CHAPTER 7
A Party Fit for a King
By the time I walked into my bedroom, my heart had started to beat at a normal pace. I think I might have been more shocked at my behavior than my father was. What had I been thinking of, defying my father like that?
Turning on the television, I distracted myself watching Ellen. She helped me feel almost normal. Hugo, Izzy, and I loved to watch her show and fantasize that we could blend into the everyday human world, hold everyday norm jobs, and play every-day practical jokes. We imagined how it would be to have relationships with whomever we wanted to be with.
I wondered why the Board Authority hadn’t thought to ban Ellen from our televisions. A lot of movies, television shows, and ebooks were banned by the wizards’ Communications Board Authority. At the top of the list of forbidden books and movies was the Harry Potter series, because it depicted female wizards with actual magical abilities. They didn’t blink an eye over the cable series Sex in The City because they knew girls in our society wouldn’t even consider that type of sexual promiscuity due to the threat of retraining. The Board seemed to focus on the clothing and shopping aspects, and disregarded the fact that the women in the series held important jobs such as a journalist, a lawyer, and a marketing executive.
So, we could watch Sex in The City, but wizard society might collapse if wizard girls imagined themselves to be like Hermione Granger. After all, if a “Muggle” girl could manage to obtain magical powers, then wizard girls might start believing they could wield magic, too. And then where would our society end up? In complete and total chaos, or so they led us to believe. I was only just beginning to question it myself.
The reality was we watched about anything we wanted to watch because of certain enterprising and determined young wizards who set most of us up with underground stations of banned programing.
I happened to glance at the clock on my nightstand. Uh-oh! The party was going to start in twenty minutes. I’d been distracted again, lost in my own thoughts, which wasn’t particularly unique for me, but it was happening more than usual today.
Because, as of today, I represented everything the wizard council sought to prevent. I, Addie Evangelista, the daughter of the High Chancellor, was the nightmare that lurked in the mind of each and every esteemed council member.
And I needed to focus on getting ready for a party—and fast.
I took a quick shower. Sitting at my dressing table, I glamoured on thicker eyelashes, a little eye liner, a slight tan, plum lips, and a light smattering of sparkles on my eyelids to match the shimmers in my dress. I left my hair down, sweeping back small side-sections into a small pewter and rhinestone hair clip.
Lastly, I slipped my dress over my head. It slid on, settling on me perfectly. My father might have given it to me, but my mother had undoubtedly picked it out. Going to my closet, front and center, I found matching high-heeled strappy sandals. When it came to running a household, planning an event, or accessorizing an outfit, my mother never forgot the slightest detail.
To avoid running into arriving guests, I took the back way to the ballroom. The structure of the keep stretched a mile long, with lengthy, winding corridors. There were doorways that opened to shortcuts using dimensional folds, but I preferred to walk, even in high heels. It took me a good five minutes to get to the ballroom.
As always, my mother, with Tristan’s help, had the ballroom looking resplendent. It would befit any head of state, but it was mostly for Zarius, and also for appearances. My father’s position of High Chancellor was pretty much like being the wizard president of North America, including both the United States and Canada.
The thirty-foot-high ceiling glimmered with rainbow shimmers from the flickering lights of the five massive chandeliers dripping with thousands of individual crystal prisms. In addition to the chandeliers, hundreds of free-floating golden and silver wizard lights sparkled like hovering stars, twinkling across the full length of the ballroom. Every few seconds a screech would ring out as an owl, or hawk, or kestrel would soar through the air, adroitly weaving in and out of the wizard lights.
Silver and gold linen-covered side tables were filled with every kind of extravagant food and drink imaginable. An enormous sixteen-tier birthday cake stood as the centerpiece, lit with enchanted candles. The wax would not melt or the wicks lose their flame, until the right moment.
For familiars, stands and perches of varying heights held bowls of water, cream, raw meats, vegetables, and grains.
“Oh! Adriana, there you are, darling,” my mother called as I walked toward her. Her eyes only landed on me for a moment, and she nodded her approval. “Lovely, dear,” she said distractedly. I could see her mentally checking off an item on her special event checklist. Adriana dressed and here—check.
