an item that can be put on a handler's tab."
"It's cool," I cut in. "I'll spot her. I have plenty of all of that right?"
The bartender nodded, visibly relieved, and scurried away.
"I'll get it next time," Shade promised.
I shrugged. "I don't mind, it's not like I'm short on anything."
"I'll still get it," she said. "Right after I drink this one. I'll head to the cages. Maybe we can find two next to each other."
The bartender returned, and before I could warn Shade, the girl gulped down half of her sphere, licking her lips to get rid of the traces of sticky substance.
"Now THAT, is a drink!"
I sipped at my firesweet slowly, letting the familiar giddy power and sharpened senses wash over me. I'd forgotten how potent my mixture could be, especially to others. Briamy had been the only other one who had tried firesweet, and if Shade had asked me, I probably would have told her she shouldn't have any, or at least split a sphere with her. Now the new dancer was humming with energy, her hands shaking as she downed the rest of the drink and ate the shell. I finished my drink as well, with Shade pulling me toward the cages the second I swallowed the last bite.
There was already a mob of men forming as Shade leapt up into a cage. I took the one next to her, twirling around a few times to get reacquainted with the slight swinging motion. The guys near my cage were more orderly than Shade's, their offerings pre-bought and ready to be shoved in the payment slot beneath the floor.
But the men didn't know what Shade wanted. Hilarity ensued as the new dancer teased and taunted the men around her, telling a few that their chocolate flowers were sweet, and would buy a whole 15 seconds of her time. A bottle of Disarono, on the other hand, was worth two dances.
The clink of the metal flap closing beneath my cage reminded me that not every pirate had was after Shade's attention. Jumé climbed up and stood beside me, eyes scanning the crowd beneath the two cages.
"There," he said after a moment. "I found one. Do you see her? The manager?"
I shook my head, looking frantically for the one female among the men on the floor. She should stick out, but I couldn't find her.
"So that would be a no, dancers cannot see the managers through the magic." He said quietly. "Look again; she is in that group of Storm's men, the ones with blue bandanas."
I stared at the described group. After a moment she was suddenly there, tall and skinny with a clipboard and a Zorro-style mask, Shade's manager. The girl was in charge of Shade's rules, the things men could and couldn't do if they wanted a dance.
"I have taught you something new," Jumé said, taking my hand as the music for his song started. As always, he touched only my hand and my waist, far more interested in spinning and talking than primal contact.
"Your friend," he said after a moment, "tell me of her."
I shrugged. "Your guess is as good as mine. I don't know anything."
"She treats you as a friend."
"She was my preferred bartender, that doesn't mean I know her life story."
Jumé fell silent for few seconds, staring over my shoulder as we circled, watching Shade with her first dance partner. I cleared my throat, bringing his attention back.
"If you want to know about her, you should dance with her instead. It's rude to ignore your partner."
Jumé shook his head, staring up at the rafter as he sighed. "You cannot simply walk up to a person and bombard them with questions, especially in the Conclave. It defeats the purpose, and an interrogated person is tempted to lie."
"You think I won't?" I asked.
"You have no reason to do so. Are you certain you do not know the girl? She is not one of your crewmates?"
I started to shake my head, but caught myself. Jumé didn't know who I was, but as a girl who had certainly been present last year with the bartender, I should know her. Any other girl probably did, seeing as they had all been in Carnie's crew last year, but I was the exception. So instead of answering truthfully, I laughed.
"You act as if we know who one another are beneath these masks." I said. "Vidan doesn't trust us to keep our own secret, let alone other girls'. I could be dancing next to my bunkmate and probably never notice because she's not covered in dirt and snoring."
Jumé laughed at my joke, but the laughter was empty, his attention still on Shade. We danced in silence until the song ended. He nodded to me before leaving the cage, permitting the next pirate to trade me chocolate for a dance. I pulled him up into the cage, glancing over in time to catch Shade's wink as she yanked the green sash from around her partner's hips.
We passed the remainder of the night like this, with another two breaks where Shade insisted on treating me to firesweet made with her own earnings. We danced in the cage and all over the dance floor, until we were sweaty, exhausted, and exhilarated. As the last dance began I felt a light tug on my wrist, a summons to my handler.
I wandered in the direction I was being pulled, finding Kleon on the same couch I'd seen him on earlier.
"You called?"
Kleon nodded, gesturing for me to sit beside him.
"I have something I wanted to suggest to you," he said. "I've been thinking about your problem for a few hours. I hadn't meant to get involved, but you're running out of time. By the time you figured it out, it would be too late. I know you won't like it Saldré, but I'm going to plant this idea in your head."
"I don't know what problem you're talking about." I said. "But go ahead and spit it out."
"Your... expedition," He said softly, forcing me to lean closer to hear him. "There aren't many options for your last man. It can't be from Flame's crew, or Vinyé's for that matter, and you need a man you can trust to not kill you, a list I imagine to be painfully short. But there is one that fits all of those needs. It's the last name you want to hear, I know... but he does care about you."
I froze, I knew who he was talking about, and I didn't know if I could handle it, if my pride could take it, or if his pride would even bend enough for him to go with me. I suddenly wanted a golden band of my own, one to stop Kleon from saying what must be said.
"Red. Whatever is between you, get over it, apologize if you need to, but work past it and bring the man along. He is your only option."
I wanted to argue. But Kleon was right. I stood and began to walk away from him, Kleon shouted for me to come back, but the last song ended. He had no power over me. Besides, I had to find my brother.