The Night Dance by Suzanne Weyn

darkly at her father. Her sisters, who surrounded her there in their bedchamber, all wore similar expressions. “How could you?” she cried, made bold by her genuine outrage. “You’ve offered one of us as a prize? A prize !”
    “Rowena told me you wanted husbands,” Sir Ethan defended himself.
    The sisters turned their angry looks on Rowena.
    “I said we wanted to meet young men and fall in love,” she insisted. “I didn’t say I wanted to be given away like a prize pig . This is a different thing entirely.”
    “What if some arrogant idiot wants me for his wife?” Ione fretted. “He’ll always be telling me what to do, and it will always be the wrong thing that shouldn’t be done at all…because he’s an idiot.”
    “If he’s an idiot he won’t win,” Sir Ethan pointed out.
    “Win!” Eleanore cried. “He’ll win one of us—a flesh and blood human being, one of your own daughters—as a prize ! Can’t you see how wrong this is?”
    “Eleanore, I recognize that you girls have beensheltered,” Sir Ethan began angrily, “so I understand that you are perhaps unaware of the ways of the world, but you might be interested to learn that young women frequently, in fact nearly always , are given in marriages arranged by their parents.”
    “Well, that’s insane!” Rowena burst out, throwing her arms out at her sides.
    Sir Ethan frowned at her insolence.
    “She’s right,” Eleanore backed up Rowena.
    “ This argument is insane,” Sir Ethan exploded, clearly out of patience. “We can end this contest right now. All you need to do is tell me why your slippers are ruined every single morning even though when you enter your bedchamber they are in perfect condition! Where do you go? How do you get out?”
    The sisters glanced at one another from the corners of their eyes. Eleanore knew what they were thinking because she was thinking the same thing.
    Nothing could compel them to give up the dancing they’d enjoyed these past three nights. Of course they knew that their stag escorts weren’t potential husbands, but how could they resist them? They were so charmingly attentive, fetching the girls food and drink, dancing with them until dawn.
    The island the golden barges carried them to was a paradise. Icy fountains of bubbling drinks flowed without stop. Musicians strolled constantly, playing every kind of lively, exciting music.
    Ornate mahogany tables groaned under theweight of delicious foods, some that they had never even seen before like the tart star-shaped fruit and the tiny, glistening black fish eggs served on toast that they so especially loved.
    And most of all, they danced, danced like they were on fire. The musicians never tired of playing, and the sisters were on their slippered feet nearly the entire time, stopping only to refresh themselves with food and drink.
    The stag princes partnered them, moving with animal vigor, leaping, spinning, carrying the sisters over their heads as they jumped high into the air. Their large deep eyes caressed attentively and it didn’t matter that they were not directly amorous. The way they danced—holding the sisters tight one moment, throwing them wildly the next—conveyed an exciting sensuality that was thrilling in itself.
    In part, they were aware that this was a fantasy, maybe even an enchantment of some kind, but they felt powerless to resist it. It was every hope of exotic excitement suddenly become reality, and they were completely enthralled by it. On the luxuriant, thrilling island in the middle of the glittering, fathom less underground lake, they felt beautiful, desirable, utterly seduced.
    How could they give that up?
    No. They couldn’t—not for anything.
    “If you will not answer me then you will abide by the terms of my contest!” Sir Ethan bellowed,reddening with rage. “I will have the servants remove the door on the room adjacent to this one. We will set up a sleeping quarter for the young man, and he will know your every