Nightfire | The Whispering Wall #1

Forty Seven: A Dance

The Hallow Festival was a welcome reprieve from the monotony of normal life in Harkenn's household; a break in the cycling days of sleeping in her cage or on the kitchen floor, sitting in the lord's study until she was so bored she could weep, beatings and insults sprinkled liberally through the hours, day after day.

The traditional Hallow dinner –which included all the heads of the Houses and their prominent clergy, the guildmasters, and the richest merchants for miles in every direction – always brought her to the point of begging to get it back.

The extravagant ballroom, which was only used twice a year, was filled with long tables seating the glittering upper echelons of society. The heads of the Houses shared the high table with Faellian. The Varthians took up one table by themselves, their sheer size effectively halving the number of people the enormous table could accommodate. Servants ran back and forth along the rows, replacing empty pitchers of wine and mead and removing empty platters. The vaulted ceiling above, with its polished gold ribbing and cream-coloured stone, reflected the light of the chandelier back into the room, banishing the dark for one last night.

Nova tugged at the tight fabric of her outfit, which was stuck to her skin with sweat. She had danced on every table tonight, on some more than once, and she was exhausted. Her spine and shoulders ached and her joints protested from pulling moves and poses they weren't up to anymore. Her skin still crawled from the stares. She was glad to be behind the high table now, out of sight of everyone, even if she was chained to the floor.

The worst had been from Grace. Despite the sea of eyes on her at all times, Grace had managed to make Nova acutely aware of her no matter where they each were in the room. On the few glimpses she'd got, Nova had found Grace frowning. The room was too crowded to read her aura properly without standing beside her, so at first Nova hadn't been sure what to make of it; then Grace had demonstrated a surprising talent for interrupting guests with drinks or food at the exact moment they were about to make a grab for Nova's leg or backside.

She couldn't see much of the hall through the gap under the table, but it sounded as if the dinner was going on much as it had been, with no sign of ending any time soon.

To her disappointment, the baron Ethred hadn't been forced to sit at one of the long tables, instead allowed a seat on the far end of the high table. Every now and then Nova caught him staring at her, a sinister glint in his eye. He was insufferably smug about something, and the fact that she didn't have the first clue why made her nervous.

She picked at another bit of the stale bread she'd been given. She didn't know how many days old it was, but it tasted like it was on the cusp of going mouldy. It certainly hadn't been baked that day, so she supposed Faellian had foreseen Lady Kerrin's insistence on Nova eating and brought some scraps with him. When she still lived in Caelum, she would never have imagined she could hate someone as much as she did Faellian. Sometimes he left her alone long enough to almost forget the extent of her hatred, but he always reminded her eventually; with the chaos of the portal, the Unspoken death and the early arrival of the dark season, the lord hadn't had time to make her life more miserable. He had more often banished her to the kitchens to be out from under his feet, but tonight, when she couldn't get away from him, had brought it all rushing back.

She was chained to an iron ring in the floor behind Faellian's chair, so she could only see the backs of the heads of house sitting in front of her. Eril had been unusually quiet, and had barely touched his drink. Usually at this stage in the evening he was two bottles deep and roaring drunk.

"Drink up, Eril," Faellian drawled, seeming to notice at the same time. He sprawled in his chair, already inebriated himself. Nova curled her lip. "Why so miserable? Going to be plenty of misery going around as it is these next few months."