The princess turned fiery eyes on the Dressmaker, who lowered her gaze along with the several maids. Only Anaisa continued to stare. She'd never seen someone with such an outrageous hair color.
"You!" The Princess pointed an angry finger directly at Anaisa, who for the first time felt nervous.
When she didn't immediately respond, the Princess rushed over and grabbed her by the hair. Anaisa's fighting instinct was just about to kick in, when she realized that her hair wasn't being yanked, merely held tightly. She froze instead, holding her breath.
"THIS! THIS is the color I want!" The Princess said more calmly.
"Yes, Your Highness," The mousy woman stepped forward meekly from the corner and plucked a hair from Anaisa's head.
"Ow!" She complained, but the Dressmaker shot her a deadly glare.
The Princess released her grip, and Anaisa backed quickly away, touching her hand to her scalp where the single hair had been so rudely taken.
She glared at the mousy woman, who was approaching the haughty Princess with more confidence than before.
Laying the auburn strand against the unnatural pink-red locks of the royal, the servant woman blew gently. The auburn spread across the Princess's hair, and soon all of it was nearly identical to Anaisa's.
She gasped.
A magic user!
Anaisa had never been this close to one before. They were exceedingly rare in the kingdom, and most of them she knew of were employed by royalty or the upper class.
A looking glass was procured and the royal gazed at her reflection with satisfaction. The room breathed a collective sigh of relief that she was mollified.
"Much better! Now to choose a new dress to match for the ball!" She declared, turning her attention to the nervous Dressmaker.
"Ah, um, I have many fabrics here which would look glorious with your new look…" She began, but Anaisa could hardly hear her.
Now that the princess shared her hair color, it was almost like looking in a mirror! Their face shapes were similar, and their eyes were almost the same color… She dropped her gaze and stepped back, lest that be noticed. If the Princess thought a commoner looked like her, she might–
"Try the new styles on your girl, so I can see which colors complement my new coloring," The royal declared. "After we're done, I'll have Yemi change her hair to something more suitable to a servant."
"Yes, of course, Your Highness," The Dressmaker jabbed Anaisa with her elbow, leaving her no choice but to step forward. Anaisa held her tongue, but only barely. The nerve of ordering her hair to be changed without her consent! She was not going to allow that.
For the next two hours she was mercilessly and repeatedly dressed and undressed in front of the entire room. It was humiliating to be left standing in her underthings while the princess pondered the difference between two shades of blue, but at least there were no men about.
Anaisa endured the treatment by standing absolutely still and pretending she was nothing more than a mannequin. The chill in the room was unpleasant, and she tried to step slightly closer to the personal fireplace the princess had in the corner.
"No, not there!" The spoiled young woman declared. "Closer to the window, so I can see the fabric in the sunlight!"
"Yes, Your Highness," Anaisa mumbled. You spoiled brat She mentally added.
"I quite like this green," The princess stood and approached, snatching the fabric from the hands of one of the assistants.
She turned to examine it in the full length looking glass against her own skin. Anaisa caught her eyes in the mirror, and the Princess paused.
Her gaze darted between her reflection and Anaisa's, and the latter could see that the princess was finally realizing how very alike the two of them appeared. It made some sense; the two of them were distantly related via a king three or four generations ago, but the princess didn't know that.
"Everyone out!" She cried, grabbing Anaisa's hand before the woman could flee. "Not you," She growled in a low voice. "Yemi, you stay as well."
The dozen or so servants and dressmakers dutifully rushed from the room, leaving the two redheads alone with the magic user.
"Who are you?" The royal demanded. "Did my father send you?"
"What?" Anaisa blurted, confused, "I mean, I beg your pardon, Your Highness?"
"Hm. Father would make sure you were better behaved if you were from him. I suppose it matters not. Yemi, change her hair to brown and get her out of the palace." The Princess waved her hand dismissively.
"No!" Anaisa blurted, looking at the magic user with warning in her eyes. She would fight tooth and nail before allowing that.
"Your Highness," Yemi ducked her head and looked away from Anaisa. "Perhaps… you might find a use for a double? It might be worth keeping her around."
