They were all more than ready for lunch after that, which was served at long tables in the center of the city. The king heard petitions as they ate, and people came forward to wish Lilah and Lulath well and to bow to the rest of the Glowers. Then they were taken in coaches back to the Sanctuary to change for the boat parade.
The boat parade was not unlike the first parade, except the animals had to stay behind, and they were rowed in boats along the river outside the city instead of walking. The people of the farms who hadn’t been able to come into the city gathered along the shore and cheered and threw flowers as they sailed along. They went all the way to the mouth of the river, where it emptied into the harbor. There it seemed that every sailor on every Grathian ship and every dockworker had gathered to cheer for them. King Kurlath made a speech thanking them all for being the backbone of Grathian trade, and inviting them to the launching of the Ship at dawn the next day. More cheers, and then more coaches back to the Sanctuary.
There Celie took a much-needed nap before being dressed in her first ball gown.
It was green and had gold lace, and she hated to admit it, but she loved it. It made her feel like a real princess, instead of just a girl who happened to live in a castle.
The bodice had stays in it, so that she had to stand very upright, and the sleeves weren’t puffy or ruffled or otherwise silly but long and embroidered and trimmed with lace. Renia piled Celie’s curly blond hair on top of her head and carefully pinned it so that it wouldn’t come down during the dancing. She set Celie’s crown on her head and then pinned that in some secret way so it didn’t move, either. Celie was going to have to find out how she did that.
Rufus was supposed to be with her, but he refused to budge from the room when Celie tried to leave. He kept going over to the dressing table and making gargling noises.
“What is it, you silly beast?” Celie asked with impatience. She was eager to show off her gown.
“Your Highness?” Renia ventured. “Do you think he wants . . . another bow?”
Rufus squawked in approval, and Celie started laughing. While Renia found a green ribbon, Celie brushed Rufus’s fur and ran a silk handkerchief over his feathers to make them gleam. Renia tied a big bow atop his harness and put one of the fresher-looking garlands around his neck. Preening, he went straight to the door, ready for dinner and the ball.
Celie and Renia were still laughing when they reached the back hall where the rest of her family was waiting. Queen Celina gasped when she saw Celie, and Rolf let out a whistle. She’d almost forgotten about the new grown-up gown, and wasn’t sure what was wrong for a moment.
“Oh,” she said. “Do you like it?” She did a slow turn.
“Oh, my little girl,” Queen Celina said. She put out her hand and just brushed Celie’s cheek. Her eyes were uncharacteristically misty. “Look at you.”
“I honestly thought you were one of Lulath’s cousins,” Rolf said admiringly. “You should dress like that all the time.”
Celie ruined the effect by sticking out her tongue at him. She felt that she had to do something to make everyone stop staring at her.
“I’m, um . . . I’m your escort,” Pogue said, clearing his throat.
“But just going into the ball,” Lilah said briskly. “After that, Orlath is your escort for the rest of the evening. You’ll sit beside him at dinner, and he’ll lead you into the first dance.”
Lilah looked Celie over with a critical eye. “Just as I thought,” she said with great satisfaction. “The perfect style and color for you. And Renia is wonderful with hair.” She beamed at the girl, who curtsied. “We should see if she’ll return to Sleyne with us.”
Lilah, of course, looked perfect. She was wearing pink with slashes of red and the same gold lace that decorated Celie’s gown, and their mother’s. She had her official crown on, and her hair was caught up in the back in a gold net studded with rubies. When Lulath arrived a moment later, he was in red with gold lace, and he feigned a swoon at the sight of them all.
“My glorious Lilah! My vision of greatest beauty!” he cried. “My noble queen-mother-to-be, a sorcerous vision of her own self!” And then he saw Celie and raised both hands in the air. “This is not my our Celie? This is the magnificent being that has come before us?”
Celie felt herself turning red. “I like your coat,” she told him. “The gold buttons are very fancy.”
“Oh, such thanks,” he said. “Now, friend Sir Pogue! Are you not being almost as full of luck as I?”
“Celie looks very nice,” Pogue said, taking her arm in an awkward way.
“Yes, she does,” Lilah said, looking at him with narrowed eyes.
But Queen Celina smiled. She raised Pogue’s arm slightly and positioned Celie’s hand atop his elbow. “Very nice,” she said. “You’ll come after Rolf and me, and we’ll go in after Lilah and Lulath.”
They lined up, and Arrow and Rufus came to stand on either side of Pogue and Celie. Pogue noticed Rufus’s ribbon and garland and relaxed a little, laughing.
