Eventually, the Solstice day arrived. Adam had stayed up late the night before with Kurrin and Andio, so each was ready to nap early that afternoon. As Adam had explained to them, a successful Solstice party was all about preparedness and pacing – staying up from dusk to dawn on the longest night of the year wasn't as easy as it sounded.
Adam pulled on the white shirt his mother had insisted he wear. White, the most expensive fabric color in a land where the plants and animals all were vividly colored, was considered the color of royalty and command. With all the noble guests visiting, the Queen had decided it was time for Adam to practice looking like a prince. Adam was beginning to appreciate why his father had abolished a standing court two decades ago, because it seemed having nobles around meant wasting a lot of time on preening and meaningless conversation. He pulled on the pale violet leggings – pastels also were a sign of wealth – and shrugged on the coordinating purple vest that he hoped would hide any wine or food stains he got on the shirt through the night.
Cringer watched all this with interest. "You'll remember to send me a steak, right Adam?" he asked. To avoid scaring anyone, he'd largely been confined to Adam's rooms since the first guests had arrived, and he missed being in the dining room more than anything else.
"Of course, old pal. I'm just sorry you can't come to the party."
Cringer shrugged. "I'm not. It's loud and it goes way past my bedtime."
On his way to the ballroom Adam encountered Man-at-Arms (who, for once, had changed out of his armor) and Teela, who was wearing a dark blue frock with a swirling skirt that reached just below her knees. Adam grinned. "The one event that gets you to wear a dress, huh?"
Teela elbowed him. "You'd better say nice things about it. This is one of your mother's from one of the early parties before you were born. She was nice enough to lend it to me."
"Well, in that case, the dress looks nice." It really did. The cut wasn't immodest, but it definitely made her look feminine in a way that Adam wasn't entirely comfortable with. He covered it with joking. "You, on the other hand…."
Teela promptly put him in a headlock – not an easy feat now that he was four inches taller than her – and only Man-at-Arms' whistle kept them from launching into full hand-to-hand combat. "Children, need I remind you that this is a party, not a training session? The visitors have enough to gossip about without seeing their crown prince get downed in a wrestling match."
Adam and Teela exchanged guilty glances as they backed away from each other. "Yes, Father," Teela intoned at the same time as Adam said "Yes sir." He wondered if Teela had noticed that her father had picked her as the winner of any hand-to-hand combat they engaged in and, if so, if he'd ever hear the end of it.
XXX
"Adam! Will you dance with me?" Katrin asked with a bobbing curtsy as the musicians struck up the first chords of the polka.
"Of course," Adam answered, as he saw that Kurrin had beaten him and was leading Teela to the dance floor. As the couples spun around merrily, Adam trying to keep Teela and Kurrin in view so he could catch up with them and exchange partners. But Teela and Kurrin were going very fast – way too fast for a notive, he suddenly realized. "How does Kurrin know how to polka so well? We didn't teach any of the visitors," he blurted out, a bit frustrated.
Katrin cleared her throat and glanced down nervously. "Perhaps he had other lessons."
Adam looked at her closely. "Really?" He'd never seen Kurrin and Katrin in the same room, given their differing ranks and responsibilities. He frowned at her. "How? And does my mother know? You know what happened with Dreus, right?"
"Yes, I told the head cook so I'm sure your mother knows, and we're not doing anything that could put me in an, um, compromising position. We just sometimes walk in the gardens in the evenings, that's all. And we know it's not going anywhere, we just like spending time together." She looked up at him with a slightly dreamy expression on her face. "There's nothing wrong with a little romance, is there? Everyone needs some." She paused, then gave Adam a small mischievous smile. "And we'd like to dance together tonight, so would you mind slowing down so they can catch up and switch partners?"
Adam gave her a mock disgruntled look. No wonder she and Kurrin had chosen him and Teela as their first partners – it would look like it was Adam's idea to switch partners so he could dance with Teela. "Very sneaky."
As they let some couples pass them, Katrin smiled at him broadly. "And Adam, if anyone asks, you and Teela taught him how to polka, ok?" The two couples converged, the men twirling their partners to each other, and Katrin mouthed a "Thank you" to Adam as she and Kurrin swept away.
"We've been manipulated," Adam complained to Teela once she was firmly in his arms and they'd gotten back into the swing of the music.
"It was for a good cause," Teela said with a smile. "Ready for some action?"
"Always," Adam said as they broadened their strides and soon had no breath for conversation. As they whirled around, the rest of the room a blur, Adam found he didn't care about the other young lords, or anyone else in the room, except his partner and the thrill of the dance.
XXX
Adam finished a backgammon game with one of the guardsmen and he glanced at the windows. The sky just was beginning to lighten. He started looking for Teela and found her snuggled in a nest of pillows with Katrin and Amira, another young woman from the kitchens. They were awake, albeit sleepy, and talking to each other in low voices.
"Not much longer now, huh?" Adam asked, nodding at the grey sky.
"No, and I think we're supposed to help bring out breakfast now." Katrin slowly pushed herself to her feet. "C'mon, Amira," she said, pulling at the other girl's arm.
