SWNOVELS Chapter 10 ~ The bal
Everyone was very excited, elves rushed from one place to another. They were running around, decorating the walls, the gates and fences. The cooks had been preparing the dishes since early morning. Ivelle was walking down the corridor when she bumped into someone. She couldn’t see anyone at first but then she looked down. There stood a young little elf-boy.
“Forgive me Miss.” he bowed.
“No need for bowing. I’m Ivelle. What’s your name?” she smiled
“I’m Amias.”
“Nice to meet you, Amias.” she smiled at the young elf “Where are your parents?”
“Somewhere in the castle...”
“Amias!” she heard a familiar voice.
An elf-woman came towards them running.
“There you are! I’ ve been looking for you!” she hugged the boy.
“Sorry, Mother.”
“Take this and take it to your father.” she gave Amias an envelope “Be quick. It’s important.”
“Okay.” the boy set off running through the corridor.
“He’s cute.”
“Yes and a real troublemaker.” she smiled.
“Muriel, you’ve never mentioned that you had a son.”
“Yes...”
“Who’s the father?” she asked curiously.
“Filippus.” she smiled.
“The stableman?”
“Yes.”
“Good choice.” laughed Ivelle.
“Thank you.” she laughed.
“And, are you excited?”
“Yes. Definitely. I’m a terrible dancer.”
“And you’re the date of Prince Cirillo.” she gave Ivelle a knowing look.
“Oh no, I’m not his date... I just accompany him... That’s all.”
“Yeah, sure. If you say so...”
“Muriel...”
“What?” she laughed. “Come, I’ll help you with your dress and hair.”
It took her an hour to get ready for the ball. The sun had already gone down and the first stars had appeared on the sky. The ball started at 9 o’clock. She waited in her room until Cirillo came for her. Then they went to the ballroom together. As they stepped in Ivelle felt overwhelmed. The air was filled with the smell of food and parfume, the room was crowded with royals from all around the Sanctuary. The room was very noisy: musicians played music, everyone was chatting and the glasses were clattering as the royals clinked. In the middle of the room ball-dressed couples were dancing.
“Now you have to come with me to the throne.” explained Cirillo, trying to outshout the cacophony “See Hagan and his date?” she nodded. Hagan was standing on the left side of his mother’s throne.
“We’ll stand on the right side of my father’s throne. We’ll wait until the kings and queens come in. Then we have to greet them. And after we can do wathever we want.”
“Sounds great.”
“Yeah. Come.” he led Ivelle to a podium at the end of the room. The king examinded them but stayed still, noone could tell what was he thinking about. The queen, however smiled at them. As soon as they stood to their place an elf-man opened the door. Silence fell upon the crowd and he shouted, so everyone could hear him.
“King Skender, Queen Branka and Prince Balderik from Abonwan.” A dark haired man with a dark haired women and a dark haired boy stepped in. The queen was tall and slim, she was around 40. The prince couldn’t been older than 20.The king was around 60, and he was tall and brawny. The woman wore a red, long-slleved hoop dress. The king and the prince wore conformable red cutaway Faille coat, cream wool trousers and burgundy satin wraparound sash with burgundy woven tie and tassels. All three of them wore gold and red velvet cape and crowns. Next to the prince stoos a blonde girl. She was around 18, and wore a gold dress.
"She’s Lydia, the fiancée of Balderik” whispered Cirillo.
“King Sorin, Queen Cressida and Princess Devika from Gwolla. ” this time three short person stepped in. They weren’t taller than a 14 year-old child. Unlike the Abonwan royals they were stocky. The king had brown hair and a beard, the prince and the queen had red hair. The king wore black, the queen wore a gold hoop dress, and the princess wore a white and gold dress.
“King Xaun, Queen Niamh, Princess Faye and Princess Linnaea from Etealind. ” Ivelle looked at the door. At first she couldn’t see anything. Then she saw small golden sparks which started to grow. Slowly they started to resemble humans, and indeed four person could be seen. A tall and slim man with golden brown hair, a woman with golden hair and two blonde girls who looked exactly like each other. They had aquamarine dragonfly wings. All four of them wore green, the queen’s and the princesses’ dress were decorated with flowers. The king wore a crown made of green leaves and the queen wore a flower crown. The princesses had wooden tiaras and couldn’t been older than 16.
