The Chain (The Secret of Spellshadow Manor #3)

“What happens to them?” Ellabell spoke up fearfully.

“They are sent somewhere else, to receive the help they need,” Helena replied with a sad smile. “I know how it must sound to you, but the Gifting is seen as an honor here. It is the price for losing, and we all understand it.”

Silence fell. Nobody could quite believe it.

“It doesn’t always end in Gifting, though. Sometimes, a pair can tie, and then both get the title of Ascended,” she added, filling the deathly silence.

Suddenly, music started up across the field as drums began to pound in a rhythmic, tribal beat. Helena smiled, clapping her hands in delight. Alex’s stomach sank.

“Okay, I’ve got to go or else I’ll be late, but enjoy the show—you have a great view from here. My friends and I used to sneak out and watch it from this window when we were first-years,” she said. “It’s always an amazing spectacle. I promise you won’t be disappointed!”

With that, she disappeared in a whirlwind of shimmering gray and sweet perfume.

Despite the horror of the show that was about to take place in the arena, the compulsion to go to the window was like the urge to watch a car crash. It was impossible not to look. There was a morbid curiosity that the whole group seemed to share as Alex and Ellabell went upstairs to the bell tower itself, while Natalie and Jari stayed put at the window Helena had brought them to.

Aamir had missed all of the drama of the evening and was still sleeping off the effects of his broken curse. Although he had yet to fully awaken, his fever had subsided and he slept more peacefully, without twisting and turning beneath the agonizing pain of the curse. With it gone, it was simply a matter of recovery.

As Alex and Ellabell gazed out toward the arena, the music thudded loudly in their ears, the bass shaking the very foundations of the tower. The sight before them was undeniably beautiful, in the most picturesque setting. It looked like something pulled straight from the legends of ancient Rome. So much so, Alex half-expected a chariot to appear and go tearing around the pitch. The stars glittered overhead as fireworks rocketed upward from behind the amphitheater itself, lighting up the night sky in a sparkling array of rainbow colors. A collective “ooh” went up from the amassing crowd, as a particularly bright spray of vivid red pinwheels exploded brightly in the darkness.

“Beautiful!” exclaimed Ellabell as the fireworks reflected in her eyes.

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.