Once Maela had dressed, she felt almost like she'd been reborn. Months of worry and weight had fallen from her shoulders, washed away along with the road dust and the grime of travel. She'd eaten the finest meal she'd had all year, her favorite Snow on the Sea made even more sumptuous by the fact that her youngest daughter had caught the fish while her eldest cooked it.
The world under her feet was as unsteady as a ship in a gale, but Maela felt strangely serene about it. A lady should never allow her composure to crack, and now that she'd donned the finery offered by Ashlynn and Heila, including strands of garnet and topaz from Airgead Mountain, she felt like a true lady again, ready to face what amounted to Ashlynn's Royal Court.
