The Death Dance

“…and when the magisters arrived in the morning, they found Daelyn dead in the ballroom; his feet blistered and bloody. His heart had given out; it exploded. Since then, no one has dared set foot inside Silverthorn Manor.”

I looked at Agam’adil and found her staring back at me. Her face was just as drained of colour as I suspected mine was, but, unlike mine, her eyes were twinkling with excitement. I narrowed my eyes in return, but before I could say anything the Acolyte that had been telling the story spoke again.

“Well, look at the time. It is time for your morning prayers and then straight to bed. Come now.”

Her words were greeted with sighs, sounds of complaint and much rustling as all the novices got to their feet to follow her out of the dormitory and into the Temple for morning prayers.

There was no chance for me to speak to Agam again until we had been safely returned to our dormitory and had crawled into our beds. The Acolyte’s story had riled up all the novices and despite the late hour, no one was asleep. Everyone was whispering and giggling, discussing the gruesome ghost story in detail no doubt, and for once it did not irritate me; not when I, too, had to carry a whispered conversation. The novices’ excited voices would drown out whatever Agam and I discussed, which suited me perfectly. I shifted on my pallet so that I was facing Agam’adil and found her staring at me. Her eyes were glittering like stars in the twilight of the room, and I could feel the restless energy pouring off her in waves.

“Agam…whatever you are thinking, the answer is no.” I hissed at her and earned a wide smirk in return.

“Oh, come on, Tinny! It will be great, an adventure! Only last week you told me how you wished that we could leave these stuffy halls for just a moment…this is the perfect opportunity.” Agam’s smirk had widened into a grin.

“How would we even manage to sneak out? The Priestesses are watching us like hawks every evening.”

“Oh, that one is easy. We have a free evening tomorrow, right? When all the rest go into the city to enjoy their free time, we sneak off!”

“I do not know, Agam…it could be dangerous…”

“Nonsense! I want to see this house and it is just a story anyway…” I could see Agam pouting. She was not about to budge and with a resigned sigh I gave in.

“Fine…we will go to the house tomorrow evening…”

“Great! I promise you won’t regret it, Tinny! It will be amazing, you’ll see!”

I had my doubts about that, but I kept quiet since I knew there was no point in trying to convince Agam’adil when she had set her mind to something. With another sigh, I rolled over and was almost instantly asleep.

The large manor house loomed in front of us and the thorny vines that crawled up the front and sides of the building must have been what gave the estate its name. The vines looked dead and grey until the moonlight touched them, then they gleamed as if they had been washed in liquid silver. The house itself was in a sad state of disrepair and many of its once graceful spires and domed roofs had long since caved in. Nature had begun to reclaim it for its own, covering the ruins in creeping roots and vegetation. Around the house, the forest was still and quiet, and it felt almost as if it was holding its breath as Agam’adil and I approached. I felt an uneasy stirring in the pit of my stomach and most of all I just wanted to turn around and go back to the safety of the Temple, but Agam’adil grabbed my hand and tugged me along towards the house. Together we rushed up the front steps and tried to push the ornately carved front door open. The hinges were rusty, and it was not without protest that the door slowly slid open a crack. With some effort, we managed to wriggle our way through the narrow opening and into the entrance hall.

A thick layer of dust covered every spare surface and it whirled up in small clouds as we cautiously explored the room. It was clear that the estate must have been home to an exceptionally rich person once upon a time, as the furniture and old draperies that decorated the space were of the finest quality gold could buy. The entrance hall itself was grand and with a spiralling marble staircase that led to the upper floors. Tall windows of coloured glass framed the front door, and the ceiling was completely open to the sky above. Millions of shards of coloured glass covered the floor of the entrance hall and I speculated that the room must have been covered by a domed roof as well once upon a time. While the architecture and furniture piqued my curiosity, Agam’adil quickly lost interest in the room and headed further into the house. I trailed a step or two behind her, the feeling of unease growing stronger and stronger the further we went.

“Oh! Tinny, come and have a look at this!” I heard Agam’adil’s excited whisper come from a doorway to my left and I slowly made my way over and peeked inside. A gasp of surprise and delight escaped me as I saw what lay beyond; it was a grand ballroom. The floor was of polished white marble with purple veins and the left wall was covered in gracefully arched windows, offering a stunning view of the gardens and the forest outside. I took a cautious step into the room, trying to take in every detail at once.

