Sofie hadn’t followed me. But the crowd’s attention was still on her as they drifted into the ballroom, occasionally darting to me instead of the resplendent chandeliers and whirling dresses and tails.
Even Goldenbeard, taking his seat on his ridiculous golden throne with this year’s prospective seawife at his side, was not nearly as fascinating as my sorceress bride.
I held out my arm, beckoning Sofie with an impatient curl of my fingers.
Still, she did not budge.
Dragons blast it, Blackbeard was watching. And he wasn’t the only one. Despite the elegant couples already dancing beneath the crystal chandeliers, a fair number of eyes had noticed my reluctant bride. “What’s the matter with you?” I hissed.
“You don’treallyexpect me to dance,“ she replied, as if I’d asked her to sample a smorgasbord of salamanders.
“Of course I expect it. Everyone expects it. It’s a ball.”
“No.”
“What?”
“I saidno. Even if I knew the steps, I’d still refuse.”
Slowly, I turned, the ground seeming to sway as if I were aboard the ships ofCarabosse.“Youdon’t dance?”
Her lip curled. “Maybe I don’t dance withyou.Or any men who kidnap me and hypnotize me into marriage.”
“You think I wanted to marryyou,a strange sorceress, practically sight unseen? By the gods, what if you’d beenboring?“ I hastily cast my eyes about the room, wondering who had heard. I’d allowed myself to get too loud thanks to my emotions.
I was sure Sofie would love nothing better than to humiliate me.
“This is part of the arrangement,” I said, extending my hand again.
Still, she did not take it. She looked at it as though it were covered in muck. “It most certainlyisn’tpart of the deal I made with you. Isn’t it bad enough you dragged me to this ridiculous affair?”
Her hand grasped her other arm as she looked away, the very picture of unease. Understanding dawned on me. And made me grin. “You don’t know how to dance.”
That got her attention. “I didn’t say that.”
“You didn’t have to.”
Her other arm crossed over, so that she appeared to be scolding me with folded arms. “Iknowhow to dance. I’m just…”
“Terrible at it?”
Eyes widening, Sofie went as stiff as the walking dead that populate those northern isles of hers—draugror some such. “I’ll have none of your ridicule,” she groused.
“Then you’d best follow me.”
Without pausing to take her arm, or even to be sure she followed, I shifted through the crowd gathered around the dance floor and made my way back to the foyer. Glancing behind me, I spotted a flash of starlight and purple weaving through the crowd. Satisfied Sofie would not lose sight of me, I started up one of the curving stairways. Like everywhere else in the palazzo, it was crowded with revelers.
Only when we were halfway down the hall did the crowd begin to thin.
“Where are we going?” Sofie asked, whispering as though she thought we might be somewhere we shouldn’t be.
“This isn’t a library,” I answered, loudly. “This is a pirate’s ball. Our host expects exploration and attempted looting. Tradition dictates he has to hide something truly valuable as the grand prize for the night. Whoever finds it gets to keep it.Ifthey can get it out of the palazzo without getting caught.”
“What does he hide?” she asked, still whispering.
“As far as I can tell? Nothing. Not here in the palazzo, anyway. That doesn’t stop the optimistic from searching.”
Our destination was at the end of the hall, through a pair of glass doors with the storm shutters folded back. The soft throb in my temple served as a reminder that tomorrow, this entire island would be shuttering their windows and doors.
