Her Cinder Throne (Completed)

Chapter 7

The next morning, Cole woke up before the sun had risen and while the other girls were still breathing gently in their sleep. She was used to waking herself at odd times in order to be ready for the mines, and even though sleep clung to her tightly, she still forced herself off the soft mattress and onto the cold floors.

She shuffled toward the wall where pitchers of water sat in basins at intervals along the wall. The girls would share them all to wash in the morning, but Cole needed one all to herself if she was going to have any hope of washing the Sparkstone off her skin.

With a rough cloth, she set to work scrubbing at her skin until the dead and dirty skin peeled away in crumbs and she was left stinging and raw. Her arms glowed red at the aggressive treatment, but she felt satisfaction that the dust was coming off and she was returning to some semblance of cleanliness. She hadn't seen her skin bare in a long time, and even though she couldn't scrub the dust completely off, she was glad to rinse off and see her freckles poking out along her pale skin.

After drying off, she ran the cloth over her shaved hair and then pulled on her uniform dress. It fell to her ankles and had no shape at all, but Cole was glad for it. No one would look at her in such a dress. She would be invisible and protected. She hugged her arms around herself, wondering if she was returning to being a girl after so long as a mole in the mines.

At that moment, the other girls stirred and soon the room was filled with bodies as they moved around to wash their faces and pull on their own dresses. There were around five different colors to the shifts, and according to these colors, the girls wearing them would cluster together at the door to the sleeping room. They chatted to each other, clearly at home and amongst friends. Cole hung back, watching with narrowed eyes the girls laughing and talking about their coming days.

It took her a moment to even locate the others girls dressed in heather gray. They were an especially small group in comparison to the others, and their tilted chins and studied movements gave Cole the impression that they were set apart from the other girls.

As Cole approached them, she saw immediately that she was correct in assuming that Tanwyn had some part in getting her the job. The girls nearly gasped out loud when they saw the heather gray hanging below Cole's grim face. Their eyes followed the same path; up to Cole's shaved head with gaping mouths, down to her still stained skin with furrowed brows, and down to her calloused hands with a sharp inhale through the nose. Their perfectly braided hair and soft and dewy skin let Cole know that there was a certain level of finesse normally needed to become a chambermaid to the prince. And Cole, with her hard muscles and not an inch of grace in her movements, did not match that description.

"I'm supposed to ask one of you to show me where I'm to be working," Cole muttered, hating their shocked eyes plastered on her every move.

"You're working in the prince's room?" one of the girls asked.

"I was told that, yes."

A small silence stretched between them, and within it Cole felt like ducking away and running back to the mines and begging for her job back. At least down in the darkness, no one cared that her arms weren't soft and plump or that her hair was bristly and shorter than even a man's.

"Oh," the girl said, a crooked and uncertain smile flitting across her lips. "Well, I suppose then just follow us. We're about to go up to ready his sitting room and set out his morning meal."

Cole dipped her chin in thanks, and fell in behind the girls as they slowly filed out of the room and headed down the hall and out into the courtyard.

They crossed to the palace, but did not enter through the grand entrance that glittered with Sparkstone lanterns in the dim pre-dawn air. Instead, they walked to a small door set further down the palace walls and hidden behind a beautiful set of shaped and pruned bushes. This led to a cramped hallway and then a kitchen that was bursting with activity. People moved everywhere, shouting out orders and questions, and the air was filled with the smell of cooking food. Servants from the other rooms crossed through on their way to the posts, and the kitchen staff bustled around with the speed of those who knew their job fully.