CHAPTER ELEVEN: THE VENETIAN MASKED BALL.
The Venetian Masked Ball was held in the town’s eighteenth century assembly rooms. The building was a grand affair of white stone with colonnade columns at the front of the building below a pitched roof, with a suitable classical carving on it. The windows were tall and thin with many panes in them and the door tall and heavy. The ballroom inside was long and tall, of very elegant proportions and decorated very tastefully in a McAdam style in white with a hint of gold. It had thankfully escaped the worst of the heavy gold baroque excesses. Violet and Aliya entered the building, gliding in their flowing dresses, topped with their masks, over the beautiful black and white checked marble floor. They were fairly early, but quite a few guests had already arrived all suitably attired with masks and sumptuous costumes.
“How can you tell which are the elves?” whispered Violet to Aliya.
“Well you can’t obviously.”
“Well how can you tell then?”
“Experience,” she stated. “You might find with your eyes open you notice a lot more than you think. You need to look beyond the glamour and see truly.”
“When do you think the Sorceress will arrive?”
“At exactly the time when she thinks she will make the most impact?”
The ballroom started to fill up and Violet and Aliya wandered amongst the guests, keeping their eyes open. Aliya pointed out some elves to Violet, they of course were the most graceful guests there. Violet was delighted with herself when she noticed a particularly graceful and wispy girl with such a light step she seemed to float around the floor as an elf. She pointed her out to Aliya who responded, “well of course she’s an elf, that one was an easy one.”
When most of the guests had arrived, the event was very well attended this year and the large ball room was filled with beautifully garbed figures, flitting about the ball room like bejewelled butterflies, there was a disturbance near the entrance. The guests drew back from the entrance to make a passageway through their colourful ranks. Two figures emerged from the doorway and processed through the passageway like a king and queen, their entourage following. One of the tall figures was dressed in a sumptuous black brocade gown, topped with a huge black be-feathered mask and headdress with glittering black crown. She held her head high and looked around her as if surveying her domain and subjects. The figure holding her hand high was tall and graceful, wearing a matching black brocade coat and beautifully embroidered waistcoat. He also wore a black feather mask, but smaller than his companions, and a smaller black crown over his tied long blonde hair.
Violet’s heart ached and she wanted to hide away as she recognised Ayden despite the mask and unfamiliar haughty bearing. He was gazing at the Sorceress at his side with adoration burning in his eyes through the mask. She had to rescue him, she couldn’t let him be that malicious hag’s puppy dog. She felt her courage return, with a hot anger at what she had done to the man she loved and who loved her. The Sorceress and Ayden continued to proceed along the avenue of people until they reached the head of the ballroom, all eyes had been on them, no music had played and all voices were silent. Violet and Aliya made sure they’d kept out of the line of sight of the Sorceress despite the masks. Violet then noticed the entourage that had accompanied them, they were few in number and heavily disguised with masks and costumes, but all were large and tall, Violet dreaded to think what was under those mask, they were certainly bigger and heavier than the orcs she’s seen at her tower. She also noticed at the back, Jack, the teenager she’d seen imprisoned with Ayden. He seemed completely oblivious to the Sorceress and Ayden which everyone else was fascinated with and very curious by all the people and their masks and costumes. He’d fallen behind the entourage who had positioned themselves in a line behind the Sorceress, to look at everything around him. The Sorceress and her entourage didn’t seem to be paying much attention to him, so Violet decided to see if she could get to talk to him and see if she could get any information out of him. She wasn’t very sure where his loyalties lay, he had been imprisoned by the Sorceress when she last saw him, but he was here, to an extent off the leash and unwatched.
As the Sorceress and Ayden positioned themselves at the head of the room, facing all the guests, the string quartet started playing again and they began to dance, watched by all the guests.
