The pleasure of your company is requested. Graceful feet tracing courtly steps. Eyes behind jeweled masks meeting across a room of twirling dancers. Gloved hands touching fleetingly—or gripping swords... Anything can happen at a ball. You are invited to enjoy these stories of fancy and fantasy from thirteen authors, framed in the splendor and elegance of a ballroom. Be it at a house party for diplomats and thieves, or Almacks in a side-universe in which the Patronesses have magic, or a medieval festival just after the plague years ... Prepare to be swept into the enchantment of the dance! Stories by: Marie Brennan “The Şiret Mask” Marissa Doyle “Just Another Quiet Evening at Almack’s” Sara Stamey “Homeworld Stranger” Charlotte “Kerygma in Waltz Time” Irene Radford “Dancing Bangles” Gillian Polack “A Plague of Dancers” Deborah J. Ross “A Borrowed Heart” Francesca Forrest “Gown of Harmonies” Lynne April Brown “The Dress” P.G. Nagle “A Waltz for May” Brenda Clough “Sherbet on Silver” Layla Lawlor “Gilt and Glamour” Sherwood Smith “Lily and Crown”