Read Jalia and the Slavers (Jalia - World of Jalon) for Free Online Page B

have a crooked nose though.”
    Daniel shrugged. “I did the best I could under the circumstances.”
    “The Association have noticed that you are avoiding them. Burn and Kale, the two I warned you about, were sent looking for you last night and couldn’t find you. Burn is the bald one and Kale is the taller of the two. I think they entered your room in the early hours and discovered you weren’t there.”
    “Will Burn and Kale be at the Ball?” Jalia asked in far too sweet and innocent sounding voice.
    “Everybody in the town except the guards on the gate and in the hotel will be there. Why do you ask?”
    “I hate rapists.”
    “When and where is this ball?” Daniel asked as he gave Jalia a warning frown. She stuck her tongue out at him. Getting through three whole days without a full scale war was beginning to look unlikely to Daniel.
    “It’s in the Grand Hall, which is the building on the left of the square as you leave here. It’s the biggest building in Brinan. The Ball starts at nine this evening and will carry on until dawn, though no one is obliged to stay after midnight. It is a masked ball and everyone must be in formal evening clothes.”
    “I haven’t been to a masked ball in years,” Jalia said in delight. “And it’s going to be so much fun to see Daniel in evening clothes.”
    “Won’t you have to wear a dress, Jalia?” Daniel asked and Jalia frowned.
    “I don’t have anything to wear.”
    “I’m sure we will find you something.”
    When they got away from Patrus, Daniel suggested Jalia go back to Karn’s house as he was sure that Karn’s daughters would have something she could wear at the ball. While Jalia was doing that he would visit the tailor’s shop, which was a city block away.
     
    It was nine o’clock and Daniel felt a complete idiot. He wore the frilliest most absurd set of clothes he could imagine existed. From neck to toe he was encompassed in layers of white and pink lace. Not only did the jacket have ruffles, so did the trousers. To make it worse he carried a mask on a stick, which had white feathered plumage sticking a good two feet in the air. The only good thing about the costume was that he could wear his sword and dagger, though his sword hung from his waist instead of on his back and it kept banging against his leg when he walked.
    It didn’t help that a steady stream of equally idiotically dressed males had been entering the hall for some time, with their women wearing dresses that looked more like sequined teapots than anything practical a woman might wear. Daniel was well aware that royalty in Delbon wore similarly ridiculous things on state occasions, but he was a trader and wearing such clothes made him want to spit.
    He rubbed his collar, which was making his neck itch. The tailor assured him that the clothes had been cleaned, but Daniel had a deep suspicion that the one he wore harbored fleas. Large fleas that had not fed on human blood for a long, long time.
    He had arranged to meet Jalia and the others at the entrance to the hall, which is where he stood. She would be arriving with Talla and Karn’s family. With luck, their connection to Karn wouldn’t be noticed as everyone was masked. In any case, there was no way she could creep down alleys if she wore anything like the wedding cake on legs that had just walked past him.
    A coach pulled up, the driver was in formal dress, but he hadn’t got a mask on and Daniel saw it was Sam. Sitting next to him was a man who could only be Karn, though he was unrecognizable in a costume that resembled a bumble bee.
    When Sam stepped down from the driver’s seat he picked up a small discrete mask which he held to his face before letting the ladies out of the coach. As there were five of them inside, it had been a squeeze. Each girl’s dress expanded like a balloon as they stepped out of the coach. The girl’s masks were more sensible than the men’s, only covering the areas around their eyes in sequined