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"It is very fine It will be a joy to ith such beautiful hair"

"What will you do with it?" I asked

"Truly, you don’t want to know, princess"

"There’s some sick bastards in this town," Keenby her bitterness, maybe she was older than she looked

"It seems I have no choice but to accept"

My eyes met Casper’s I couldn’t read what I saw there, a stor sucked into darkness and welco the maelstrom He closed his eyes as if in pain and slipped out the door without a word

Reve pooled olden curls reverently on a work-table with a farewell pat I told ain and surpass its former beauty, but I wasn’t sure if I believed it

The dai as she plucked my sleeves and felt the stuff of er under my chin

"This will be fun," she h another door I was soon alone, soaking in a copper tub, the water froot over rain of salt in the sweet-s bubbles, I was able to finally relax I hadn’t realized how dusty and tightly wound I had been The bathtub, clearly selected for Reve, dwarfed my petite form, and I stretched in ecstasy In the workshop, the dai ed skirts for the less-picky whores So it was done, then I was ready to begin the next chapter of my life

The water was soon cloudy with the filth of years, and it was delicious to scrubdown my scalp By the time I exited the steam-filled bathroo forward to life on the road I’d never undertaken a journey before, and even if my main companion was an unpleasant ruffian like Casper, at least I wasn’t half-drained in a valise

Reve aiting for me in the workroom, surrounded by heaps of fabric and ribbons

"Oh la, chérie You are ready? Good We begin" She led e in the ers, which were now green It curled loosely around hed

"I know, I know Sangland is a bland place, and you are accusto out Brown dye will seem cruel to you, but it’s the only way to avoid detection"

"Artifice," I said "I don’t like it"

She laughed, her voice like water over rocks "You are Freesian royalty You drank artifice with your mother’s ers, she e concoction from bottles and powders and coated my hair with dull brown Without a word and with an ease that suggested prior dealings with Bludmen, she clipped and filed th When she finally washed the

I was accusto primped and dressed, and honestly, I wouldn’t have kno to do half of it I was more than content to let myself be manipulated as I meditated on my various plans Heads on platters Or spikes Travel by coach or elegant airship, velvet couches, a parasol atwelcointo the royal chaht of my jeweled necklace there I still had riches It would be a piece of bludcake

Reve helped arments favored in London, frilly petticoats that would make my skirt stand out round as a bell

"Now for your dress," she said, and I inspected the rich fabrics and trims draped everywhere

My s in the room

"A sack?" I asked, acid in my voice

"Oh, la, little princess What you see here are costumes for performers The dancers, the acrobats, the whores They all co But you must do your best not to stand out You must escape notice Eyes must travel over you and never re jaws, and then you would find yourself in another suitcase"

I poked the dull brown thing draped over her arers off on my robe

"Tell yourself it is a costuive up yet--there is ers of distaste in h, canvas-like fabric grated against my wrists and neck I’d never dressed as a Pinky, never hadwith the intiarheavy and leathery out to me, and I sneered at it

"A saddle?"

"There are no stirrups, chérie"

She winked and liftedaround h at least twenty pounds