3 Chapter 3: His Eyes On Her

“You should have whacked him over the head.” Gisella laughed at her best friend’s statement. Roseia and Isaora were women much like herself, and she found great friendship in the company the three of them kept together.

It was the evening after the incident in the kitchen when the two women began giving their advice and two cents about what Gisella should have done with her intruder at the kitchen.

“But do none of you really know what gold bands mean?” Gisella was frustrated about the lack of information at this point and none of the servants or guards seemed to be of any help. The woman watched on as Roseia and Isaora shook their heads.

She had noted that the guards wore purple bands unlike the servants of the castle. The cooks, servants and cleaners all wore blue bands much like the one that adorned her wrists and the wrists of the members in her troupe. The men of court, wealthier and influential men, all hosted silver bands.

Still, no golden bands. She hadn’t seen sight of those golden colours since the market and then the kitchen the following night. If she remembered closely, in her rush to leave the room, she remembered that the man who had intruded on them and saved her wore golden ones as well.

She had managed to see two men wearing golden bands within her first day of coming to Farrador so why now did it seem that no one even knew of their existence?

Sighing through her nose, Gisella only focused on getting into her costume and making sure everything was perfect. The room they were getting dressed in was small and barely left any room to properly relax in between the three girls before the show began.

The costume and jewelry she wore were not separate in and of themselves, so she had to ask the help from both Roseia and her brother Otho to help fit into it. Long and expensive silk fabrics were intertwined with the golden necklace and rings that were placed onto her neck and fingers.

The material itself was of the royal colors of purple and blue, the same colours she had seen at the marketplace earlier that day. Gisella wore no shoes for the performance and her nails were painted black.

Anklets of a golden color that matched the rings and necklace around her adorned her feet as well, and a string of chain rode across her painted face from one ear to the other, partly obscuring her features while allowing a tantalizing glimpse. As she admired herself in the mirror she truly thought Malota outdid herself with this specific outfit.

Upon the thought of the women, Gisella and the two siblings, as well as Roseia, turned their heads at the opening of the door. The three of them ushered out as Malota entered and wished Gisella the best of luck on her performance tonight.

Being the main dancer and especially well versed in the type of dance they would be performing tonight Gisella would be the opening act for the troupe. She had a big role to play in the contentment of the court and she tried not to let it get to her.

Gisella watched from the mirror in front of her as Malota moved to stand behind her. The woman was much shorter than she was but an air of superiority made her seem much larger. Malota was the troupe’s eldest member and helped take care of the dancers as much as she could.

The younger woman noted that she would not be as far or have become as good as she was if it wasn’t for the guidance of Malota. She owed the woman so much.

“The customs are different here in Farrador,” Gisella grunted slightly as her straps were pulled tighter, “The men are much more powerful than the other kingdoms.”

Gisella knew what Malota was telling her. Not trusting her words to go completely unheard, Malota spoke in a way only Gisella would understand. Be careful, Malota’s words said, be careful because these are powerful men.

She had taken a peek at the members that had encompassed the majority of Farradorian Court earlier that day as they were all coming into the hall. All of the men held silver bracelets and looked about as appealing as wet clothes.

Gisella remembered scrunching her nose up at the old men as they rubbed their hands together and waited patiently for the dancers to come in.

“The King will be there as well. He was a kind man once—not so much anymore.” Morata turned Gisella around to face her and tightened the golden chain around her neck to fasten the silks in place.

“This kingdom has suffered much, once it was ruled by a fair king and queen. Now a mad king sits upon the throne—this is what the cooks say.” Malota said.

Gisella furrowed her eyebrows in confusion, “The cooks?”

“The cooks,” Malota continued, “The dusters, the sweeper, the laundry maids and the servant maids. All of them. Be careful out there tonight. Do not antagonise or disrupt anything.”

Gisella nodded once and moved to walk out of the room.

Once she made it out of the room and behind the curtain that separated her from the peering eyes of the powerful and wealthier men of the kingdom she took a deep breath.

The music began, and the candles were dimmed. Gisella began the show by sticking her leg from behind the curtain first, drawing it up and down as she teased the crowd. She heard murmurs from the other side and used it to spur her on.

This is what it was like—being lost in the music and the rhythm of her body. She knew nothing else when she allowed her arms and legs to take control. Things like coloured bands or powerful men and broken kingdoms didn’t exist between the folds of her silks.

Gisella stepped from behind the curtain and scanned the room immediately, her eyes low lidded and thick with kohl which gave her piercing blue eyes a more alluring charm.

Her eyes met with the lustful gazes of the men before her as she walked closer to them, her hips swaying as she moved them to the dramatics of the rising beat. Drums became louder and deeper as she shifted and swayed and bounced.

She shut her eyes for a moment to rid her of the uncomfortable feeling that began to rise within her.

This was what she had to do, she reminded herself, in order to buy her own dancing hall and live a life free from the constraints of… blue bands.

Then she found him. Sat upon a large chair in the middle of the room high above all else, an elderly man with a golden crown atop his head: the King.

Gisella tilted her head as she moved her upper body and let the rest stay still. Her silks twisted around her in a playful and sensuous way as she gave the King a long, steady gaze. Her own eyes flickered from his golden crown down to his arms.

There, when she saw the golden bands that wrapped around his wrists, her heart stopped.

Inlaid within them were vibrant rubies as she had never seen before glittering in the dim light of the candles. She pumped her chest to the steady beating of the drum as it reached its high and she fell to the ground at the summit of the music played out.

Her breathing was barely heard in the hall as it stayed silent and when she got up from the floor and bowed to the men a loud applause rang out.

“Royalty,” Gisella breathed out in a panicked state to Roseia as she made her way behind the curtain, “I think the golden bands mean royalty. The King—”

But before she could finish her sentence she was pushed back into the throng of things as the music began again, and this time, instead of a slow and sensuous dance, she was pumping her chest and moving her hips as fast as she could.

Her mind was distracted by the various amounts of strangers and dignitaries in the crowd—until she saw him.

His eyes were fixed on her, never wavering. A drink of wine in his hands as golden bands shimmered in the candle light behind him.

He looked different now from the previous way she had first seen him in that market. Now he looked powerful, fearsome even, and all he was doing was sitting in a chair drinking some wine. Her heartbeat thrummed in her chest and she wasn’t sure if it was her or the drums that rang out.

Gisella kept her eyes trained on the handsome stranger she had met once before only now he was smiling at her ever so slightly as he tipped his glass minutely in her direction as her dance came to a close.

She remembered her heart speeding up at that moment and even as she bent down and bowed once more her eyes stayed on the gaze he cast at her.