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CHAPTER NINETEEN

Ellery

Amsirah whispered excitedly to each other as we were all pressed closer. It took all I had not to shrink in on myself and cringe away from them, but every accidental brush of their arm or clothes against me made my skin crawl.

My pace picked up a little as I followed the crowd toward the open doors of the ballroom. Hopefully, there would be more room in there, away from the confines of this hallway with all its elaborate tapestries, servants with fake smiles, torches, and immortals.

Standing inside the ballroom doors was a line of servants with drinks and canapés for all who entered. I claimed a glass of sparkling champagne and thanked the man holding the tray. He didn’t acknowledge me.

I’d promised Scarlet I’d have a drink for her, but this could be my only one. I wanted to chug the bottle of champagne, yet getting a little tipsy here would be an extremely bad idea.

I tried not to gawk at the crush of amsirah already inside the ballroom. I immediately wished I had ten bottles of champagne to get through this night.

The din of voices within the room was a loud, incessant buzz in my ear. The excessive talk and loud laughter nearly drowned out the music from the dais on the far right of a room ten times the size of my manor.

The earl had gone out of his way to provide splendor and to turn this room into a haven for his guests. Dozens of servants weaved through the crowd.

Twinkling white lights encircled the wooden beams running from one end of the room to the other across the cathedral ceiling. Their glow almost made it look like pixies were floating across the ceiling, but pixies left Tempest years ago.

The lanterns hanging from hooks around the room created a warm glow, highlighting all the dancers. It was elegant and warm, and despite my apprehension, I felt some tension ease from my shoulders as I surveyed the room.

I smiled when I spotted Callan on the dais. His eyes were closed as he lovingly played his lute and swayed a little with the music.

I nudged my mother and lifted my glass in his direction. At one time, when we used to have the money and time, my mother opened a schoolhouse to teach the children from our manor and The Hollows. Callan was one of them.

He’d also been my first big crush and first kiss. I’d seen little of him over the past couple of years but was glad to see a familiar, friendly face now.

As we strolled further into the room, we weaved through the growing crowd of attendees. Many had thrown themselves into dancing and socializing with far more enthusiasm than me, but I forced a smile and stopped to speak with the few who greeted me.

After my mother’s arrest for failure to pay taxes, I hadn’t expected anyone to talk with us, and while most turned their backs to shun us, some didn’t. Most of them were from neighboring farms and were struggling like us.

They probably feared it would one day be them in a prison carriage and hoped that, if it was, we wouldn’t turn away from them either—something my mother and I would never do.

I was fairly certain the earl hadn’t chosen to invite us, and the duke had a hand in bringing us here—something seemingly confirmed by the number of amsirah who turned their backs or stuck their noses in the air when they saw us.

It didn’t bother me; these weren’t the type of amsirah I wanted to associate with, but though my mother kept her chin high and her smile in place, I knew their rejection of her would cut deep. She enjoyed these events, and while I was sure she hadn’t considered many her friends, she had liked socializing with them.

I contemplated sending a bolt of lightning up all their too-tight asses for upsetting her in this way, but I gritted my teeth and kept my increasingly fake smile plastered in place. I now understood why the servants all looked like they’d rather gouge out their eyes than be here. These amsirah were horrible .

The king had already arrived and sat on the higher dais across from where Callan and the other musicians played. Ivan sat on his throne, with the Earl of Oakley to his right in a far less elaborate chair. The earl’s two sons sat to his right; they looked remarkably like their father with their dark hair and piercing green eyes.

The earl had never married, but I’d heard he had a good relationship with the mother of his sons, the Countess of Halsbad. Her family’s estate overlooked the cliffs of the Halsbad Sea, the largest ocean in all of Tempest.

They’d made their wealth by fishing the sea and transporting their delicacies to the lands far from the oceans. I didn’t see the countess in the crowd, but I was sure she was there with the rest of her rather large family.

During the Ghoul War, the sea villages of Tempest were cut off from the landlocked towns. After the war ended, travel between the distant communities was impossible without a portal, as most roads were destroyed.

Ivan had at least used some of our taxes to fix those roads, and travel, without portals, had openly resumed between the communities. It made the exchange of goods a lot easier, as opening portals to constantly do so was tiring and not always feasible.

Before getting too involved with the other guests, we had to see the king and thank the earl for his invite. Every new arrival was expected to greet the king before dancing.

I tried not to fidget as we waited in the winding line, but I couldn’t keep my fingers still as we moved steadily closer. My heart battered my ribs when we stepped onto the stage.