“Don’t let Arrow see; he’ll be jealous,” he said. “I had to fight him to get the flowers off his harness after the parade.”
“Mean!” Celie said. “You should have left them! He looked so pretty.”
That got a laugh out of Pogue, and a hiss from Lilah at the front of the line. They were standing in front of a pair of broad double doors, each carved with a giant clamshell. A pair of footmen threw open the doors, and they were greeted with a great wave of cheers.
They walked into the ballroom, where the court and all the dignitaries were gathered. There was music, and servants carrying trays of tiny foods, and a hundred thousand people to meet. After a dizzying hour of name after name and curtsy after curtsy—as though they hadn’t spoken with many of the same people at the breakfast, and the parade, and the lunch, and the other parade—Celie finally had her hand passed from Pogue’s supportive arm to Orlath’s and was led into dinner.
Pogue was seated some way down the table, surrounded by royal cousins, all of them tall and golden-haired and very merry. But since Celie had been working with Orlath for a couple of weeks now, they had had quite a good time making further plans for the Ship. Orlath told her all about the launch the next day as well, and she could hardly wait.
The food was sumptuous and plentiful. And there were many toasts to the betrothed pair, who sat on a double seat at the head of the table, with the king sitting on Lulath’s right hand, and Queen Celina on Lilah’s left. At one point, carried away in the moment, Celie stood and toasted Lilah and Lulath in Grathian, saying that Lulath had become as dear as a brother over their adventures together.
Everyone cheered as she sat back down with a groan.
“Did I really just say that Lilah is my favorite sister?” she asked Orlath in a whisper.
“Yes. Why?” he whispered back.
“She’s my only sister,” Celie whispered in mortification.
Orlath roared with laughter. When Celie finally dared to look down the table, she saw that Lilah was busy chatting with the king, and no one appeared to have noticed her mistake. She relaxed, and then had to giggle a little as well.
And then came the dancing.
Grathian dances were also quite the fashion in Sleyne, and Celie and her siblings had been taught by an excellent dancing master, who had started drilling them in jigs and roundelays from the minute they could walk. She and Orlath were able to swan about the ballroom with the rest of the royal party with great skill.
Orlath was a wonderful dancer, despite the monkey clinging to his shoulder. Jocko had not been present during dinner, since he apparently had a bad habit of stealing food and throwing it at people, half-chewed. But he scampered in as soon as they entered the ballroom, and Celie danced with him snatching at her hair all the while.
She danced with King Kurlath, with Rolf, and with Lulath and all the rest of his brothers. She even danced with Pogue, though at the end of the dance she had to tell him he was not a very good dancer. She couldn’t help it: it was almost a relief to find something Pogue wasn’t good at, and to break up the strange stiffness that had overtaken him that evening.
After the dancing there were fireworks. Celie had heard tell of them, but had never seen anything more exciting than the little red “snappers” that the village boys loved to buy from traveling peddlers. They made a loud bang and a puff of smoke when you lit them, which wasn’t that exciting after the first scare.
These were something else entirely. The court gathered on the terrace outside the ballroom, overlooking the sea, and gazed up at the sky.
At first there was nothing to look at except the velvety sky, studded with stars like the jewels that glittered on the members of the court. And then a flower made of pink fire exploded above them. There were trailing golden comets, and scarlet wheels, and little blue stars that sizzled before they winked out. The fireworks lit the faces of the people watching, painting them with glorious lights, and Celie thought she had never seen anything more wonderful in her life.
The griffins, however, did not care for fireworks. When the first flower ascended, they all howled in fright and ran back into the ballroom. Queen Celina gave a quick order to Lady Griffin, who seemed the least frightened, to keep the others there, and then had the servants shut the doors to the terrace. After a while, Rufus and Lorcan objected to being cut off from their people and crawled back out. Lorcan cowered behind Lulath, and Rufus began to squawk and carry on until Celie took the shawl that Renia had brought her and wrapped it around his head. Orlath’s monkey was hiding inside his master’s coat, and none of the dogs were in sight, either.
It seemed that fireworks were best admired by people, and really, that was fine by Celie. She enjoyed every second of them, and sighed with regret when the sky turned dark once more.
She sighed with regret again when her mother told her it was time to retire for the night. She would have protested, but it seemed that everyone was dispersing, and it was not just that Celie was being sent off to bed because of her age.
“You’ll thank me in a few hours, when it’s time for breakfast,” Queen Celina said as they all made their way to their rooms.