As she made her way cautiously towards him she wondered if he had been put under some sort of spell, but he appeared to be the same constantly distracted curious creature he’d been when she’d last seen him. Despite the black outfit and impish mask he wore, she couldn’t help recognising the constant fidgety energy he had. As she made her way through the other guests she became aware of them speaking quietly amongst themselves speculating on the couple who had taken over the ball. Everyone seemed to be in awe of the pair and speculated if they weren’t royalty of some description, it was hard to tell with the masks, but they were certainly making a very startling impression. As she passed close to a group she knew to be elves, she at first thought she heard them whispering the same as the others, but when she listened closer with her ears opened to what was actually being said, almost like tuning her ears in and ignoring the static. She realised they were actually speaking a language she didn’t recognise, it must be elvish she surmised with an excited wonder, but she realised that the tone was different too, they sounded disconcerted and concerned and she felt the same feeling herself more so, that she knew they felt it.
She drew near to her target; he’d made his way to the side of the room and was engaged in following with his finger the unusual patterns etched in the plasterwork of the wall. But as soon as she drew close, he turned and saw her and was instantly fascinated by the peacock feathers of her mask.
“Wow, I like your mask, they’re peacock feathers right? Those feathers are like eyes watching everything; do you have a face under that mask? I mean a real face?” Violet lifted her mask to show him her face. “Oh good you do, I’ve seen you before. Do those eyes not give you the creeps like eyes are watching you wherever you go? The tower is like that with all the faces and masks, you’re been there haven’t you? Didn’t it give you the creeps walking around it thinking of all those eyes watching you? Did we ever get introduced by the way? I know you’re Violet, Ayden talked about you before he got zapped by the Mask lady, my name’s Jack. I’m glad you’ve got a real face, I wonder what are under all the other people’s masks here, do you think they’ve got real faces too, like ours I mean? Did you see the people the Sorceress brought with her, they have the most grotesque faces under their masks, I hope they don’t take their masks off, they’re really gruesome.” Jack proceeded to describe some of the faces in fascinated horror as he listed their snout like noses, green warty skin, pointed yellowy teeth. He lifted his own mask. “I have a real face too, by the way in case you wondered. You should see what’s under the Sorceress’s mask, she has no face at all, just a kind of swirling mist, really creepy. I wasn’t supposed to see it, she thought I was asleep, but I don’t sleep for long, too much going on. Do you think they have anything to eat here, I’m hungry, it’s been ages since I last had something to eat, at least three hours. Oh look they’re dancing is causing little sparks, I wonder how they do that, do you think if we danced we’d be able to do that or do you think it’s a special sorceresses only thing?”
Violet, replacing her mask, turned to where the Sorceress and Ayden were dancing. She hadn’t really been paying attention to the dance before, the image of Ayden dancing adoringly with another woman, was not one she relished. But she watched them closely now as they did a dance she had not seen done before. It was a curious dance, one that they gracefully walked down the centre of the ballroom, sometimes coming together, sometimes going away from each other, stepping out complicated patterns on the black and white checked floor. It remained her of the medieval floor dances she had read about, but this was not one she was familiar with. As they slowly and gracefully danced Violet noticed they were both trailing small gree
n stars like dust behind them, mapping out the pattern on the floor behind them. She found herself entranced watching them, it was almost hypnotic. She watched Ayden gracefully walking steps around the Sorceress, his eyes gazing into hers and was mesmerised by it, she remembered him looking into her eyes and felt the weight on her heart as she realised that it was not her eyes he was looking into any longer. She had to break her spell over him. She suddenly became aware of the silence around her. She could not hear Jack talking anymore, a moment ago he’d been fascinated by the green dust, but now he was quiet, she presumed he must have found something else to catch his attention, but when she could tear her eyes away from the couple on the dance floor, she found that he was stood silently next to her staring at the dancing couple. Then she realised that it was not just Jack who was silent but everyone else in the room had stopped their whispering about the black clad couple and were watching them in still silence. The only sound was the quartet playing, the room was so quiet otherwise, the quiet footsteps of the two dancers and their swishing garments could be heard even from where Violet was at the back of the room. She looked around for Aliya to see if she too was enraptured by them, but couldn’t see her anywhere, she didn’t want to make too much movement because she would stand out against everyone else’s stillness and quietness. She glanced again at Jack, but he too was still and staring, she waved a hand quickly in front of his face, without much hope of a reaction, but the light must have caught the large blue glass ring on her finger, because it caught Jack’s attention and realising that Jack’s attention had been caught by it and so was about to restart talking, which would certainly bring attention to them both now. Violet quickly clamped a hand over his mouth. She turned him to face her with a finger to her lips and then pulled him down so they could crawl away from the still and silent crowd, luckily they were not far from a door which was stood open and they escaped into a hall way beyond the room.
