It’s always risky introducing two people who’ve never met. You can never be quite sure how they’ll get on, especially when one’s human and the other looks like the star of a high-budget horror movie. So I was pretty nervous as I returned to Arachne’s chamber. I couldn’t help thinking of all the things that could have gone wrong: Luna panicking and running off alone, Arachne losing her temper with Luna and kicking her out. So far Luna had been bearing up well, but it was a lot to absorb in a very short time. What if being left alone with Arachne had been one shock too many?
Lost in thought, I didn’t recognise the sound I was hearing at first. When I did, I slowed, puzzled, then turned the last corner and walked in.
Luna was laughing, though her voice was distant. I couldn’t see her, but from the sound she was in one of the small side chambers to the far left of the room. Arachne was in the centre, working at a table. ‘There, you see?’ Arachne said. She was working on a dress in white and green, altering something in its design. She worked with all four front legs at once, needles and scissors moving so fast I couldn’t follow what she was doing. ‘Now, I think your instincts were right the first time. Pale colours look much better on you. I’ve taken out the green, so why don’t you give it another try?’
‘Okay!’ Luna said from across the room. ‘I really like the pink one as well though.’
‘It does set off your skin … I’ll keep it out just in case. Oh, hello, Alex.’
‘Hey.’ There was a pile of dresses on the sofa nearest to the changing rooms. ‘Been busy?’
‘Hi, Alex!’ Luna called from behind the curtain. Her voice was muffled, as though she was pulling something over her head. ‘Have you seen these clothes? They’re amazing!’
I grinned at Arachne. ‘Arachnophobia’s no match for shopping, huh?’
‘Don’t be graceless,’ Arachne said, and glided across the room to pass the dress over the top of the curtain. Luna’s bare arms reached over to take it. ‘Here you go, dear. Have a look at both while I see to Alex.’ Arachne drew the curtain back from another side chamber. ‘Now, Alex, before you put these on, I want you to promise you’ll take care of them.’
‘Sure.’
‘I mean it. You hang them up properly, have them washed in that funny way, what’s it called-?’
‘Dry-cleaned.’
‘-and don’t get them slashed or dissolved or chewed up or burned.’
‘It hasn’t happened that many times.’
‘Oh really? What about the first set I made for you?’
‘That was ten years ago! Would you have even noticed if it had been me that didn’t come back instead of the clothes?’
‘It was a full wardrobe. Some of my best work, too. With a little work they’d still fit …’
‘Look, you know what happened there. I couldn’t exactly have gone and asked for them back.’
‘And the outfit I made you for Unicorn’s Run. Have you any idea how hard it is to get blood out of silk? Then there were the ceremonial robes for the investment ceremony. You said to make it fire-resistant, and I did. I even told you exactly what temperature it would tolerate. And then-’
‘I didn’t say fire-resistant, I said fire proof. Besides, that thing with the inferno elemental was not my fault.’
‘What are you two talking about?’ Luna called from behind the curtain.
‘Nothing,’ Arachne and I said at exactly the same moment, then looked at each other.
‘I think it’d be a good idea if she went with you to the ball,’ Arachne said.
I blinked. I’d been trying to decide the same thing but … ‘A mage’s ball isn’t exactly the safest place for a newbie.’
‘She has to learn sometime. Besides, Alex, I think you should have a talk with the girl. You aren’t doing her any favours by sheltering her.’
Before I could ask Arachne what she meant she’d scuttled away into her private chambers. I shrugged, then went into the changing room and took a look at the outfit laid out on the table. I probably should have asked for something specific instead of leaving it all up to Arachne. Oh well.
‘What was that about?’ Luna asked curiously, her voice muffled from the wall and the curtains between us.
I started to undress. ‘Arachne gets upset about the state I leave my clothes in.’
‘It doesn’t happen often, does it?’
‘No.’ I hesitated, mentally counting. ‘Not really.’ I counted again. ‘Okay, maybe. But I only get clothes from her when I’m going to meet a lot of other mages.’
‘You mean like now?’
‘Yeah, like-’
I stopped and turned my attention to my new outfit. Laid out on the table it looked like a dinner jacket, although there was something a little different about it. I picked up the shirt.
‘Alex?’
‘Uh-huh?’
‘Is it okay if I come to the ball with you? I won’t get in your way.’
The shirt was causing me problems. I didn’t answer straightaway, and Luna took my silence as a sign that I needed more persuading. ‘I mean, if those people are going to be looking for me, a crowded ball would be a good place to be, right? It’d be harder for them to try anything with lots of other mages around. And some of the people might have information. I could help you find things out.’
I finished with the trousers and held up the tie, running it through my fingers. ‘Arachne told you to say that, didn’t she?’
Luna went quiet. I shook my head and started putting the tie on. ‘She’s really taken a shine to you.’
‘So, um-’
‘You can come.’
‘Really?’ I could hear the excitement in Luna’s voice. ‘Great!’
I shook my head, but I didn’t smile. What I really wanted to ask was why she was so excited to be going. Luna wasn’t stupid; she had to realise that a gathering of mages would make for a dangerous night out. But it wasn’t the right time to ask.
A faint scuttling sound alerted me that Arachne was back. ‘All ready?’ she called, and brushed the curtain aside to come in. Arachne’s always been a little hazy on human ideas of privacy. She looked me up and down approvingly. ‘Good.’
I turned to take a look at myself in the mirror. Putting it on, the outfit had looked like a dinner jacket. Wearing it, it still looked like a dinner jacket, but it was … different, somehow. The figure looking back at me looked smart, elegant. It was hard to put your finger on it, but if I’d seen a picture of myself I might not have recognised who it was.
‘Well?’
I took a last look, then nodded. ‘I like it.’
‘Well, at least you have some taste.’ Arachne handed me a white ribbon. ‘Tie this on the lapel.’
I looked at the thing curiously. It was more than just an accessory; I could feel magic radiating from it, with the subtle weave of Arachne’s signature, but it seemed passive, rather than active. ‘What does it do?’
‘Oh, I think you should be able to work that out.’ She moved round to where Luna was changing, and I heard her asking Luna which one she liked best.
I walked out into the central chamber, studying the ribbon with a frown, searching through futures. There was something about the weave that I recognised, something that made me think of chance magic, inverted. But it wasn’t a spell I’d ever seen, unless … My eyes widened suddenly. Oh …
‘All ready?’ Arachne’s voice called. ‘Come on, Alex, are you watching?’ I looked up in surprise just as a girl stepped out from behind the curtain.
It was Luna, but for a moment I didn’t recognise her. She was wearing a dress of white and green that left her arms and shoulders bare, spiralling down in layers to cover her feet. The cloth shimmered slightly as she moved, the pale green and the snow-white reflecting the light around her. A gauzy shawl was wrapped around her arms, and she’d tied her hair up with a pair of white ribbons, leaving her neck bare.