The Harvest Ball
DOWNBEAT
Three Quarter Time
K arigan paused with her Eletian escorts at the top of the stairs that led down into the ballroom to take in the scene below.
Couples whirled and glided beneath the golden light of the chandeliers to the music of the orchestra.
The gowns of ladies swished and billowed with the swift and elegant steps of the dance.
“This is your first Sacoridian ball,” she said to Telagioth. “What do you think so far?”
“I like it already,” he replied. “I hear the music. I see the dancing.” He closed his eyes and moved his hand through the air to the rhythm of the waltz.
An eager light shone in the faces of the others—Cenna, Idris, Lhean, Byrnin, and Enver, though Enver looked away when he caught her gazing at him.
Tonight she would pull him aside, she thought, and they’d have a little chat, and she would do so sooner rather than later as she intended to stay just long enough to appease Estora.
She gazed back down into the ballroom. As pretty a scene as it was, she noted the extra guards around the room.
Zachary had gotten her message about Nari’s warning.
“Dama,” Telagioth said, “shall we proceed?”
“Yes, of course.” Let’s get this over with .
On a landing about midway down the stairs, Neff the herald bowed to her and her companions. “Ah, Rider—I mean, my lady, we’ve been expecting you and your party. Please allow me to announce you.”
Hells, Karigan thought. She’d hoped to enter without fanfare, but she supposed it had been a futile wish when it came to an event of this magnitude where being noticed was everything.
As the music faded, Neff’s voice rang out: “Rider Sir Karigan G’ladheon of Clan G’ladheon, the Lady Winterlight of the House of Santanara, Dama Cearing Asai’riel a’ Santanara a’ Eletia.”
Karigan’s cheeks burned as many faces below turned to look her way.
A murmur rose among the guests. She guessed it was more at the presence of actual Eletians rather than herself that caught their interest. After all, Eletians were still a rare sighting even in Sacor City, and very few had actually ever met one.
Neff introduced the Eletians each as lord or lady.
When he finished, she trotted down the stairs, which was a rather inelegant way to make an entrance when most would have taken their time to glow in the attention and accolades for as long as possible before making a much more decorous descent. She wanted none of it.
The Eletians did not hasten after her, nor did they linger, but made their elegant way down the stairs in their own time. Many of the guests approached them to make their acquaintance so later, she presumed, they could boast about socializing with real Eletians.
Several gentlemen gazed at Karigan with a speculative gleam in their eyes.
She was titled and landed, and they supposed the wealth of Clan G’ladheon would be a bonus to their own holdings.
They must also wonder what sort of advantages a connection to the Eletian court would bring them.
Conversely, there was the messenger uniform and the eyepatch and her common background.
How they must weigh the advantages and disadvantages, she thought.
For all there was more freedom for women in Sacoridia than other realms, some things never changed.
When one of the men worked up the courage to approach her, she pretended to see a friend in the distance, waved, and set off purposefully across the floor.
The orchestra started playing again and the onlookers moved on.
She took a deep breath in relief. Now she could regain her bearings.
The ballroom was decorated with colorful autumn leaves, and carved pumpkins and gourds with candles flickering in them.
Scarecrows stuffed with straw presided over the refreshment table.
While Feast of Vendane celebrated the harvest, there was a darker side to it.
In years of plenty, it was said the god, Vendane, used a scythe to reap crops, but in years of famine, it was souls he harvested, and so the decor included scythes that had been hung on the walls.
Skeletons also represented the famine side of the Feast of Vendane, and several, cunningly carved from wood, dangled from the ceiling.
Their bones, wired at the joints, rattled in the air currents stirred by the passage of dancers.
Considering Sacoridia was experiencing a difficult harvest after its recent war with Second Empire and the Darrow Raiders, the decor proved an ominous reminder of how terrible their lot could be. However, the refreshment table, from a distance, appeared to overflow.
She sought out Zachary and spotted him sweeping around the dance floor with Estora.
They moved gracefully together with an undeniable rapport, she gazing into his eyes.
Estora was the golden beauty about whom minstrels sang, and Zachary, the noble king, returned her gaze.
