The Chain (The Secret of Spellshadow Manor #3)(28)

Alex wanted to make a smooth comment, but he held his tongue. It was too cringe-worthy. “I love fireworks,” he said finally, smiling as she stood closer to him for a better view.

Watching the mages continue to arrive and take their seats, Alex wondered where they had come from and how they had arrived at Stillwater House. Their presence made him ponder the strange mechanics of portals.

Are there portals in the House, or do they just get conjured for special occasions, like this?

As the latecomers filed in, Alex thought he saw Helena slip among the crowd and up into the seats, taking her place near the top-center with a large group of similarly clad, similarly beautiful individuals. Beside them, to the right, sat another group all dressed in golden clothes. To the left, they were all dressed in bronze. Alex guessed they must be students from the older end of the school, sitting in their year-groups.

Just then, trumpets pierced the air in a brash heralding. An exquisite creature had appeared on the field. A wispy dress of fine, gauzy gold flowed from her body as diamond-encrusted vines twisted among the curling tresses of her beautiful, almost white hair. She seemed to float across the grass, moving with an unearthly grace and elegance. Her face was striking and had an ethereal, otherworldly quality, yet it was familiar somehow, stirring something up in the back of Alex’s memory. The image of the young woman in the portrait in the abandoned ballroom at Spellshadow came rushing back to him, only the woman before him was slightly older than she had been when it was painted.

An announcer stood up, and his voice echoed across the arena.

“Please rise for the Crown Princess Alypia!” the man demanded.

The congregation stood immediately in the presence of the hypnotic, golden woman, as she made her way toward them, heading for the throne-like seat in the center of the amphitheater. Gracefully, she stood in front of the throne, gesturing for everyone around her to be seated. They obeyed without a word.

She must be the Headmistress of this place, Alex realized, noting how the students watched her with bated breath.

“It is my great pleasure to welcome you all to the annual Ascension Ceremony,” she spoke, her mesmerizing voice both booming and delicate in some defiance of vocal physics. “Without further ado, as I know we are all eager to begin, I declare the ceremony OPEN!”

In her hands, she unfurled a long scroll that Alex guessed bore a list of the students who would be undertaking the ceremony that year.

“Orpheus Llangollen and Mirabelle Scavo!” she bellowed.

Music erupted as two students sprinted out from twin tunnels set in the base of the amphitheater. A girl and a boy, each around eighteen, ran into the painted circle of the pitch and turned to face Princess Alypia. They were both clad in tunics of pure white silk, with thin plates of painted leather armor on top, one set colored red for the boy, the other set colored blue for the girl. They bowed toward their princess, waiting for her signal. As she raised her palms upward, the two students ran to opposite ends of the pitch.

Twisting her hands, Alypia raised a glimmering golden shield between the four posts with their bird of prey statues on top, creating a barrier around the battle arena. Alex guessed it was to protect the spectators from anything the students might do, as well as keep the duelers from escaping.

For a moment, nothing happened as the two students faced off. Seconds later, a fiery flare erupted from Alypia’s hand, prompting the two to begin the duel. Instantly, streams of magic, color-changed red and blue by the battling students, twisted and turned in the air. Wave after wave of sharp-edged weapons were thrown on both sides as they ducked and dived, weaving in and out of complex spells sent in their direction.

Most of the magic, Alex had never seen before—the duelers were using spells he had only dreamed of. The boy sent a shiver of magic down into the ground, only to have it split the earth and shoot up close to his opponent’s legs, trying to drag her down into the ground. In retaliation, the girl sent two crackling balls of energy after her combatant, which chased him around the pitch, firing arrows at him in rapid succession until he was forced to hide in the very crevasse he had made in the ground.

They were both skillful and agile, and seemed evenly matched. Alex watched the faces in the crowd, trying to make out which ones might be the parents of these two. There were too many worried faces to mark any of them as family, but there were eager faces too, spurring on the warriors.

The duel raged on, with spell after spell shivering through the air, until both combatants seemed exhausted. The arena glittered with spent magic. For a second, the boy seemed to pause, giving the girl the opportunity she needed. Swiftly, she sent an attack toward the boy that hurled him back against the golden barrier, his body crumpling against it. He slid down the shield and collapsed in a heap on the grass, unmoving.

The suspense was terrible.

Ellabell gripped Alex’s arm as they waited for the boy to move.

Eventually, he stirred and looked up toward Alypia as he dragged himself up onto his knees, bowing his head and placing his palm flat on his heart in a motion of surrender.

“Mirabelle Scavo is the victor of the first battle!” she announced, firing a blue flare into the air as a cheer went up from the crowd.

Although she looked exhausted, the girl was grinning with pleasure as she punched the air and set off across the grass toward the raked seating. She sprinted up into the audience to find her family, who waved eagerly to her from their seats. They embraced her warmly, but Alex’s attention was distracted by the scene below, on the field, as two assistants ran on to pull the boy away. He watched as they dragged Orpheus Llangollen back through the tunnel on the right. Looking back up into the audience, Alex examined two adults as they stood up from their seats and made their way slowly down the stone steps, their shoulders hunched, their faces hidden, before disappearing into the same tunnel the boy had been taken into. Sorrow twisted in Alex’s heart as he heard the names of the next two duelers being called. After tonight, those parents would never see their son again.