Read Dark Matter for Free Online

dressed.
    She rushed up to me. “Please, my lady,
let me help you with that.” Before I could blink the dress was
covering me, perfectly pressed. She lowered her eyes and asked, “Do
I displease you in some manner?” It was hard to miss the
devastation in her tone. “Would you like another to assist
you?”
    I placed a hand on her forearm. She
flinched slightly. “It’s nothing like that. I must be a huge
disappointment for you. It just seems silly to have you do things
for me I am accustomed to doing myself.”
    Her entire face looked tight as if she
really wanted to interrupt me; I doubted she ever would. She waited
for me to finish before speaking. “I am honored to serve you. You
must understand. I have won the right to be here tonight.” There
was a bit of leather behind her words. Was she saying she actually
battled somebody to help me get dress? She smiled wistfully. “I see
the rumors are true. You are different than most Elementals, both
in ability and in politeness.” She lowered her gaze from mine. “I
would speak plainly to you.” She scanned the room before she said,
“If you will allow it?”
    I startled from her words. Could I
trust this woman? Was it possible she could help me? “I encourage
it,” I replied breathlessly.
    She sat on the bench beside me. “I come
to offer assistance, my lady. I have heard you do not wish to be
called that, but I will not use your given name for security
reasons. I am told a certain princess had a brief conversation with
you before your inauguration.”
    I immediately became guarded. For all
of Ainessa’s attempts at befriending me, I couldn’t shake the image
of her first meeting with Cassie. She had been more than a little
tyrannical. If this woman was in league with her, I needed to be
very careful. “Yes, I did.”
    Lysanne leaned toward me. She took my
hands gently between her own. “She does not represent the vast
majority of women in our realms, even though she claims to. She is
cunning and can make you think you are serving yourself when in
fact, you are serving her. I have firsthand experience in this
regard. Most of us want to find harmony with our brother courts.
She wants power, nothing more. Do not trust her.”
    I nodded slowly. “Who can I trust in
this place?” I whispered.
    Her eyes darkened. “No one—not even me.
I come to you with my own agenda. I think it forthright, but some
might not. I will leave it to you to consider.” She nodded toward
the door. “Walk with me?”
    I waved for Cassie to stay where she
was as I followed Lysanne out of the room. She was having fun. I
had no desire to take her away from the excitement. Lysanne led me
into an adjoining chamber.
    It was my favorite room in this suite.
I imagined this was what a ladies chamber would have looked like in
the sixteenth century, only with a few more bells and
whistles.
    Two comfy crème couches faced each
other in the center of the room. Between them glowed an open fire
pit over which hung an enormous chandelier made entirely of ice. A
linear band of gold flowed around the outer edges in stark contrast
to the intricate branches of lacy ice that hung down several feet.
It looked like pictures I had seen of a coral reef, only this was
upside down. It reflected the glow of the fire while radiating a
blue light of its own. The colors it cast over the space were the
soft blues and ambers of a sunrise. To my amazement, it had never
dripped in all the time I had stared at it.
    This room abutted an atrium full of
thriving plant life. To my surprise, she walked past the sofa and
out into the garden. It was hard to tell I was in the middle of a
frozen wonderland when I was in this oasis. The Ignisian people
rarely traversed the glaciers or ice-capped mountains surrounding
their home. I had been told that in spring and summer, certain
parts of the country became lush with plants, but most of the realm
was a wasteland year-round.
    She stopped at the reflecting pool and
sat on a