My mother was, as always, radiant. Her theme tonight was gold. Her white-blond hair was glamoured to a shiny gold, and upswept into an artful arrangement of curls and sparkling golden pins. Her dress was a cascade of bright and burnished golden tiers, and she’d chosen to transform her sky-blue irises to a soft topaz. Even her skin sparkled with the faintest touch of luminous gold dust. The chandelier and wizard lights showed her off to perfection.
This was the type of event my mother lived for.
And obviously, she hadn’t talked to my father, or I’d be in trouble with her, too. Her checklist would have been more along the lines of: give Adriana a censuring look to uphold Manfred’s displeasure—check.
My mother glanced around, her eyes holding the barest hint of anxiety. “Adriana, dear, have you seen your brother?”
Yes, too many times today. “Not lately.” Thank goodness.
“Hmmm, I wonder where he could be.”
My mother’s majordomo, Tristan, walked up to her. “May I be of assistance, Lady Clarissa?” he asked with a respectful nod.
“Tristan, have you seen Zarius yet?”
“No, my lady, I have not,” he responded in his usual professional manner.
Tristan was one of the few wizards on staff. He was from a minor wizarding family and probably hoped to make and use connections with a core family. That’s what I’d heard my father say, anyway. The keep’s staff was primarily composed of norms, except for Tristan and our head chef, Christophe, whose culinary skills really were magical, and then some.
“Tristan, please be a dear and fetch Zarius for me,” my mother requested, but continued to search for Zarius amidst the household staff, the hordes of family members and their familiars assisting with the festivities, and the musicians milling about the ballroom.
As my mother was looking for Zarius, she didn’t see the fleeting grimace on Tristan’s face, but I did. Apparently he dreaded encountering him, too.
“If I may suggest, Lady Clarissa, I may be of more immediate assistance to you if I were to send a locator-message probe to master Zarius, while I continue to help you with last-minute details.”
“Yes,” my mother agreed. “That’s a good idea, Tristan.”
Wearing a black tuxedo identical to my father’s, Zarius finally made his appearance as the orchestra started playing, right before my mother and father positioned themselves before the ballroom doors. We commenced greeting guests. My father was closest to the doorway, then Zarius, my mother, and lastly, me. I didn’t particularly care about the lineup. I was just glad the arrangement helped me avoid eye contact with my father, and my brother.
After a hundred or so guests and familiars passed by, Lady Acacia entered the ballroom with Rory by her side. As Lady Acacia’s guest, he was one of the few norms in attendance tonight. He wore a pewter-colored tuxedo, an almost perfect complement to my gown. When he first saw me, his mouth dropped open with undeniable appreciation. I had to admit, it was a pretty gratifying expression. Then, he quickly remedied that lapse, and gave me a polite smile.
“Lady Adriana, you are lovely tonight,” Rory said quietly.
“You are, too.” I felt the heat of my blush, as once again words escaped my mouth before m
y brain registered what I was saying. But he was gorgeous in his tux.
Within the next few seconds, Lady Acacia and Rory were swept forward by the tide of guests continuing to move through the massive ballroom entrance.
We greeted arriving guests for over an hour more before we were allowed to break away.
“Adriana, remember to circulate,” my mother directed.
Forget circulating—I needed to find Hugo and Izzy. I searched through the crowds of formally dressed guests in their glittering full-length gowns and sober tuxes. Through the myriad of familiars—the bears, coyotes, foxes, monkeys, wolves, dogs, panthers, and cats of all sizes as well as the owls, falcons, eagles, and other feathered familiars, I looked for my best friends. Finally, I found them.
Rushing toward my friends, my mind whirled with all I had to tell them since I’d seen them a couple of hours before. I couldn’t bring myself to tell them about Rory’s magic, though. I was pretty sure they’d assume the worst if they thought about what purple magic might mean, but I just couldn’t see Rory as evil. There had to be some other explanation…unless the truth was that I wouldn’t let myself see him that way. If that was the case, was I putting others in danger? Was I risking anyone’s life by believing in him? I needed answers, and to get them I needed access to wizard libraries and computers.
One thing I would tell Izzy and Hugo about was the argument with my father. Someone should get a kick out of that story, and Izzy and Hugo were the two people in the world who definitely would.