“Agam, look!” I pointed excitedly up toward the ceiling and the enormous crystal chandelier that dominated the space. Its curved arms and thousands of pendants glittered like stars in the moonlight that filtered in through the windows and they created a sparkling light show along the smooth walls.

“Tin…I just noticed something…” Agam’s voice behind me suddenly sounded unsure.

“Hm? What is it?” I was only half listening, too enraptured by the beauty of the ballroom to be completely aware.

“The dust…it’s everywhere, except this room. There’s no dust in here at all, why do you think that is?”

“No idea. Maybe someone placed a protection spell on this place…”

“Why only this room though? That makes no sense.” I could hear the unease in Agam’adil’s voice now, but I did not understand it. So what if there was a strange absence of dust in here. Who cared when the room itself was so marvellous…and the music…

“Agam, do you hear it?”

“Hear what, Tin?”

“The music…it is so beautiful and inviting. Come, let us dance, Agam!” I tried pulling her further into the room, but Agam’adil was rooted to the spot, staring at me with frightened eyes.

“I can’t hear any music, Tin. Let’s go, I don’t think I like this place…”

“Just a moment longer…just one dance…” I tried pulling her with me again, but Agam was stubborn and refused, so in the end, I gave up and drifted into the centre of the room alone…and that’s when I saw them.

All around me, they appeared; males and females dressed in the most lavish and sumptuous clothing, their hairstyles were works of art and adorned with jewellery. They laughed and flirted as they danced all around me and eventually one of the males swept me into his arms. Blushing fiercely, I took a few stumbling steps that made my companion chuckle. He helped me find my footing again and then we were dancing, twirling and sweeping around the room as if we had never done anything else. It was wonderful. I had always loved dancing, but this…this was something else. It felt as if we were floating above the floor, the movements were smooth and graceful, and I never wanted to do anything else ever again.

“Tin! Tinny, what are you doing? Stop it!” Agam’s voice was shrill with fear behind me.

“Come dance with us, Agam! Everyone here is lovely, come join us, please?” I flashed her a joyous smile as my companion twirled me past the doorway where Agam was standing.

“Tinny, there is no one there. It’s not funny anymore. Please…stop this, we have to leave!” She tried to grab my arm, but a group of dancers blocked her path and then it was too late, and my companion had waltzed me across the room and away from Agam’adil’s reach.

“Just one more dance, Agam, then we can go. Just one more dance…”

I do not know for how long we danced, it could have been mere minutes, or it could have been hours, but eventually I began to tire. My companion, however, did not seem to feel any ill effects from all the dancing and just continued to whisk me along into one dance after another. His grip around me was strong and he seemed to hold me up effortlessly, despite my arms and legs feeling heavy like lead. I glanced around the room and felt dizzy due to the whirl of colour and movement that assaulted my senses. All around me the dancing wore on and on, but I was the only one who seemed the least bit tired. My feet were suddenly excruciatingly painful, and my heart was beating desperately within my chest in an effort to keep me going. I tried to plead for rest with my companion, but he only laughed and said in coaxing tones: “Just one more dance, my lovely. Just one more.”

Then he swept me into another dance, more vigorous and energetic than the previous one. As exhaustion began to set in, I could feel my heart rate begin to slow down and cold fingers of fear travelled down my spine. My companion would not let me take a breather, his grip around me was like a vice and no matter how hard I tried I could not break free. Slowly, realization dawned upon me, and I met the cold, hard eyes of my beautiful dance partner. He leaned close to me and whispered.

“You will join us soon…”, his luscious lips curving into a malicious grin.

Then I felt Agam’adil’s hand close around my wrist and with a ferocious pull she managed to rip me from my dance partner’s grip. As she did so the ballroom erupted into chaos and where there had previously been beautiful elves sweeping around the room in glorious dance there were now horrific spectres charging straight at us, howling like banshees and with wicked claws out for our blood…and this time Agam’adil had no trouble seeing them. I was too exhausted to run properly, but it was either that or be left behind and I stumbled behind Agam’adil as she rushed headlong into the entrance hall, through the heavy gate and into the first light of dawn beyond. Panting, we lay in the grassy meadow just beyond the estate and listened as the ghosts howled and raged inside, but luck was, for once, on our side and the spectres were unable to follow us into the morning light. My feet were blistered and bloody and it took every ounce of will, and Agam’s help, to walk back to our dormitory. Agam helped me heal my ruined feet as well as she could, and we never spoke of our adventure to anyone…but we would never again be able to dismiss something we were told as “just a story”. The scars on my feet would forever remind us of how closely I had danced with death.