“Pretty ring you’ve got there, all flashy.”
“Shhh,” whispered Violet cringing.
“Sorry,” whispered Jack back. “I really can’t help it, I’ve tried, but stuff, just comes out without me even realising, this stuff just skips my brain and comes straight out of my mouth, I really can’t control it, I’ve tried, lots of people have tried in fact, teachers, parents, doctors, social workers, no good, that’s just me.”
“We just need to be quiet and not call attention to ourselves from the Sorceress’s uglies out there, until I can figure out what’s going on.”
“Yeah fair enough, I wouldn’t want to be called to their attention, they really are ugly, and that’s with the masks on.”
“I need to find my friend, she’ll know what’s going on hopefully, I couldn’t see her in the main room, I hope she’s okay and not silent like the others that was a bit weird, all those people still and surrounded by silence.”
“I will try really, really, really hard to focus because I can see that you’re a bit extremely anxious about stuff here. Right here goes. What does your friend look like? Lets look for her. How’s that.”
Violet led the way up the stairs to the balcony overlooking the ballroom. “She’s wearing a long white dress and has long dark hair with a mask of green oak leaves.”
“White dress, green mask. Right I can so do this, I can focus, I can keep looking for just one thing and not get distracted by things that are not white dresses or green leafy masks. Okay lets go.”
Violet not feeling very confident in her new friend’s powers of concentration, but hopeful, reached the top of the stairs and cautiously looked over the balcony trying to keep hidden behind a pillar so as not to be seen by anyone below.
“White dress, green leafy mask. Ooo white dress, there there, oh gold mask, need green.” She could hear Jack muttering to himself. She searched the crowd below, but couldn’t see any sign of Aliya, she hoped that was a good sign that she’d not been reduced to a silent unmoving statue. But she needed her to help her figure out what was going on. She wondered why she and Jack hadn’t been caught in the silent crowd.
“White dress, green mask,” muttered Jack. “Why are we searching for someone with a white dress and a green mask again?”
“She’ll hopefully know what is going on,” whispered back Violet impatiently, she hoped Jack would turn out to be more of an asset than a liability, but she was having her doubts.
“You mean about the Sorceress casting her spell to enslave everyone in a mask to do her bidding?”
Violet turned to him sharply, “what do you know about her casting a spell?”
“Well she’s casting a spell at the moment to enslave everyone, it’s the masks you see, that’s where her power lies and somehow Ayden being her slave has enabled her to increase her power and do this spell. Would you believe apparently there’s not just normal people down there but others as well, you just can’t tell with the masks and everything. I wonder what they look like under them, I’m itching to go up to some of those people and ask them what’s under the mask, mind you I might not like what I see, but they can’t all be ugly like her minions. I wonder if they’re all ensnared yet , they all look like it don’t they, but we’re not. Mind you her spells have never worked that well on me, don’t have the attention span. She soon gave up on the ‘Silence’ spell. I wonder how come you’ve escaped thou, you seem a very focused person, unlike me, perhaps it’s all the eyes. What’s the time? I think the spell was due for completion on the stroke of midnight or something.” Violet glanced at the large guilt clock hung on the ballroom wall; it showed a minute to midnight. “That’s a bit traditional for a ball isn’t it, stroke of midnight, very Cinderella.”
Violet ignoring his wittering, knew she must find Aliya and she only had minutes in which to do it, she scanned the people again below her, but could still see no sign of her below. Okay, so if she wasn’t in the ballroom below, where would she be? Where would she go to get a good position? Violet suddenly felt such a fool, where had she gone herself; she was probably along another part of the gallery, hidden behind one of the columns.
“Aha, white dress, green mask,” called Jack triumphantly. He had wandered further along the gallery and had gained a better view of the gallery opposite where he was pointing.
