Free The Ambassadors by Sasha L. Miller Page B

sense that he couldn't think around them. Anike sighed, pulling his sketchbook closer. Maybe they'd forget about him when they met the pretty courtesans and the prettier servants that hung around the palace. The thought panged unhappily in his stomach, but Anike ignored it, moving to the table and sitting down woodenly. He had a drawing to complete.
     

Two
    It was three days before he saw the ambassadors again. It was the formal welcoming ball, and Anike was required to make a sketch of the proceedings. Something that was going to be extremely difficult, considering that it was a ball, and dancing and migrating around the ballroom was the normal behavior.
    Still, the prince insisted that everything about the ambassadors arrival at the palace was momentous, and since he'd hired Anike to record every momentous occasion during his reign, Anike was drawing the welcome ball. He hated drawing balls. He ended up sketching too fast, trying to do the outlines of as many scenes as he could, and his hand would cramp and he'd be stuck drawing with a sore hand for days afterwards.
    It didn't help that he was still on edge from the meeting with Calo and Reni three days back. He kept thinking about them. He kept drawing them, and worst, he kept dreaming about them. Pleasant, not for children dreams, and Anike had to be going insane. He'd kept to his rooms, something that wasn't unusual when he was working on a project, but he usually went for a meal or two outside his room.
    He was afraid of running into them, though. He'd make an idiot of himself again, he knew it. It didn't help that the ambassadors had to be playing with him. He wasn't stupid. There was no way they could have decided they wanted him after half an hour of him sketching them and Anike prided himself on not making the same mistakes twice.
    None of which was what he should have been concentrating on, and Anike forced himself to start sketching the ballroom's outline again. Nothing began for another two hours, but he would use the time to get the room's shape down on as many pages as he could. Then he could fill in the people and hope none of the furniture changed like that one ball where two of the nobles had gotten drunk ahead of time and broken the drink table, only to have it replaced with a round table instead of the rectangular one it had been.
    Anike sighed, scooting his chair closer to the balcony railing. He was up in one of the private alcoves, which afforded him a much better view of the ballroom floor. He'd already locked the door, ensuring he wouldn't be bothered and that none of the nobles would try to commandeer the alcove for their "personal" business.
    Anike thought longingly of the paintings half-finished in his room. He wanted to be there, working on finishing off his first set of paintings of Calo and Reni. Pushing the thought from his mind, Anike focused on the room below him and began to sketch.
    Three hours later, Anike groaned and muttered beneath his breath about spoiled princes as he forced his hand to sketch more quickly and willed the swirling, swiveling idiots below to hold still for more than five seconds. It didn't help that his eyes kept drifting away from the prettily dressed men and women to look at the ambassadors.
    Calo and Reni were staying still at least, settled next to the prince's empty chair. The guests kept approaching them, and Anike had seen enough simultaneous smiles—how did they do that?—to fill his dreams for a lifetime. The prince was dancing with his fiancée, but he would occasionally return to chat with the ambassadors before returning to her.
    The rest of the guests would not hold still and Anike was killing his fingers trying to draw them. He wanted a drink, but he couldn't take a break for another hour. Besides, he wasn't sure he wanted to go downstairs yet.
    Anike scowled, pausing a moment to stretch his fingers before returning to drawing. He sketched figures with billowing skirts and figures with stiff pant legs