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  [colpse]Chapter One Hundred and Fifty - A adian Riftwalker in the Harpies' Court

  “Introdug!” The announcer called out, his voice ringing out across the ballroom.

  The girls and I stood at the threshold of the entrance overlooking the main floor. The area was built rather strangely. There was a rge open floor with a square in the middle for dang and a stage beyond that where a harpy woman ulling a bow across the strings of a violin while a ba up behind her.

  The room was ringed by two balies on the sed and third floor, eae with railings around them that let the people mingling there look down onto the dance floor proper. Some younger harpies were jumping down from the sed floor and onto the first with a few fps of their arms to soften their ndings.

  The chairs and tables where food would probably be served were all on the sed and third floor, which left the first open to let people chat and, presumably, dahough it seemed as if it wasn’t time for that yet.

  The herald took a deep breath. “Lady Amaryllis Albatross. Lady Rosaline Albatross. Lady Clementine Albatross. And guests, Lady Awen Bristlee. Lady Broccoli Bunch.”

  I watched the Albatross sisters to know what to do . All three stepped up as one and cleared the area around the entrance. Awen was still hooked onto Rosaline, so I decided to skip after Amaryllis to keep her pany. “Do we get food now?” I asked.

  She snorted. “Your orack mind is showing,” she said. “There’s another hour, maybe two, before the food is served.”

  My tummy didn’t like that news, not o. “Not even snacks?” I asked.

  “It’s a bit of a faux-pas for a dy to eat before the food is served. But there are some finger-foods for the men.” She gestured upwards. “They should be served a floor up or so. Somewhere out of the way.”

  “There’s sexism in the food order?” I asked. It was the first big dispy of anything like that I’d really seen. I had thought that the harpy were egalitarian, or nearly so.

  Amaryllis shrugged. “It’s tradition? If it helps, the dies get desert foods after that the men don’t.”

  I sched my nose up in distaste. “Do you think I could use my try bumpkio get away with a snack or two?”

  Amaryllis grinned. “I’m certain,” she said. She gestured to the side and towards a staircase tucked away in a er. “Shall we?”

  “Sure!” I said. My goal at the ball was to... be at the ball? I was really just there to be with my friends and maybe meet some new potential friends. It was Clementine who had an actual mission and responsibilities. I just had to keep my head down a lots.

  We climbed the stairs and moved to the sed floor, or maybe it was the first baly as opposed to an actual floor. I was certain they had their own fancy terms for it.

  The lighting was just a bit dimmer. Not so dark as to make it hard to see or cause you to bump into a chair, but dark enough to make the space feel smaller and more homey, with only the occasional mp hanging off of pilrs to light the room. The dance floor had been very bright, especially with the way it olished and shiny.

  “There,” Amaryllis said as she waved a wing towards the end of the room.

  There was a buffet table, with silver ptes and ptters covered in little bits of food that I couldn’t quite identify from across the room. True to what Amaryllis said, the only people around it was a group of harpy boys of about e.

  Aable nearby had what looked like pund bottles of wih a servant behind them p for those who wanted something to drink. At least that seemed to be gender-ral.

  “What’s the best snack?” I asked as I pulled Amaryllis along behind me.

  “At a ball like this? There will be some fish. There’s a pastry called a golden wing which is just cuts of fish pressed into a sort of soft dough and fried. It looks like a feather. I quite like those.”

  “Why’s it called a wing if it looks like a feather?” I asked.

  Amaryllis blinked. “I don’t know,” she finally said. It sounded a bit defensive.

  Giggling, I pulled up to the buffet and started eyeing up all the food. I was just reag out to grab a small pte--an actual pte, not the sort of pstic pte I would have expected at any of the parties I’d eve--when I heard Amaryllis groan.

  “Oh no,” she muttered.

  I looked over to her, then followed her gaze over to the young harpy men. There were four of them, and they were ing our way. That much was fihey were probably ing for the food, maybe even to tell me that I was too much of a girl for the food meant for them, but the shey wore and the way they were focused on Amaryllis instead of me said otherwise.

  “Amaryllis Albatross,” the harpy in the lead said. He was a tallish boy, with brownish-red feathers that I suspected made him a hay. He would have been handsome if he wasn’t wearing an expression like someone who just walked home to find that their dog pooped on the carpet.

  “Oh, it’s... you,” Amaryllis said. She frowned a little. “What was your name again?”

  The ck of panic over fetting his name suggested that it was all a ruse to poke at the young man, which, judging by how red he got, worked exactly as pnned. He took a deep breath, the out as a whistle between grit teeth as he reigned in his anger. “I do believe you know my name, Lady Albatross,” he said.

  “I don’t!” I said. I smiled big and happy at him and his friends. Maybe I could turuation around? There was no reason we couldn’t all get along.

  The boy looked me up and down, then scoffed dismissively. “Is this one of the friends you made when you ran away from your duties, Amy?” he asked.

  Amaryllis huffed, a very dangerous huff. “As a point of fact, she is, Francis.”