“Yes, something stuck.” Violet rushed over to him and looked to where he was pointing, sure enough there was Aliya in her white gown and leafy mask on the opposite gallery, she’d just been hidden behind one of the columns. Violet didn’t stop for a better look, to see if she looked entranced by the performance below, but rushed around the gallery as quietly as possible to where she was, Jack on her heels. As she neared Aliya, she could see she was also as still as the crowd below and was also staring at something intensely, but it wasn’t the dancing figures. She held something in her hands which glowed with a white light and as Violet got closer she heard that Aliya thankfully wasn’t silent but was chanting words to herself, in the language that Violet recognised as the one that she used for spells. She felt a sigh of relief, Aliya knew what was happening and was casting a spell to prevent it. Violet glanced at the clock again it was just about to strike midnight as they reached Aliya. Without looking up from what she had in her hand or pausing in her spell she waved one of her hands urgently at Violet to get her to come closer. As she did so the white light in her hand started to grow into a bubble surrounding Aliya, her beckoning became more urgent and Violet stepped into the bubble, pulling Jack behind her, who was fascinated by it, poking at the surface until Violet slapped his hand. The clock began to strike midnight in slow deep notes, the quartet had stopped playing and it was the only sound in the room below. Violet glanced down to see that the Sorceress and Ayden had finished their dance and were standing at the head of the room again facing the crowd. The Sorceress had her hands upraised and were glowing with green light, the complicated curling pattern the dance had etched on the floor was also glowing with green light and pulsed with each strike of the clock. When the last strike of the clock h
ad echoed and faded from the room, silence reigned.
Aliya stopped her chanting and the glowing bubble faded.
“You stopped it didn’t you?” whispered Violet to Aliya. “You stopped the spell from working?”
“Are you kidding me,” she whispered back. “That was just a spell to stop us falling under hers like the rest of them and I only just managed to make that work against her spell, she’s too powerful for anything to stop.”
Violet looked at her in horror. “What are we going to do?” and then looked back down at the silent room below.
“I have no idea.”
The silence was broken by the hysterical laughter of the Sorceress, hands still upraised and head thrown in jubilation.
“Come bow to me, your queen, my subjects.” The crowd of fabulously dressed guests below as one bowed down to the Sorceress, Violet saw every single one, human and elf, bow down to her. The Sorceress went off into another peal of jubilant laughter at her subjects bowing at her feet.
“You are our Queen, we worship you,” they all intoned.
Violet looked down at the people below her, she knew there were elves down there as well as all the prominent people in the town. What could she do? What would she do with such a group of people under her control? How far would it spread? How far could she spread her control? Violet had a very strong feeling of foreboding, all the three of them could do was stare, what could they do. Call the police, she knew the police commissioner was down there, she’d recognised him, even with the mask. They were on their own without any plan or resources. She’d brought the sleeping beauty mask with her because she still had faith in her great grandmother that she wouldn’t have shown it to her if it didn’t have some relevance, but what to do with it? What could they do. The three looked down at the proceedings below in silence, they all knew she had to be stopped, but none of them had an idea of what to do, and continued to look down in horrific curiosity at the proceedings below.
Suddenly Violet noticed that Ayden was starting to sag and sway slightly, he put a hand to his head knocking off his mask and he reached out for the Sorceress to help support him. She looked at him sadly, “I’m sorry my prince but this spell demanded a sacrifice and I am afraid you are it.” She shook off his arm and laughed as he fell to the floor at her feet and didn’t move again, face pale and eyes staring blankly in Violet’s direction. The world stood still and quiet and out of the silence Violet could hear a long heart rending scream. Then she realised it was coming from her own mouth, her throat was burning and her heart was torn and bleeding. She was leaning over the balcony reaching for Ayden, longing to be with him, but she could feel something on each side of her holding her back. At her scream the Sorceress turned sharply around, the smile gone from her mask, and looked in her direction. The Sorceress gasped at the sight of a blonde woman in blue with a mask of peacock feathers. She took a step backwards and pointed a long black nail at Violet.
“It can’t be, not you again,” she hisses, an ugly expression on her face. She raises both hands to the ceiling. “Get her,” she shouts hoarsely. “Get her and bring her to me now.” Instantly about twenty of the assembled guests rise to their feet and make for the two flights of stairs up to the gallery.
