The Crown's Game (The Crown's Game, #1)

by Evelyn Skye

“I doubt they will mind one less mouth to feed,” Galina said. Which was true. The villagers had traded him to Galina all too easily, in exchange for two horses and two sheep. They’d been happy to be rid of the boy with powers they did not understand, that seemed to them to stem from the devil. So now, even though Nikolai grumbled as he glanced at his pocket watch and at the empty space where his scissors and cloth had just been, he only half meant the curses he swore under his breath. I didn’t come all this way from the steppe only to revert to a sheepherder, he thought. And I certainly don’t intend to continue as an errand boy. He commanded the ivory-inlaid doors of his armoire to open, and clothes flew out to meet him. He didn’t know what Galina had planned, but he did know he needed to be more than presentable. She was very particular about appearances, which was ironic given that she’d never bought him so much as a handkerchief. It was as if she expected him to create something out of nothing. Perhaps that was precisely the point. Nikolai snapped his fingers, and a black cravat tied itself expertly around his neck. Next, a blue paisley waistcoat (which Nikolai had made last month) buttoned itself around him. Then, finally, a black frock coat enveloped him, although he smiled smugly as he chose one with notched lapels, because Galina be damned, it was two in the morning, and if there was any time that was informal enough for notched lapels, it was in these dead-eyed hou...