The attempt at peacekeeping earned a look of rage from the spoiled Princess, but when her eyes cut back to Anaisa, there was something new in them. A devious gleam.
"Yemi. You may leave. We will discuss your impertinence later. Keep silent about this conversation or I'll have your head." The Princess stared after the magic user until the woman left the room, and then turned to Anaisa. "As for you…" The princess said. "You said it is your first day? How many have seen you?"
"The housekeeper, and a few guards, and the dressmaker…" Anaisa was growing uneasy. Did she really mean her departing threat to behead the other woman? It was tossed about so casually that it seemed to be a rhetorical device and not a distinct possibility…
"Here," The princess rushed to her vanity, and got some powder. She applied it to Anaisa's face to make her look pale, and then retrieved a band to tie Anaisa's loose hair into a tight bun at the base of her neck. The hairstyle made her face appear wan and a bit malnourished when combined with the powder already on her. "Don't let anyone see what you really look like for now."
"What is happening?" Anaisa's alarm grew.
"We can't let father know. I would tell you I'm sorry, but it's just not true. You'll simply have to understand and obey."
"Sorry for what?" The servant's mind raced. Just what exactly had she been drawn into?
"I'll tell you tomorrow." The princess smiled broadly. "I'll let the dressmaker know you've been reassigned as my new personal maid, she can't stop me."
A scarf was procured from a drawer and tied over Anaisa's hair to complete the look.
The two women stared in the mirror again, now looking different enough at first glance that no one would likely notice their similarities without concentrating.
"All right. I need you out of the palace, quickly, and don't let anyone see you." The Princess reached into a drawer and drew out a token to hand to Anaisa. "I'm going out riding in the morning, meet me here and we will go together. This will get you in and out of the servants' entrance past the guard. What was your name?"
"Annie," The other woman answered, giving the same name to the princess that she had provided to the housekeeper.
"Wonderful. I'm Sapphira." The princess beamed at her. "Oh, and I should be very sorry about this, but you can't tell a single soul about any of it, understand?"
"Any… of this?" Anaisa tried to clarify.
"Us looking alike. Not a soul can learn about it. I don't think anyone else in the room noticed, do you?" The Princess raised her eyebrows.
"Well, I was standing there trying on clothes for quite a long time, it's possible…"
"No, they all cower and keep their heads down. I'm sure of it." The princess waved dismissively. "Besides, not one of them looks at me for more than a few seconds at a time. As long as we keep your hair pulled back and your face looking plain and thin, I'm sure they'll forget about you immediately. You did say it was your first day."
"I did say that…"
"So! That's settled. It will work out wonderfully, don't worry!"
"What will??" Anaisa was becoming desperate. What should she be worrying about?
"I told you I would tell you tomorrow. The ball is coming up next week, everything will be in place before then."
"Before the ball…" The information crowding into her brain was too much for Anaisa's thoughts to piece together into a cohesive explanation for this strange woman's behavior.
"But like I said, don't tell anyone!" Princess Sapphira became more subdued for a moment and looked her inferior in the eyes. "You've seen Yemi work, so you know I have resources. I want to warn you that I have ways of finding things out."
"You mean you'll have me followed?" She asked with trepidation.
"Not at all, but I'll figure it out if you tell anyone at all about this," The Princess warned.
Anaisa gulped. The hairdresser was magic. Sapphira must have other magic users at her disposal. How many were there, and what were their powers? She was not here to draw attention, and yet she had the undivided attention of one of the most important people in the palace!
"I… I won't tell anyone," Anaisa promised, lifting one hand in pledge to try to placate the princess. "Though I don't understand any of it at all."
"You don't need to understand, yet," Sapphira smiled and leaned forward and put a finger under the other woman's chin. Pairs of blue eyes stared into one another, one set confident and alight with feverish anticipation, the other full of trepidation. "What I do need you to understand is this. Any violation of this secrecy, any at all, and you'll be beheaded. Understand?"
A chill ran down Anaisa's back as she struggled to come to grips with this new situation. "I understand."