“Violet, we must go now.” Aliya shouts at her, pulling her after her, Jack in tow. Violet, heart breaking, follows her. They rush to the flight of stairs at the far end of the gallery, which not as many of the guests have gone towards. But they still don’t manage to reach the top of the stairs in time, before two men, beautifully garbed in eighteenth century costume, come towards them. Violet angry adrenaline now pumping through her body, doesn’t stop running but gathers up her skirt takes out one with a spinning kick and the other with an elbow to the side of his head. Aliya, who had been rummaging in her bag, brings out some small balls, as the second hits the floor she looks at Violet in admiration. Jack was beside himself with excitement, “Just how cool are you lady?” But their initial jubilation was short lived as another three masked men come to the top of the stairs, Aliya throws one of the balls at the first man and as soon as it strikes, long sinewy streamers shoot out of it and wrap themselves around the man sending him crashing to the floor, bound hand and foot.
“Wow, that was even cooler, you are such cool ladies,” enthuses Jack. Aliya hands him some more of the balls and they get the next two men one each. One ball explodes in a small cloud of blue smoke which makes the man drop to the floor like a stone, snoring loudly, the other turns into a mass of goo which expands over him sticking him firmly to the floor. They start racing down the stairs, but as they reach the first landing and turn the corner to the next flight, more masked men are heading up. Violet takes out the first two with high kicks, and Jack and Aliya clear the rest with Aliya’s magic balls. They reach the foot of the stairs, and turn away from the ballroom, the Sorceress’s screams in their ears. “Stop them.”
They can see more guests racing towards them a mass of brightly coloured silks and brocades. They race down the corridor away from the ballroom, hoping to find an exit at the back of the assembly rooms, hearing their pursuers very close behind them. They turn down another corridor, looking for a way to get out of the building, they come to a corridor which has windows in it so they know they must be going along the outside wall, but the windows are too high up and barred for them to get out of. Desperately hoping to come across a door which wasn’t locked they press on, their pursuers getting closer behind them. Suddenly from a corridor further up more brightly coloured pursuers appear and leer triumphantly at them, for they were trapped, there were no other ways out of the corridor. Violet, Aliya and Jack pull up short as they realise they are surrounded. The look desperately for a way out. Only one door into an inner room was on that corridor and that was locked, Violet tugs at the handle uselessly, knowing even if they could get in there they’d still be trapped.
“No door,” says Aliya calmly bringing her hands together in a strange mantra. “No problem.” She intones some more strange words facing the outside wall and a sudden beam of bright white light, shoots out of her hands and blasts through the wall, creating a doorway. Aliya runs through it just as the two groups realise what she had done and surge forwards quickly meeting in the middle. Jack pushes the startled Violet through the gap in the wall after Aliya, and braces himself in the hole. He holds there only momentarily before the crowd manages to pull him out of the way, but it is long enough for Violet and Aliya to escape from them. “Don’t worry about me, the masked queen will probably just put me on a lead and feed me biscuits. Have fun.” He had allowed Violet and Aliya to gain a small gap between them and the pursuers who quickly give chase again.
“Where are we going to go?” says Violet starting to get out of breath.
“We need a place of power, our power, without faces or masks,” she replies breathlessly, “and close by.”
The turn to each other and say together, “the library.”
The library luckily wasn’t far from the assembly rooms and they make it without the others catching up, they see not a soul on the streets as they race towards their destination.
“Back door,” says Violet. “But I don’t have my key with me.”
“No problem,” says Aliya, her hand already glowing as they near the small door at the side of the library. With a single word and a flick of her wrist the door opens and slams shut behind them. With another flick of the wrist and another word the door is locked. They pull some filing cabinets in front of the door as they hear their pursuers hammer on the outside of the door. Aliya, hands glowing, puts a holding spell on the door.
“That should hold them,” she says with satisfaction.
“The main door,” called Violet. “We need to enforce that.” They race to the main door of the library and pull desks and bookcases in front of it. Then putt another spell over the door as they hear hammering on that door as well.
“Any other entrances? “ asks Aliya.