“A few hours?” Rolf groaned. “What time is it now?”
“It’s three hours to dawn,” the queen said. “And dawn is—”
“The launching of the Ship!” Celie said.
“Just so,” her mother said. “Apparently it’s been moved to the docks, and we’ll have breakfast on board after we give it a name and launch it properly.”
Celie thought she would be too excited about the launch to sleep, but she’d also been the length and breadth of the city that day, not to mention dancing several more miles at the ball. As soon as Renia had her in her shift, Celie fell facedown on the bed.
“I’m just going to lie here for a moment,” Celie said. Rufus cuddled up beside her.
The next thing she knew, Renia was gently shaking her shoulder.
“I’m sorry, Your Highness,” the maid was saying, “but it’s time to get dressed for breakfast and the ship naming.”
“What?” Celie rolled over. “Where am I?”
Renia laughed and gently tugged her upright.
It took Celie a few minutes to wake up fully. She splashed water on her face for far longer than normal, and Renia had to feed her toast and hot chocolate before she could really think. Then Celie had to rush into her final gown, with Renia’s help. This gown was simpler in cut but the same striking shade of green as Celie’s ball gown. Her hair was still stiff from the pomade of the night before, but Renia managed to twist it back and get Celie’s crown seated comfortably all the same.
Then Rufus wanted a bow, and Renia had to collect all the gloves and fans and things that she thought Celie would need. At last, though, they were on their way. In the corridor they bumped into the rest of the Glower family, who all looked equally sleepy, with the exception of Lilah.
“It’s time,” she kept saying feverishly. “It’s time!”
“What are we naming the Ship, anyway?” Rolf wanted to know. “The Builder’s Ship doesn’t sound very impressive, unless you know who the Builder is, and even then . . . meh.”
“I think that name lacks a certain something,” Queen Celina agreed. “Unless, of course, that’s what you and Lulath have your hearts set on, darling.”
“No, no,” Lilah assured them. “I’ve seen the Builder’s dead body. I don’t really want to think of that every time I set foot on the deck of my Ship.”
“What? Am I not also having this Ship?” Lulath demanded as they met him in the entrance hall.
He swung Lilah around and kissed her. It came as a surprise to no one that he was wide-awake and looked completely refreshed. His parents also looked bright-eyed and ready for the day as they all climbed into the waiting coaches.
Once they were at the docks, with the brisk air blowing on their cheeks, Celie also felt more alert. The sky was just beginning to lighten, and there was a large gathering of people there to see the naming.
The Ship looked beautiful in the growing light. The wood gleamed, and the blue and red sails were very striking, as was the design of their unusual ship. A length of white canvas had been draped down each side of the bow to hide the name that had been painted on late last night.
Celie felt rather pettish about this. Lilah and Lulath had agreed on a name, and then told no one . . . except the crew and anyone who happened to walk by while the name was being painted! Could they not have slipped a word into the ear of the family?
“Do you know?” she whispered to Pogue as they stood and waited.
“No,” he said. “And Lulath painted it on himself, I believe. Sometime after the second parade and before dinner.”
“Well,” Celie said, feeling slightly better. “I’m very curious, is all.”
“I’ll lay you a gold crown it’s called the Rainbow Unicorn,” Rolf whispered on Celie’s other side.
Pogue snorted.
“She wouldn’t,” Celie breathed in horror.
“Have you met our sister?” Rolf demanded.
Lilah glared at them, and then it was time. The sun rose, making the golden accents of the ship catch fire.
King Kurlath made a speech, which was mostly thanking Celie’s father for giving them a ship as a gift. Then Queen Celina stepped forward and protested very formally that it was their pleasure. Much to Celie’s pleasure, Queen Celina also had Celie come forward, and explained that it was Celie who had found the figurehead, and how she had assisted in building the Ship. Then she thanked Pogue for taking charge, as well as Orlath, and everyone cheered and bowed, and then Lilah, who looked very pale, came forward.
Lilah also thanked everyone: her parents, Lulath’s parents, and those who had worked on the Ship. Lulath joined her, but he merely waved, causing more cheers. Then a priest came forward and said a blessing. He handed them a bottle of pure rainwater.
Holding it together, Lilah and Lulath smashed the bottle on the side of the ship as the priest said another prayer, imploring the gods to see the Ship always returned safe to harbor, as rain returns to the sea.
As they smashed the glass, crewmen on the upper deck let the canvas drop, revealing the Ship’s name. At the same time, Lilah and Lulath shouted it together.
“The Golden Griffin!”