Dark Celebration Page 0,145

introducing Paul. She noticed Gabrielle's mother walked away quickly, a small scowl on her face. "I'm sorry, did we upset her?"

"No, I'm afraid she doesn't like anything jaguar, although in all honesty, I don't believe I am," Gary said. "I never heard that we had jaguar blood. In fact, I never heard of the jaguar race until I became friends with Gregori."

"Don't worry about Mom," Gabrielle added. "She'll come around. She just has to get used to all of this."

The double doors from the dining hall leading to the balcony suddenly swung open, and a short woman dressed as an elf with pointed ears and a wealth of blue-black hair stood in the center of the open doors. "Ladies and gentleman, may I have your attention, please? Many of you may not know this, but I happen to be a magician. Come here to me children. May I have the children here on the balcony? I'm about to show them one of the greatest magicians of all times. He is a well-kept secret."

All the children, both Carpathian and from the village, pushed forward and the adults crowded behind them. Paul lifted Emma onto his shoulders, and Skyler took Baby Tamara while Josef lifted young Jase up. Travis grabbed Chrissy by the shoulders and held her close, while Ginny held the hands of Sara and Falcon's other two young boys. Josh, feeling quite grown up, had the responsibility of the last girl, young Blythe.

As she spoke, small pulses of colored lights twinkled all around her and snow drifted down without ever touching her. The world around her appeared dazzling and majestic, swirls of fog covering her feet as she danced along the balcony railing with her little elf

boots, her hair swinging around her like a cape, her face a little fey in the silver moonlight. Crystals hung from the eaves and pulsed with the same colors, soft reds and greens and blues and yellows, turning the night into a light show.

A collective gasp went up from the children, and Travis had to grab Emma as she wandered out onto the balcony, staring in awe up at the lights. Savannah turned in a little circle and jumped back down in front of the children. "Oh, dear, I think I've forgotten my wand. I need it to reveal St. Nick to you." Her voice lowered dramatically and she looked right and left as if confiding only in them. "He always comes in under cover of the cloak of night using storms like this one to keep children from spotting him." She looked around again. "If only I had my wand."

"But Savannah," Chrissy ventured, "it's in your hand."

"It is?" Savannah managed to look surprised and she raised the glowing wand, swiveling it in a small circle. It rained sparkling pixie dust all over the snow-covered balcony. "Oh, good. It's working. Let's see. Look up to the sky and I'll try to remember how to do this. I've only done it once, you know, but for you, I'll try again."

Savannah waved the wand in a sweeping gesture as she danced across the railing again. The falling snow drew back like a curtain. A large snowman with coal for eyes and a carrot for a nose whirled around, looking guilty, and raced away over the ground into the village.

"Oh, dear, that's the wrong one. That was Frosty the Snowman. Let me try again," Savannah said.

The children laughed as Savannah brought back the snow, did another whirling dance and once more sent pixie dust flying as she opened the curtain of snow.

The children-and even most of the adults-gasped again, some of them putting their hands over their mouths, in an effort to stay quiet. Up in the sky, where the stars twinkled and the moon shone, a gleaming sleigh raced across the night, drawn by reindeer. A man with a white beard dressed in a fur-trimmed red suit commanded the deer. In the sleigh was an enormous bag bulging with toys. Bells on the sleigh chimed softly, and the pulsing lights that lit the snow now lit the sky around the reindeer-drawn sleigh, so that one moment Santa's jolly face could be seen clearly, and the next it was softened by a pale pastel strobe.

His eyes appeared to be as black as coal. There was snow in his beard and on the fringed and silver-studded red saddles of the reindeer. The sleigh circled above their heads. A hush fell on the crowd as the deer descended lower