TWENTY-NINE
Still puzzled by her encounter with the strange Lady Zuleika, who dressed like a foreign empress yet claimed to be her fairy godmother, Mai headed back to Yi's apartments. She took longer than usual, because she kept stopping to admire her shoes, which caught the light in the most amazing ways. Zuleika had turned the faded red silk into something that shimmered partway between blue and green before covering the silk in a myriad of glass beads, which caught the light and threw it in all directions. They were ornamental shoes for court, never to be worn on a battlefield again.
Mai laughed quietly to herself. If she ever set foot on a battlefield wearing these, she would dazzle the enemy without having to unsheathe her sword.
Lady Zuleika had known her name, and seen through