“N
o, and luckily the windows should be too high for them to get up to, plus they're barred. Do you think we’ll be safe here?”
“It’s the safest place I can think of and certainly the place I’d rather be than anywhere else wouldn’t you agree?”
Violet nods in agreement. The library and its books was certainly the place she felt most at home. “Any ideas about how we’re going to defeat her?”
“Absolutely none, and I’m about out of my magic balls.”
The hammering on the door outside intensifies and gets louder, the bookcases in front of the door shuddering, and the outline of the door starting to glow white as Aliya’s spell is tested.
“How long will your spell last?” she asks her.
“A good while, it will certainly keep those slaves out.”
They start to hear a furious howling wind outside the doors.
“What about her?”
“Oh nothing will keep her out,” she says as the howling intensified and the doors give a last shudder. The white glow of the spell fades and disappears and the doors and the furniture in front of it explode in a shower of green sparks and splintered wood. Violet and Aliya duck behind the desk to escape the explosion and rain of debris. Violet couldn’t help herself thinking about her precious books and hoping they would survive this night. They peek from behind the desk to see the open doorway where the doors had been. Standing grandly in the door way surrounded by her brightly costumed slaves was the Sorceress still resplendent in black brocade, her black glittering crown sparkling the more since the completion of her spell. Violet and Aliya hide behind the desk.
“Thank you for helping me Aliya, I’m sorry to have brought this on you,” whispers Violet.
“Stuff and nonsense, I would have run up against her without your help. You are the best librarian I have ever come across, and I have known many.”
They smile at each other. But were suddenly torn off the floor and lifted up into the air, floated over the desk and dropped unceremoniously on the floor in front of the Sorceress as she lowered her hands.
“Well haven’t you lent some entertainment to the evening,” she says sourly looking at them both. With a flick of her fingers both of their masks fly off and fall to the floor in front of them. She turns to Aliya first. “Well you are just a little petty witch that has managed to evade my spell, but it won’t happen again. And you,” she says turning to Violet. “I thought at first that you were someone else, but now I can see that you are just a little girl in a peacock feather mask. You both just got lucky.”
Glancing up at the Sorceress towering over her, imposing in her sumptuous gown and wonderful be-feathered mask she found Jack’s words creeping into her head. ‘Why do you wear a mask anyway? What’s behind it? What’s your real face like, really? Do you have a real face?’ and then later, ‘You should see what’s under the Sorceress’s mask, she has no face at all, just a kind of swirling mist.’ Violet felt the thin mask from the Sleeping Beauty book in the pocket of her gown. The face was the Sorceress’s own face, that’s why her great grandmother had hidden it and then shown it to her.
The Sorceress continued to gloat over her two captives. Violet started to become aware of a murmuring and fluttering behind and around her. It remained her of the sounds she almost heard in the library when she was alone there, but it was louder and clearer, and becoming more so. At first just at the edge of her hearing, growing in volume. The Sorceress was oblivious to the noise growing around them, from all the books encircling them. A book suddenly fell at the Sorceress’s feet; she stared at it indignantly and then glanced up to see who would have dared to thrown it. But no one could be seen in the shadowy galleries above. Another book came flying towards her, which she flung aside with a green flame which sent the book spiralling to the floor the pages quickly incinerated in green fire and leaving a small blackened heap on the floor. Violet felt her anger rise, one of the books had been destroyed, this was worse than the most slovenly student dog-earing a book returned late. Another two from a different part of the library quickly follow and were again shot down in green flames. The Sorceress laughs at this unseen assailant, flinging books at her. The smell of burnt paper fills the air, Violet could feel her anger rising further, hands clenched, face hot. Suddenly, as one, books start rising up from their shelves and fly through the air. Violet could feel the wind created by the books flying past her head and around her, blowing her hair and clothes, as the books head straight for the Sorceress. Descending on her from all directions in a mass of fluttering paper. The books continue to fly from the shelves, touching no one else but heading straight for the Sorceress. The laughter dies on the Sorceress’s lips as too many books came flying at her for her to stop them. She keeps sending fire bolts frantically in all directions but they are loosing their intensity and going wide. Books are getting through and she’s having to fend them off with her arms. A large book hits her mask, knocking off some of her feathers. The Sorceress was getting desperate now as more and more books fly at her. The surrounding bejewelled minions stand around her, some unmoving, some half-heartedly trying to help, but the books avoid them, knowing their target. The air around the Sorceress is filled with books obscuring any view of her apart from thrashing black brocade and feathers. More and more books fall on her, until she is bowed over with them. Where the Sorceress had been is just a pile of books with black brocade and black bedraggled feathers scattered through them. The minions were motionless, seemingly unsure what to do. Violet feels her anger starting to leave her. She glances up to the gallery above and sees two people came into her frame of vision, one a Victorian lady dressed in blue with peacock feathers in her hat and the other a tall broad shouldered man wrapped in a black cloak.
