Warrior Princess by Jodi Lynn Anderson

Author:Jodi Lynn Anderson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Aladdin

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

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The Duchess’s Ball

AS THE CARRIAGE PULLED INTO the semicircular drive that scooped in front of the palace, May knew there were important things that were supposed to be on her mind, like the Lady of North Farm, and Bo Cleevil’s plans to invade the world of the living. But as she caught sight of the big, dazzling bonfires that lit the way to the palace, and the carriages ahead of them, she felt dizzy with excitement. May had never been to a ball.

The huge palace—three graceful stories of white marble—was stately, noble, and very old, with large marble pillars holding it up. Its vast front verandah and stairs were lit by torches so that it beckoned festively to passersby, the fires sending cheerful shadows dancing across the stone. In the windows above, the curtains occasionally moved as shadowy figures marked the arrivals below.

“It looks like everyone compared notes before they came,” May said worriedly. She watched the other guests disembarking in the queue ahead of them: The ladies all in bright, if moldy, colors—pink and blue and spring green silks, with bunches of ripped lace hanging out of the cuffs and bodices. The most magnificent costumes were the moldiest and most decrepit, and these spectresses held their heads high, their chins pointed into the air. The gentlemen wore pastel suits with lace handkerchiefs. Everyone wore powdered white wigs, laced with cobwebs and decorated with bits of dead flowers.

May looked down at her own dress. Pumpkin had helped her pick it out that afternoon. It was thick black velvet, soft as cat’s fur, with sparkling star-shaped buttons along the bodice, crisscrossed with silken threads as silvery as moonlight. It was covered in dusty cobwebs, sending puffs of dust flying off the fabric every time she moved. The velvet made her hair—combed straight and glossy down her back—look so black it become lost beneath her shoulders, like night. Her neck was strung with ancient pearls, tiny pendants encrusted with rubies, and dripping emeralds.

Lucius had not eased her self-consciousness in the least. The whole ride, he’d given her legs and arms twisty pinches and stuck his wet pinkie in her ear when she wasn’t looking. Now he was swinging his legs and looking out the window restlessly, as if he’d rather be anywhere else. Glowing on the seat next to her in his school uniform, he looked even more out of place than May did. He had at least, she noticed, brushed his hair. And he looked very handsome, though May would never have told him that.

“I should have worn something else,” May whispered, mortified, scrunching up her birdlike white shoulders and feeling, among other things, entirely too tall. Lucius seemed to wake from his daze and looked over at her a tad softly, then at the lovely and decrepit ladies gliding up the stairs.

He wrinkled his nose. “You look worlds better than those old bags,” he said.

“Gee, thanks.”

In another few moments their carriage was next in line and lurched up to the walkway.

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