The woman was wearing the same kind of shear white dress that most of the women wore to these parties, almost a uniform. Even he had adopted the male version, with a green sash around his waist and light trousers. She was darker skinned than he was, but lighter than almost everyone else, about the same tan as Trice or Maria. Her smile was nice when she used it, Tor saw. A bit toothy and her gums showed, but it seemed to be real, lighting up her face, which counted for a whole lot with him at the moment.
She spoke softly, a bit shy, like his sister Terlee used to be before she started going all noble Counserina on him. It wasn't all bad, he was proud of her for it… mainly. Except for the spying parts.
“I'm Bonita. I'm here visiting family for a few weeks. Things were a little tense here though, until today. They say Smythe of Westend came and fixed everything. That's something isn't it? I don't think he's here though, a person like him probably wouldn't be off dancing or anything. Probably inside.” She pointed to the Ward palace, which they all called “the estate”.
“Everyone seems so happy. I guess that's understandable. I am. Happy I mean. Maria has always been kind to me. She doesn't get along well with all my other sisters, there are five of us in all, some half-sisters though. We don't have the same mom, Maria and I. But still, family is family. Her husband’s worth coming to look at if nothing else, and I hear that Tor is here. Maria said that. The wizard I mean. He's the one that brought Smythe and stopped the war I think. My other sister, she's younger than me and really pretty, she knows him. At least that's what she said. Still, she was passing out flying amulets at the time and those are almost impossible to get, so she must know someone. Then, she lives in the Capital. I'm the one they keep at the country estate. Bonita Turnbull…” She sounded a bit bitter at the end, but Tor nudged her gently, made a silly face and stuck his tongue out.
He'd heard the insane or unacceptable relative of royals called Howard Turnbull before so he got the reference. Yay, learning. Bonita wasn't crazy though, he touched her field to check, it was a little sad, depressed and lonely, but healthy and decently intelligent feeling. Not a genius maybe, but not evil either and not holding any ulterior motives in talking to him. That heartened him a lot. If she even knew who he was he'd have been surprised, if not flabbergasted. There was no recognition, nothing except genuine interest. In him.
Just the guy who'd asked her to dance.
Heh.
Tor grinned at her.
“Don't get down on my new friend you!” He mock glared and put his fists on his hips trying to puff himself up. Bonita smiled and look down coyly.
“I usually don't tell men this right off, because I generally don't want people to throw themselves at me because of my title, but I like you and am willing to throw out whatever bait I can.” Moving closer to him she whispered softly, “I'm a Baronetta first.”
Tor shrugged.
“That's OK, I won't hold it against you, some of my best friends are nobles.” She looked down shyly again, and giggled softly, which was kind of cute.
“Hey, I didn't want to go alone, but would you like to go soak in one of the tubs? It looks fun.” Moving his head as if gesturing that they should move in that direction, Tor turned off his shield and took her hand, which made Bonita smile at him and follow when he started walking.
Five minutes later they were standing next to one of the pools, which was totally full of people packed so tightly together there was barely room left for water between them. All the pools were like that. Well… darn. Bonita may not have the same kind of face as her sisters, but she looked to have a cute body with nice curves and had the benefit of not being way too tall. Bathing was a good reason to get her out of her clothes too.
The idea made him smile.
“Well, we'll go later. I think I'm here for a couple of days still. I have some work I have to do during the day, but if you want, we can get together and do stuff? I haven't really seen the city at all, this is my third time here, so I should. I've only been to the beach once, and haven't walked the city at all.” He felt silly saying it, but her eyes were warm and she nodded shyly.
“If you want, once you see me in full light, I mean. Everyone looks better in dim light.”
Tor raised his eyebrows.
“Oh… good point, you haven't really seen me yet either. Want to run off and have sex now when we're both good looking? I've been compared to a troll you know. Seriously. Now, I thought it was a little mean, but hey, there were a lot of them saying it at the time…” Stupid Galasian school kids. They made a play about it and everything. To be fair it was a pretty good play, but it still kind of hurt his feelings to think about. Worse, by their traditions, in any future plays or writings, he had to be depicted the same way. No changing it up just to salve his ego or anything.
Worse, the troll him was kind of a jerk.
Before she could answer fireworks started above them.
Ah ha! Someone had activated the device he'd made. Well, leave things on a table with a bunch of drunks and someone was bound to hit the glowing sigils, weren't they? It would be surprising if whoever had didn't wet themselves. At least the effects didn't seem to come directly from the device itself. Instead they seemed to grow out of the air itself way up high in the black night. There were thunderous booms too, a bit before the brilliantly colored streamers crossed the sky. It made it seem more real, he thought. People started to make noises of awe, which turned into cheers as fully a third of the inky black night sky was filled with brilliant purple and gold, the royal colors. Then there was an all green spectacle with twenty randomly placed looking blasts that popped and crackled. For Lairdgren, since that was his house.
Bonita clapped hard.
“Maria didn't mention fireworks! This must have cost a fortune… not that I'm hard up for money, if you’re a male whore… I can pay…” Her voice went soft again, she was looking at him in the bright light from the display.
The snorting laugh that came out was far from dignified. Tor started to answer, but didn't get a chance, since the next phase was coming up already and it kind of stole all the attention. It would start with a flower, a single red rose made of various colored sparkles which got a gasp that was rewarding to say the least. He tapped his shield off again for what was coming, since it would be filtered otherwise and casually took Bonita's right hand in his left, looking at her in the gentle glow. She glanced at him, and smiled happily, her hand tightening around his.
What came made people stand up and cheer with delight, hooting and hollering in drunken abandon. It was a saucy dancing girl, made of sparkles all in red and bright blue. The image moved though, standing, legs flashing as skirts were tossed up. Drumming, fast and driving, came from the sky itself as she skipped and twirled, if you were imaginative and attentive you could see a dark patch as she twirled and her skirt rose, in interesting places. It was actually based on one of the girls he'd seen dancing the time before when he'd come, so it looked pretty realistic. Not perfect, but no one seemed to mind that it wasn't an actual giant dancing woman in realistic colors. He could have done that of course, now that he'd gotten how to make things move, it had just seemed like it might be too scary without giving people something less realistic to look at first.
This was it, he thought, the important part.
It started almost without notice, the sense of a warm breeze hitting the skin, gaining strength and cooling slightly as birds flew into the scene from nowhere the feeling of their wing beats buffeting the crowd. They seemed to appear on a thunderclap, both were green, and had decent realism other than the color and being made of firework sparkles. The drumming was suddenly joined by horns as rain gently fell on skin. Except the world was totally dry. It was just the sensation of it, fed to the brain directly. This died suddenly and was replaced with a low tingle that Tor figured would probably have had him lynched in Two Bends, but might go over with a crowd of rowdy drunks that often turned sex into a public sport. The tingle became pleasure, and in about a minute the pleasure grew so intense that people were shaking a little. Even Bonita who grasped his arm tightly went breathless for a bit. It felt good to him, but not that intense… Were some people just more sensitive than others then?