A book starts to slide off the top of the pile on top of the Sorceress and it is then joined by several more, a bedraggled figure in black brocade and feathers raises awquardly from the pile of books. Her purple eyes burn with fury and green sparks fly from her fingers. She looks at Violet and Aliya with hateful menace.
Violet and Aliya inch a little closer to each other drawing back from the Sorceress’s wrath, when her evil gaze is suddenly drawn to something behind them and replaced with a look of horror. Violet becomes aware of two people coming up behind her on either side. The Sorceress continues to stare in horror as they each take one of her arms, she starts to struggle against them as they reach for her mask, but it is in vain, they hold her firmly. The black be-feathered mask is pulled aside revealing a pair of purple eyes in a swirling mist of a face. Her great grandparents smile at Violet and she knows what to do, she steps forwards pulling the Sleeping Beauty mask out of her pocket. The Sorceress recoils in horror at seeing her own face as Violet places it over where a face should have been. The mask instantly moulds itself to the head of the Sorceress, giving her a face again. Her great grandparents release her arms, smile once again at Violet and then hand in hand, like in their photograph they faded away. The Sorceress tries to put her magic mask back on, but the be-feathered mask will not stay on her face anymore. As the Sorceress became more desperate to attach it to her face, the mask starts to deteriorate and fall apart until all she has left is a hand-full of black bedraggled feathers and some sequins. The Sorceress kneels on the floor and screams in frustration.
The butterfly dressed guests flutter about confused and uncertain why they are suddenly at the library and not at the assembly room’s Venetian Ball. The look around confused, at the library which is littered with tumbled books, many of which are in smouldering ruins. No one is paying any attention to the woman in black, crying over her ruined mask, surrounded by books.
Violet glances at Aliya gloating over the Sorceress, “I need to go back to the Assembly rooms and find Ayden.”
“Do you want me to come with you?”
“No, you’d better stay here and keep an eye on her.”
She makes her way slowly and in silence back along the route they’d not long before raced breathlessly along. Viol
et feels heavy hearted at the thought of the pale still body she is going towards. Arriving at the hall and walking slowly in, entering the ballroom, she could see Ayden in front of her, laid out at the head of the ball room where he’d fallen. She reaches him. Someone has laid him straight with his eyes closed and his hands together on his chest. She kneels beside him, blue gown billowing around her and looks down at his pale face, she knows she will never see it smile again or see his eyes looking with love into hers. The tears start to flow from her eyes, she can’t believe he is no more. He looks so peaceful, he just looks like he was asleep. She is reminded of the Sleeping Beauty story she been re-reading trying to find a clue to the painted face. The prince had awoken her with a kiss, but it was the prince that was in need of awakening now and it was not to be. She leant over him, one of her tears falling on to his cheek and kisses him on his cold lips. She draws back and is amazed to see his lips part and to hear him take a breathe, his chest rising. His eyes slowly open and look into hers. He smiles up at her, bent over him, looking at him in wonderment, too amazed to speak, hardly daring to breathe herself wanting it to be true that he has awoken, that he is alive and that he is no longer under the Sorceress’s spell. His eyes look into hers with the love and adoration that had always been hers as he softly says her name. She feels him reach up a hand to brush the tears from her cheek and it was warm and gentle against her skin. He sits up and leans towards her holding her in his arms and kissing her back. Violet feels all the tiredness, anxiety and heartache of the last few days, slowly drain away in his arms she feels safe and loved again.