Nathan flicked a hand. "I've yet to seek accommodations. Any place you could recommend with confidence?"

The dressmaker bowed again. "The Briar House would be the finest inn in Tanimura, my lord. If you wish. I'd gladly have my assistant run over there and make arrangements for you and. . madam."

Nathan straightened himself in the chair and fingered a gold coin from his pocket. He flipped the coin to the man, followed by a second, and then a third.

"Yes, thank you, that would be very kind of you." Nathan frowned in thought, and then tossed the man another gold coin. "It's late, but I'm sure you could convince them to keep their dining room open until we arrive. We've been on the road all day and could use a decent meal." He shook a finger at the man. "Their best rooms, mind you. I'll not have them sticking me in some cramped little sty."

"I assure you, my lord, the Briar House has no room that could remotely be considered a sty, even by one such as yourself. And how long shall I have my assistant tell them you will be staying at their establishment?"

Nathan stroked the ruffles on the front of his shirt. "Until Emperor Jagang requires me, of course."

"Of course, sir. And would you like the dress, my lord?" Nathan hooked a thumb in the little pocket in the front of his green vest. letting his hand hang. "It will have to do for common wear. What do you have that would be more elegant?"

The dressmaker smiled and bowed. 'Let me bring some others for your approval, and madam can try on the ones you fancy."

"Yes," Nathan said. "Yes, that would be best. I'm a man of wide experience and refined taste. I'm used to better. Bring something to dazzle me." "Of course, my lord." He bowed twice and rushed off. Clarissa grinned in wonder after the man had gone. "Nathan! This is the finest dress I've ever seen, and you wish him to show us something better?"

Nathan lifted an eyebrow. "Nothing is too good for a concubine to the emperor, the woman carrying the emperor's child."

Her heart fluttered to hear the prophet say that again. Sometimes, when she looked into his azure eyes, she almost saw something there, almost had the vaguest impression, if only for an instant, that Nathan was quite beyond mad. But when that serene smile of his came to his face, she melted in his confidence.

He was more daring than any man she had ever met. His daring had saved her from the brutes back in Renwold. Since then, his daring had saved them in circumstances that to her seemed worse than hopeless. There had to be a grain of madness in daring that far beyond bold. "Nathan, I trust in you, and will do whatever you ask of me. but please, would you tell me if this is just a story to pass us here, or do you really see such a horrid thing for my future?"

Nathan brought his leg down and rose to his full, towering height. He lifted one of her hands, bringing it to his heart as if it were the most fragile of blossoms. His long silver hair slipped over the front of his shoulder as he stood ever so close to her and looked into her eyes. "Clarissa, it is just a tale to accomplish my goals. It in no way reflects anything

I see about the future. I won't lie to you and tell you that there are not dangers ahead, but be at ease for now, and enjoy this much of it. We must wait for a while, and I wanted you to have an enjoyable time of it.

"You are pledged to do what you must. I trust in your word. In the meantime, I wanted nothing more than to do you a simple kindness."

"But shouldn't we hide where people won't know of us? Somewhere alone and out of sight?"

"That is the way criminals or unskilled runaways would hide. That's why they get caught. It makes people suspicious. If anyone is hunting them, they look in all the dark holes, never thinking to look in the light. As long as we must hide, the best place to hide is in the open.

"The story is too preposterous for people not to believe in its truth. No one would ever consider that anybody would have the audacity to invent such a tale, and so no one will question it.

"Besides, we aren't really hiding; no one is hunting us. We simply don't want to make people suspicious. Hiding would make them so." She shook her head. "Nathan, you are a marvel."

Clarissa eyed the bodice of the beautiful dress, what she could see of it, anyway, beyond the exposed flesh of her breasts, which were pushed up so high that they nearly tumbled out. She tugged at the bone stays lying against her ribs under her bosom. She had never worn such strange and uncomfortable undergarments. She couldn't imagine why they were all required. She smoothed the silken skirt of the dress.

"Does it look good on me? I mean, honestly. Tell me the truth, Nathan. I'm just a plain woman. Doesn't it look silly on a plain woman?" Nathan's eyebrow arched. "Plain? Is that what you think?" "Of course. I'm no fool. I know I'm not-"

Nathan waved her to silence. "Maybe you should have a look for yourself." He pulled the sheet off the standing mirror. This was a showing room for gentlemen. When he had instructed her on matters of decorum and propriety, he had told her that the mirrors in such a place were rarely used, and she wasn't to look in one unless asked. It was the look in the gentleman's eyes that mattered in such an exclusive shop, not the look in the mirror.

Nathan gently took her elbow and walked her before the mirror. "Forget what you see in your mind, and look at what others see when they look at you."

Clarissa's fingers fidgeted over the bunched frills at her waist. She nodded at Nathan, but feared to look in the mirror and be disappointed by what she always saw when she looked at herself. He gestured again. Wincing just a little out of embarrassment, she turned to gaze at her reflection. Her jaw dropped at what she saw.

Clarissa didn't recognize herself. She was not this young-looking. A woman- not a young, fickle woman, but a woman in the full glory of her maturity, a woman of elegance and bearing-stared back.

"Nathan," she whispered, "my hair. . my hair wasn't this long. How did the woman who worked on it this afternoon make it longer?"

"Ah, well, she didn't. I used some magic to do it. I thought it would look better if it was just a bit longer. You don't object, I pray?" "No," she whispered. "It's lovely." Her soft brown hair was done in ringlets, with delicate violet ribbons tied into them. She moved her head. The ringlets sprang up and down. and swayed side to side. Clarissa had once seen a woman of standing come to Renwold, and she had hair like this. It was the most beautiful hair Clarissa had ever seen. Now, Clarissa's hair looked just like that.

She stared at herself in the mirror. Her shape was so. . shapely. All those hard, tight things under her dress had somehow rearranged her figure. Clarissa's face blushed to see her bosom straining up the way it did. half exposed for all to see.

She had always known, of course, that women like Manda Perlin weren't really shaped as they appeared. She knew that when they had their clothes off. their shapes were not a great deal different from any other woman's, but Clarissa had never known just how much of it was due to the dresses those attractive women wore.

In the mirror, in this dress, with her hair done in such a fashion and with the paint on her face, she looked the equal of any of them. Perhaps older, but that age seemed only to add bearing to what she saw; not a spent, unattractive quality, as she had always thought. And then she saw the ring in her lip. It was gold, not silver.

"Nathan," she whispered. "What happened to the ring?" "Oh, that. Well, it wouldn't do to have you supposedly a concubine to the emperor himself and carrying his little emperor heir, and have a silver ring through your lip. Everyone knows that the emperor only brings those with gold rings to his bed.