Chapter 19 Non
Non
After leaving Granny’s bedroom, we’d heard the footsteps of her sentries making their way up the stairs.
Adamant that we couldn’t get caught, Jazz had pulled me into a run.
How they knew which turns and doors to take, I had no idea.
We seemed to sprint through countless corridors that all looked the same.
Eventually, Jazz skidded to a stop and doubled over, resting their hands on their knees and gasping for breath.
“This is where we go our separate ways. Her sentries will inevitably find us. If we split up, they won’t suspect we stole something. Just two Wielders making their way to tonight’s celebration.”
“First off, you stole something, not me,” I panted. “And what was the point of running for the last twenty minutes if we were going to get caught anyway?”
Jazz nodded to the grandfather clock behind me. “I’m late for the Cyngor Blaen dinner, and you need to make your way outside to join the celebrations with the rest of the Covens.”
“How come you get to go to this super-secret dinner, and I don’t?”
A grim expression passed over Jazz’s face before they gave me a tight smile. “My mother is a Ledr, remember?”
“By that logic, I should also be invited.”
Jazz let out a humourless laugh. “Don’t tell me you’re jealous?”
I bit my lip to refrain from seeming more pathetic for wanting to attend the stupid dinner.
It shouldn’t have mattered if I was invited or not; most in attendance, if they were anything like Granny, would have sneered at me.
But that traitorous part of me wanted to be accepted and for my grandmother to be proud of her granddaughter for once.
Jazz stepped closer and pushed their hands into their trouser pockets.
“You’re supposed to be undercover, remember?
The only people who attend this Cyngor Blaen dinner are the Ledr and Ail of each Coven and their immediate family.
Your attendance would be a sure-fire way of announcing to everyone who exactly you are.
The room is warded to only let relatives in, minus some staff, so you’d be giving yourself away by just setting foot in the banquet hall. ”
They pulled a long silver chain from their pocket and gestured for me to lower my head. As I did, they placed a pendant around my neck. I straightened to my full height, and Jazz beamed at the silver symbol that sat just above my cleavage.
“Perfect, now you are ready for your first revel.” They winked.
The pendant was a cluster of five interlocking circles. Three were stacked vertically, and another two sat on either side of the middle circle. The same symbols I’d seen in Granny’s room earlier, and on her study door.
“Does this symbol mean anything?”
Jazz nodded. “It symbolises the five Covens. The circles all intertwining represent the unity between each and how children of both Llyr and D?n can co-exist peacefully. It belonged to your grandfather, Gwilym. He would have wanted you to have it.” The simple necklace suddenly felt considerably heavier around my neck, knowing who it had once belonged to.
A murmur of voices growing nearer had Jazz and me snapping our heads towards the end of the corridor.
“We need to get out of here,” Jazz said as they led me in the opposite direction of the voices. We stopped when the corridor opened into a small foyer with two additional exits at opposite ends of the room.
Jazz took both of my hands in their own. “Have you ever used a summoning circle?”
“I have,” I said tightly. Jazz paused for a moment, like they were expecting me to divulge when and where exactly, but I wasn’t going to talk about my Cychwyniad, not now or ever.
“Good, so you know what to expect. At the end of the corridor behind you is one that has been spelled to lead you to where the celebrations are taking place. Alaw will be there waiting for you. Once the dinner is over, the rest of us will join you. We shouldn’t be too long; this dinner is just a formality that most of us would rather not have to put up with.
Last year, we didn’t even make it to the main course before people had drawn weapons. ”
Jazz placed a gentle kiss on my knuckles, then turned and disappeared through the other exit.
The voices of what I presumed were Granny’s sentries were very close, and the last thing I needed was being found sneaking around the castle with a very big and shiny stolen necklace around my neck. I wasted no time turning and following Jazz’s orders exactly, taking the opposite exit.
As Jazz promised, a large summoning circle painted on the sandstone floor in what looked like blood sat at the end of the hallway. The symbol was the same as the one around my neck, five interlocking circles.
From the little information Jazz had given me while getting ready, tonight was a celebration where all Covens, a mixture of Witches and Wielders, children of D?n and Llyr alike, would come together to celebrate the beginning of the Anoethau and those competing in the trials.
The only other details they had divulged were that it would be held outside and to expect copious amounts of food and wine, and, when the families and Cyngor Blaen had retired for the evening, debauchery.
I was surprised to hear that, considering my grandmother was the host. But nonetheless, I was still a little excited.
I took a deep breath and readied myself for what lay ahead.
As my foot connected with the blood on the floor, the corridor disappeared, and I closed my eyes to try and combat some of the nausea that was inevitable.
After a moment of feeling like I was falling, solid ground was underneath my heels, and the whirling sound of magic dissipated into the murmurs of a party.
Cracking an eye open, I expected to see burning bonfires and naked Witches dancing under the moonlight. But instead, I stood in a formal dining room while a long table of people dressed in different habits glared at me, slack-jawed.
Holy gods. I had somehow appeared smack bang in the middle of the Covens’ leadership dinner.