“King Dragomir, Queen Fajra and Prince Áedh from Drauri. ” three tall black-haired person stepped in. They wore black and red, and they had golden crowns. They looked as ageless as the elves.
“Lord Vortigern, Lady Gisele and Lady Merle from Lorlea. ” the sorcerer and the sorceresses stepped in. The man wore blue and had dirty blonde hair. One of the women wore a silver dress and had platinum hair. The other woman wore blue dress and had black hair. They weren’t royals, but they acted like ones. The elf man closed the door and Allerick stood up.
“I would like to welcome everyone in the Summer Bal. I hope everyone will enjoy the bal. Let’s not waist any more time and let it begin.” the crowd clapped and the chatting resumed. Cirillo motioned Ivelle to hook on him. She did what he said and then they followed King Allerick and Queen Reyna into the crowd.
“Cirillo?”
“Hm?”
“The dragons. Are they shapeshifters?”
“Well... Yes, we can say that. They can shift into human form.”
The king and the queen welcomed the royals one by one accompanied by Cirillo, Hagan and their companies. They introduced Ivelle to everyone. Ivelle realised one thing: this whole royal thing wasn’t her style. She had to smile at everyone all the time. She grew more and more uneasy as time passed.
“Just one more family.” smiled Cirillo.
“King Dragomir, Queen Fajra, Prince Áedh." greeted Allerick the Dragons. "Welcome to Etalia."
"Thank you Allerick." smiled the dragon king. He turned to the queen "Queen Reyna, you're beautiful as always." the queen smiled and curtsied as a response.
"And who are these young girls?" asked Queen Fajra couriously.
"This is Lady Ivelle the date of Cirillo. " Ivelle smiled "And this is Lady Twyla, the date of Hagan." introduced them the queen.
She said thank to God when they finished with the welcoming and were free. After that she enjoyed the ball. They danced and talked. At midnight they had to dance the Lunarise Chorea the traditional round dance, which was danced by the youth. They formed two circles: the inner circle was for the girls and they danced counter clockwise. The outer circle was for the boys and they danced clockwise. The steps were easy. At the pair part the girls had to dance with the boy closest to them. It was a great chance to get to know the others. What really amased Ivelle, was that royals and non-royals danced together too. Cirillo convinced her to join the dance. At the middle of the dance the door swang open and an elf-soldier rushed in. The dance stopped imediately. The kings and queens gathered around him, than rushed out of the room with the princes. The others just stood there, unsure abou what to do.
About half an hour later Ivelle’s crystal blow up, and asked her to go to the ward. She put on her uniform and rushed down. At the ward elves were rushing up and down, in full armor. Pádraig came to her.
“Get your weapons.” he said.
“What happened?” she asked.
“I’ll tell you, but now go.” he hastened her. Ivelle rushed into the armory. She girded on her sword, put her bow and a quiver of arrows on her back and grabbed the dagger Hagan had given to her. She put a shortsword under her quiver too, and made sure that she can easily pull it out. Then she went back to Pádraig. By the time she got back a dozen of fairy, dragon, human and dwarf soldiers and the dark haired sorceress Merle arrived there too. She also recognised the dragon prince Áedh.
“Attention!” shouted Cirillo. “Half an hour ago, we got the news that tonight about a dozen place was attacked around the Sanctuary. These places includes the cities of Etealind, Abonwan, and Gwolla. The last attack was near our borders in Abonwan. We have to get to the borders as soon as possible. On behalf of this we have to ride horses. Filippus has already harnessed them. So let’s go. ”
They went to the stables. About 30 horse had been waiting for them. Ivelle recognised Brandr, Cirillo’s horse. Pádraig got two horses and led them to Ivelle.
" This is Novalie. ” he handed her the rains of the Cremello one” She belonged to your father. She’ll be perfect for you. ”
" Thank you.” she smiled. The man smiled back and they sprang into sadle. Ten minutes later everyone was sitting on their horses and was ready for leaving.
" Let’s go! ” said Cirillo and set spurs to his horse. Everyone did the same thing.