  The harpy’s face turned red again.

  “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Francis,” I said. “My name’s Broccoli!”

  “My name,” he said. “Is Francisco. Francisco Hawk of the Hawk .”

  “That’s nice,” I said. “Who are your friends?”

  Francisco paused for a moment, looking a bit fused until Amaryllis snorted while holding back a ugh. “They are of no to you,” he said. “How about you leave me and my fiao talk; I’m certain someone of your sort find something productive to do with your time.”

  My smile didn’t so much as twitch, though it wao. “Fiancée?” I asked.

  Amaryllis looked uned, but I’d been her friend for weeks and I khat something . “We had a tract. Emphasis on had. I would like a husband of... quality, you see.”

  “Okay, okay, wait!” I said as I stepped up betweewo and raised my hands. “I’ve seen this se in like, a dozen books before. You’re both going to keep sniping at each other, and it’s only going to get worse, and then someone’s going to end up calling a duel or something and none of us want that.”

  Francisco gred at me. “Who do you think you are?” he asked.

  I stared at him. “Do you have any idea who I am?” I asked.

  The maated for a moment. “No, no I’m afraid I don’t,” he said.

  I really, really wao start spouting off some sort of ridiculous title. Like I’m Broccoli Bunch, the breaker of dungeons and rider ons. I have risen ten levels ihan a month, befriended neancers and kidnapped princesses. I am a riftwalker, called to the world to make it my friend! But saying something like that would be super rude.

  “Well... okay, so I’m not actually anyone important, but I might have been, and if I was then being rude like that would be really silly. Heck, even if I’m not... which is actually the case, being rude is just kind of not nice. I’m sure we all talk civilly about things.”

  Francisco didn’t seem to know how to hahat, but his buddies seemed to know just what to do. One of them, the biggest of the lot, made himself look bigger by puffing out his chest, and the red. “Back away from Lord Hawk, you bun peasant.”

  I snorted.

  I saw Amaryllis’ hands tighten into little balls and she gred right past Francisd to his friend who’d spoken. “Keep your tongue in check,” she said.

  I wao sp my hand over my face as that only got Francisco to puff up even more. “An ironic statement from the likes of you,” he said. “I recall your reputation suggesting that you had a hard time doing just that yourself. A problem I was told I’d o fix as your mate.”

  “How fortunate for you that you’ll never have to fix anything of the sort,” Amaryllis said. “I pity any dy that lets the likes of you close ts.”

  Francisco ed a sort of growl and leaned forwards as if trying to intimidate Amaryllis. Amaryllis who’d fired spells at a dragon before. It didn’t work very well. “You Albatross are all the same. You’re just like that sttern sister of yours. I’m gd that our blood never mixed.”

  Had... had he just insulted Rosaline?

  “Do you want to solve this in an arena?” Amaryllis asked. She looked perfectly calm, but I could feel the mana wafting off of her and snapping at the air with little statticky sparks.

  Francisco scoffed. “What do you take me for? An idiot?”

  “Yes,” Amaryllis said. “Though... perhaps not. I actually respee of the idiots I know.”

  The harpy’s face went some iing shades. “What do you wager, then?” he asked.

  “Um. Really? There are actual duels?” I asked.

  “Of course there are,” Amaryllis said. “It’s a simple way to demonstrate one’s superiority to weaklings like Francis here.”

  “To the death?” I asked.

  Amaryllis shrugged. “Not at a venue like this. I’m certain they have somewhere where we could humiliate Francis.”

  “It’s Francisco,” Francisco corrected again. “And I’m from the Hawk. We have a proud heritage of military serviot that I would use even that as an excuse to beat the likes of you.”

  “You wouldn’t manage,” Amaryllis dismissed out of hand, “not even the four of you together could take me and Broccoli on.”

  “Very well,” Francisco said. “The four of us against the two of you.” He smiled smugly. “And we’ll fight over... Are you the member of the Albatross bei on the expedition? Or do they not trust you that far?”

  Amaryllis grinned. “I’m going to Slyphfree,” she said.

  “Still as expendable as before, then,” he said.

  Judging by how pinched Amaryllis looked a moment before she schooled herself, that had stung. I patted her bad gred as hard as I could at Francisco.

  “How about this then. You lose, and your family doesn’t send anyone. We lose, and we’ll do the same.”

  Amaryllis’ smile was dht predatory. “You’re on,” she said.

  The Hay didn’t seem to expect that. The stakes were probably too high and the odds too poor for ao actually want to try... ahat wasn’t a really ticked off Amaryllis, that was.

  “Very well. We’ll see you and your mongrel friend in the arena ter.”

  And with that, Francisd his friends were off.

  I watched them go for a bit before turning to Amaryllis. “Are you sure that was wise?” I asked.

  “No. But It’ll be worth it to wipe the smug look off of his face,” she said. “That guy’s been a jerk to me ever since he learned how to open his beak. That marriage tract just made him worse. I think I’m going to have fun wiping the floor with him.”

  ***

  RavensDagger