"Ugh, I'm coming," Amira answering, standing with a groan. "Save the actual sunrise for us," she told Adam and Teela as she followed Katrin out.
Adam dropped down in Katrin's abandoned spot. "Gonna make it to sunrise?"
Teela nodded. "Provided you don't put me to sleep with one of your stories first."
"What, you don't want to hear again about how I thought I was pulling my biggest fish ever out of the pond this summer and it turned out to be a dirty old sheet someone had thrown into the water?" Adam gave her wide, innocent eyes. "I think it bears multiple repetitions."
Teela swatted Adam in the arm with one of the small pillows. "No fishing stories. Unless they involve your getting pulled into the pond."
"Ah, you want to think about me with my wet clothes molded to my chiseled form…." Adam surprised himself by saying. How much had he had to drink over the course of the night?
"Yuck!" she exclaimed, sitting up and decking him in the face with a pillow.
"Ow!" Adam grabbed the largest pillow he could find and started hitting back. Before they inflicted too much damage, the kitchen staff arrived with baskets of breads and pastries and pitchers of coffee, and they declared a truce so they could grab sustenance.
As people got their refreshments, they sat on the stairs, looking out the windows. Any exhaustion Adam felt was replaced with excitement. His first Solstice dawn! He looked around and saw tired but expectant faces and, not surprisingly, multiple couples cuddled together. He wondered how many pairs formed at the Solstice party. He looked over at his companion but she was talking quietly to Andio, who had seated himself on her other side. Adam sighed to himself.
The sun finally peeked above the horizon and a ragged cheer went up from the few dozen people who had lasted through the night. Everyone stayed seated until the sun became a round ball above the horizon, then rose with groans and yawns.
Teela was stifling a yawn as Adam turned to her. "That was amazing, wasn't it?" he commented.
"I don't know about amazing – I've seen a lot more spectacular sunrises – but I feel like we really earned this one." She yawned again. "I'm ready for bed. Waking up for lunch with our parents is going to be tough."
Andio smiled at Adam over Teela's head. "I must say, you royals know how to have a party."
"I'm surprised you country folk can handle it," Adam said, standing and putting out two hands to pull Teela up. The ballroom was quickly emptying. Adam picked up some mugs left on the stairs and walked them to the buffet table and Teela and Andio did the same with some plates. They surveyed the room. "I suppose we wouldn't be able to make much of a dent in the mess," Adam said reluctantly. "I hate leaving it like this."
"It's happened other years," Teela replied. "I don't think anyone's expecting us to stay up to do the cleaning."
Adam remembered the mess he'd seen the previous year. "All, right, I guess I can go to bed with a clear conscience."
Teela nodded and started walking toward the doors. They were the last ones left. Adam took a final look at the risen sun, then followed her out to the hall. She really was exhausted, he realized, watching her walk with a slightly unsteady gait. She'd also matched him and Andio through the night drink for drink, even though they were twice her size, and it was showing.
Right before she walked into a bench, Adam zoomed in and scooped her up. "Adam!" she exclaimed in surprise, tensing up. "Let me down! I can walk!"
"Yes, but not well," he answered and she grumbled back but actually seemed to relax back into his arms. He waited a moment to see if she was going to execute some sort of martial maneuver to escape, but it didn't happen, so he turned to Andio. "I'll make sure she gets to her room," he said, trying to sound offhanded, like cradling Teela in his arms wasn't a big deal. Andio gave him a strange look, then bid them good night and left in the direction of his room.
As he walked through the dark and empty hallways, Adam wondered what someone would think if they encountered him carrying Teela in the early morning hours but decided the odds were slim. Guards were posted only in certain interior hallways, none of which were near Teela and her father's quarters, and the other revelers already seemed to have gone to bed. Adam's footfalls echoed in the empty corridors as they moved from the public reception wing into the wing where Teela lived.
When they reached her door, Adam quietly said Teela's name. She'd been silent the whole walk, so he thought she'd fallen asleep. She murmured a response and he carefully set her on her feet, and she slowly let her arms slide down from around his neck to rest on his chest. They stood, their bodies almost touching, their faces inches from one another, and Adam froze, too scared to do anything but not wanting to move and destroy the moment. Finally Teela dropped her hands and gaze and opened the door, slipping inside with a quiet "Good night, Adam." It was probably the gentlest he'd ever heard her say her name. Dizzy with exhaustion, Adam stumbled back to his own room and collapsed onto his bed, barely able to pull off his boots before falling sound asleep.
XXX
The present exchange between the two families at lunch was casual, with a mix of gag gifts and more serious presents. Teela received three more dresses from the Queen, who ruefully explained that she'd rather have someone wear them than have them hang unused in her closet, as she no longer was the same size as when she'd married. Everyone jointly received Duncan's latest invention, a computer chess simulation – "although this doesn't mean that we no longer play against one another." Adam yelped as he opened his present from Teela, as the first thing he saw was sharp teeth. She explained that it was the skeleton of a carnivorous fish she'd caught in the Vine Jungle when trying to supplement the provisions they'd packed, and she thought he'd appreciate that she'd been fishing last Solstice for his present. Adam smiled to himself. It was good to have her back, even for only a couple of weeks.