Helioness, goddess of love and fidelity, could not have created a more ideal vision of romantic love.
It was as it should be, but she couldn’t help but feel disappointed it was not she who was in his arms.
The aristocratic guests seemed not to know what to make of her.
The ladies, in particular, sized her up and whispered behind their gloved hands.
They gave her a wide berth. Another gentleman boldly approached, and once again she pretended not to see him and strode away to where Lhean stood at the refreshment table.
He hovered over a spread of chocolate delicacies.
“I am informed,” he told her, “the master of chocolate has received the desired goods in his latest shipment that has allowed chocolate to become plentiful once more.”
“That is good to hear,” she said, eyeing the Dragon Droppings. She popped one into her mouth and let it melt on her tongue. She closed her eyes in ecstasy.
“I still do not know,” Lhean said, “how it is that mortal humans conceived of such a delicacy so heartening to the Eletian spirit.”
“Chocolate is heartening to most humans, as well,” she replied, “if not in the same way. And though it may be hard to believe that a very flawed and short-lived people created chocolate, you may discover we are capable of a good many things.”
“So I am learning.” His face brightened. “This music and dancing is very pleasurable. Eletia has slept for far too long. It makes no sense for us to have hidden ourselves from the world as we have.”
She wasn’t sure what response she had been expecting, maybe defensiveness or some denigrating comment, but this wasn’t it. It pleased her that at least some Eletians were coming to understand humankind better.
While Lhean deliberated over all the chocolate that was available, she gazed about and saw that Byrnin and Cenna had found dance partners.
They seemed to pick up the style quickly, but were far more graceful than their human partners.
Telagioth meanwhile talked with Counselor Tallman off to the side.
Idris gazed up at the skeletons with a perplexed expression.
As for Enver? He stood against a far wall, trying to look inconspicuous, or so it seemed.
She would have her talk with him right away, but just as she began to stride in his direction, a nobleman intercepted her.
· · ·
Lead and Follow
Lord-Governor Hendry Penburn smiled at her.
“My lord,” she said in surprise, and nodded in deference.
“My lady,” he replied with a deep bow. “I was wondering if you might do me the honor of a dance.”
“Uh...” She looked past him and saw that a woman had coaxed Enver onto the dance floor.
“I promise not to step on your toes,” Lord Penburn said. “Should be a fun set.”
“I don’t—”
“Come now. You are a personage of interest to all in attendance and it will do your king and queen credit to see you on the floor.”
“My lord—”
“Call me Hendry.”
She wasn’t quite sure how he’d done it, but he’d maneuvered her onto the dance floor.
“It is to be a Basketweave Reel,” he said.
Dear gods, she was not prepared for this.
She’d rather battle a mob of groundmites, and would probably acquit herself better.
The Basketweave Reel featured a range of styles with fast and intricate steps that she had not danced since her early teens, and at family celebrations, not in a royal ballroom filled with those of the ruling class.
There would be a lot of weaving patterns intersecting with other partners at high speed.
And the reel tended to be long, a series of musical pieces with ever-changing tempos.
One generally needed a bit of stamina to endure through to the end.
“I don’t know about this,” she said.
“Follow my lead and you’ll be fine,” he replied.
She wasn’t so sure about that.
Other participants were giddy with anticipation, many of them of marrying age and seeking to meet potential suitors.
Balls and parties of this sort were prime spouse-hunting grounds.
She gazed askance at Lord Penburn. She knew he’d found her to be of some interest, even if in passing.
Now with her connection to King Santanara, she was sure she was even more interesting to him.
Just as the musicians finished retuning their instruments in preparation for the reel, Zachary led Estora back onto the floor. There was clapping and cries of delight from those who would be sharing the floor with their king and queen.
Lord Penburn took Karigan’s hand and wrapped his arm around her waist. When the music started, they were off at a mad pace.
He was a good partner who ably led her through her first stumbling steps, and whose own finesse made up for her lack.
They swooped and rotated, rose and fell with the music and spun in many a dizzying whirl.
She remembered to gaze into his eyes to maintain her equilibrium.