The wind returned, ruffling my hair, and this time it wasn’t cold. I looked up to see Starbreeze floating above me, back in her invisible form. ‘You’re staying?’
Starbreeze pointed up cheerfully at the tower. ‘Make another lightning man?’
Luna looked from me to Starbreeze. She still couldn’t see her but was getting used to guessing where the air elemental was floating. ‘Lightning man?’
‘Don’t ask.’
Starbreeze swirled around our heads and Luna glanced up at her passing. ‘She thinks you’re going to make things fun?’
Talk about backhanded compliments. ‘Given what she calls fun, I hope not.’
‘Not you!’ Starbreeze chipped in. She pointed at Luna. ‘Her. Ooh!’ Starbreeze looked upwards and her face lit up. She shot up into the night sky and out of sight before either of us could say a word. Luna and I looked at each other, then kept walking.
The ground floor lobby was huge and spacious, paved in Italian marble. A steady murmur of voices echoed around the concourse. A boy in his teens crossed the floor towards us. ‘Good evening,’ he said politely. ‘For the ball?’
I handed him my invitation and he gave it a quick glance. ‘Thank you. Far lift, top floor.’
I took the invitation back with a nod and started for the corner. Luna had been studying the boy curiously, and whispered to me once we were past. ‘Who was he?’
‘Apprentice,’ I said quietly. ‘I used to do jobs like that once.’
The buttons inside the lift went up to 45. I hit the top one and the doors hissed shut. The lift whirred upwards with a hum of powerful machinery, and I knew we’d arrive in less than a minute. ‘Some of the people inside will be mages, some will be adepts or hangers-on,’ I told Luna. ‘Don’t look surprised or shocked, no matter what you see.’ I paused. ‘Ready?’
Luna nodded. ‘Ready.’
‘Okay. Game face on.’
The doors hissed open to reveal a group of four big men in dark clothing, their eyes tracking us as we stepped out. The one at the front asked for my invitation, and this time the check was more thorough. Once he was satisfied, he nodded. ‘Thank you. Enjoy the ball.’ Up ahead, a pair of double doors stood open, and light and voices streamed through. We walked in.
The room we’d entered was enormous, the ceiling reaching far overhead with angled corners. A double balcony ran the circuit of the walls, recessed so that the people walking it were concealed behind the railings. At the centre was a square column stretching all the way to the roof. Walkways ran between the upper balcony to the higher levels, and scattered on the underside of the walkways and all around the walls were sets of chandeliers, glowing with hundreds of lights. Everything was made of steel and glass reflecting the light and throwing it back so that the entire vast hall was as bright as full daylight. It was dazzling, and both Luna and I blinked as we stood there, our eyes adjusting.
The hall was filled with noise; there were hundreds of people thronging the floor with more looking from above. Men and women were crossing the floor, talking, watching, dancing, standing, spread out across all of the vast room. The entry hall was set a little above floor level, and from our position Luna and I could see out across the whole crowd. To one side a band was playing upon a stage, and on the dance floor maybe fifty were dancing while others looked on. Another area had been set aside for games, with mages’ chess, duelling pistes and more. Near the central column was a buffet, and on the far side, partially blocked by the column, I could see the greyish glow of a sphere arena, suspended in mid-air.
We stood there for a minute, just watching. No one seemed to be paying us any heed yet. That wouldn’t last. ‘Well,’ I said, and took Luna’s arm. She flinched and started to pull away in reflex, but I gave her a smile and she hesitated. ‘Let’s go attract some attention.’
We walked down the stairs to the floor, and Luna fell in by my side. As we did, I glanced down at Arachne’s ribbon, making sure that Luna didn’t see me do it. A quarter of its length had gone black, the darkness spreading slowly as it drew in the silvery mist.
I led Luna towards the band and the dance floor. We passed other men and women as we walked, strolling and talking, all wearing expensively tailored evening wear. In my normal clothes I would have stood out like a sore thumb, but in Arachne’s outfits we fitted in perfectly. Arachne pretends not to care about fashion, but she always seems to match it. Most of the men were wearing dinner jackets like mine, while the women were wearing dresses that were … well, they were dresses. I have no clue what kind. Hey, I’m a guy, what do you expect? There’s a reason I go to Arachne when I want to look good.
The band was a string ensemble. They were playing a waltz, quick and cheerful. ‘Want to dance?’ I said to Luna as we reached the dance floor.
Luna shook her head. ‘No, thanks.’
‘Great.’ I pulled Luna out onto the floor.
‘Alex!’ Luna protested, her voice rising. People turned to look, and she hushed it to a whisper. ‘I can’t-’
‘Relax,’ I said as I took her right hand in my left and raised it. ‘I can.’
‘You know I don’t know how to dance!’
‘Just follow my lead. Put your other hand on my shoulder.’ I moved it. ‘There. Start off on your left foot. And one, and two-’
‘I can’t do this!’
‘-and three,’ I said, and led off. Luna nearly tripped over, then righted herself, clinging to me desperately as we moved through the crowd.
Although I don’t look it, I’m a pretty good dancer, a legacy from my time with Richard. I haven’t gotten much use out of it since then, but it’s like riding a bicycle — you never forget. The nice thing about dancing as a man is that if you’re good enough, you can carry a girl even if she doesn’t have the first clue what she’s doing. I stuck to basics, letting Luna get used to the rhythm as I scanned the crowd for familiar faces. There weren’t many. I don’t generally get invited to high society events, and the mages here were the elite.
Of course, not all were mages. Many would only be adepts, or maybe not even that. Some would be enspelled, and they’d be waking up tomorrow morning remembering tonight as nothing more than a dream. And some would be apprentices or even slaves, here only at the whim of their masters.
Here’s the catch, though — there’s no way to know just by looking whether someone is a mage or not. Some mages like to advertise, but the smart ones usually take care to avoid revealing their power until it suits them. It’s easy to look at a crowd like this and notice only the ones who catch your eye — the woman wearing a white dress that seemed to be made entirely of feathers, with gaps exposing glimpses of pale skin, the man dressed entirely in red, with a snake-headed cane at one side — but usually the ones you have to watch out for are the ones you don’t see.
The music shifted into a slower dance, and as Luna began to realise that she wasn’t going to trip over, her death grip on my arms loosened. I could feel her muscles relax slightly through the hand on her back. ‘Having fun?’ I said into her ear. The mist still swirled around her, but the ribbon was drawing it away from the other dancers.
‘I’m going to get you for this,’ Luna said, breathless.
‘I’ll take that as a yes.’
‘Is everyone watching?’