Page 35 of Wingless Crow: Part 1

Using the silver spoon, he scooped off a small piece of the tiny portion and placed it into his mouth. The moment it happened, more winged servants appeared as if from nowhere. They weaved through the crowd, offering the guests tiny plates with small blobs of soufflé.

The royal court dined along with its king. Except for me. No one brought me any food, so I continued to hold the plate for the king as he ate.

“It’s not awful,” he concluded when there was only a single bite left. “You should try it.” He handed me his spoon as the servant returned with course number two of the royal dinner.

It had been a while since my lunch. And I hadn’t eaten it that well, wrecked by nerves in anticipation of the evening. Now, I was hungry.

Before the king handed me another plate to hold, I quickly swiped the remaining bite of the soufflé and ate it. It tasted amazing. I just wished I had a plateful more of that.

King Tiane made me hold the second plate for him, too. This time, he let me have a spoonful of his food before he had finished.

Another servant brought him a tall crystal flute of bubbling golden liquid. The king took a long drink, then brought the flute to my lips.

“Have some,” he said. “You deserve it. You please me greatly, my little present.”

I was relieved to hear that, but I wished I knew what exactly I’d done tonight to please him. I hadn’t said a single word to him. I’d been just sitting here, mum like a dummy. Was that all it took to please the Sky King?

He tapped my lips with the rim of his glass impatiently, and I tilted my head back obediently, parting my lips for him to pour some of the sparkling wine into my mouth. Its taste was light and pleasant. The bubbles played and popped on my tongue.

“How do you like it?” King Tiane asked.

“It’s nice,” I smiled, uttering my first words to the king.

“Hopefully, it’ll make you a little more playful,” he grinned.

Unsure what that meant, I just kept smiling in response.

Another course of the meal arrived, and I resumed my duties, first as the royal plate holder, then as the cleaner of the leftover food.

I quickly lost count of the number of courses served. All the food looked like tiny masterpieces on the plate. They tasted amazing but left me hungry, despite the great number of them. At least since I was eating from the royal plate, I could rest assured no one would feed me any magical substances.

The king never asked if I wanted more to eat than what he offered. Though, he shared his wine with me generously. By the time the dinner ended, I felt more drunk than sated.

“We have new dancers performing tonight,” the king said excitedly after the servant had taken the last plate from me just before I’d managed to grab the one remaining crumb of desert off it. “I hope you’ll like them.”

Would it matter if I didn’t?

Either way, I took his words as an invitation to stay and watch the performance. Since the king never told me to get off his lap, I remained where I was.

He grabbed my legs and threw them over the armrest of his throne, then beat down the layers of my skirt and rested his arm across my thighs, reclining against the back comfortably.

The guests, who hovered under the ceiling, produced musical instruments and started to play. The music gained strength, filling the room, as the remaining guests moved to the walls with tall windows, clearing the space in front of the royal throne.

A delicate clinking noise joined the music. Then, a group of six dancers flew into the open space. Their transparent wings moved rapidly as they danced, standing on their toes like ballerinas. Except that their pointe shoes were made from glass. The toe part of the shoes was as long as the dancers were tall, elevating them above the floor. From the distance, it appeared like they danced on crystal stilts that looked like long, sparkling icicles.

Their wings never stopped moving, keeping the dancers suspended and most of their weight off their delicate stilts. Every now and then, their wings would beat faster, the dancers would leap up into the air, bending their legs to make the crystals clink against each other. The melodious sound merged with the music, becoming a part of it.

I couldn’t take my eyes off them. They looked every bit the magical creatures they were, only their magic was in the movement and control of their bodies, nothing more. Light and graceful, the dance they wove in the air was mesmerizing, blending seamlessly with the music.

“This is incredible,” I exhaled in wonder and admiration.

“You think so?” The king had pulled a strand of my hair out of the weave of braids on my head and was playing with it by winding and unwinding it around his finger.

“Don’t you find their dance beautiful?” I asked.

He drew in a breath that ended with a yawn.

“It’s not terrible.” He shrugged. “I guess I’ll keep them around for another performance or two.” He tickled my nose with the end of the lock of my hair he’d been playing with. “You’re so easily impressed.”

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