"Well?" Helaine asked impatiently. "Let's do it."
"What about Crow?" Pixel reminded her. "We can't just leave her."
"You have to decide quickly," Oracle said. "The Portal only stays open a few minutes."
"I want to go." Helaine picked her sword up off the table, where level-headed Pixel had left it for her. She hefted the steel in her healed hand for a second, then stepped towards the door. "Come with me Score."
"Why me?" He half-whined.
"Because I need you. Let's go. Pixel will take care of Crow, and I've got the agate, so we can communicate throughout the council."
"She's right. You two go." Pixel nodded. "I can always bring you both back if things get crazy."
Score looked fearfully at the Portal, unsure whether he really wanted to go, but let Helaine grab his hand and pull him through anyway. The last thing he saw was Pixel's grin, before the light closed over Dondar.
"Impressive," Helaine commented. Score turned around to face a massive tiered arena. Wizards and creatures of varying colors and temperaments bustled about among the tiers, greeting each other distastefully or joyfully.
"Come on then" Helaine tugged at his hand, which she had not dropped, and led him down the stairs towards the center of the arena. A nasty looking young man with thinning hair marched down before them. When they were about sixteen rows from the center, an invisible wall seemed to stop him from going any farther. He knocked against the solid air for a few seconds, then slid into the aisle to find a seat next to a displeased watery-looking fellow.
Score waved his hand tentatively where the shield had been. Nothing stopped him from going through, so he let Helaine lead him on. All around the arena, other people and creatures were being blocked by invisible barriers at various points on the stairs. Apparently, the room was set up to place people of the same levels of magic on the same tiers. The closer they got towards the center, the fewer seats around the small circular center there were, and the more Score felt the eyes of the other magicians on him. He looked back as they passed the fifth-to-last row and saw one witch staring calculatingly at him, as though she was trying to memorize his face.
The distance between the tiers grew greater, as the chairs for the occupants grew grander and more luxuriant. Passing the third-to-last row, Score heard a whisper, something about the Triad, something else about Sarman.
Helaine seemed to hear none of the rumors, nor care about the stares. She plunged past the third row and gave a little nod to one older gentleman, who snorted violently at the sight of two youngsters heading for the bottom two tiers. She halted shortly before the second row, however, when a sharp-nosed young woman bolted up from her seat and blocked the path.
"Excuse me," Helaine said, with an almost polite smile "my friend and I would like to get past."
"Wait!" The witch grabbed Helaine's arm. "You can't really mean to go down there."
"And why not?" Helaine asked coldly. Her grip on Score's hand tightened, and he winced. Had she utterly forgotten about him?
"No one has been able to get to the first tier since the Triad. I promise you, the barrier will stop you." She wasn't really all that bad-looking, mused Score. Except for that nose thing.
Raising an eyebrow, Helaine gently pushed the other woman out of the way. "Then let the barrier stop us. Come on, Score." She tugged on his hand again and stepped down. Score could see where the wall would spring up, invisible, and turn them back. Two stone gargoyles sat guarding a small landing between the second and first levels. Score could feel it in his belly, they would be turned back.
Helaine seemed to know where the barrier would be too, because she paused just short of it. She turned to him, blonde hair looking slightly bedraggled. "We can make it, Score." She whispered. She gave his hand a gentle squeeze and smiled. "Have a little faith."
He almost laughed. "You have enough for the both of us." He looked down at the inner tier. The seats were more like thrones, and no one occupied their lush abundance. "You really think we belong down there?"
"We can do anything." She laced her fingers through his snugly and gave his hand another squeeze. Score turned his head around to the rest of the arena. Every pair of eyes seemed to be on them.
"They don't think we can."
Following his gaze, Helaine looked up for the first time at the hundred or so rows behind them. She surveyed the crowd for a long, pleasing minute, then turned back to Score with a feisty grin, her eyes on fire. "Damn them."
With a flick of her hair she turned and strode triumphantly past the gargoyles, Score keeping pace with her long strides. There was no barrier. A flurry of whispers fanned across the arena, surging in volume until Score and Helaine finally sat down in two of the voluminous chairs. Helaine finally dropped Score's hand, and at the same moment, a bright light shot up from the center of the floor. The various participants quieted, and soon, a low, husky voice began speaking.
"Welcome" it said "to the Wizard's Council." There was a pause, and a large hourglass materialized on stage. It turned itself over. "Five minutes."
The light dimmed, but the hourglass remained, sand shimmering as it touched the bottom glass. Score stuck out his hand to Helaine "Pleased to make your acquaintance, miss." He laughed and shook her hand vigorously. "My name is Score, who are you?"
"Renald, as always" she reminded him cautiously. Real names were rather dangerous. She waved a hand towards the second level. "I'm sure they're all dying to meet us, and it couldn't hurt to know the second-best wizards in the Diadem."
Score rose at this and followed Helaine back up to the second tier. Instantly, a cluster of wizards formed around them. There were perhaps only six or so inhabitants at this level, and judging from their actions, they all knew each other from previous encounters. An older man, hobbling on a cane, actually offered to shake hands with Score.
"The name is Grobbs," he wheezed. "And, since this is probably my last council, I'd just like to say what an honor it is to see you again, Eremin and Traxis. We all thought you were gone for good."
"I am not Eremin." Helaine arched her shoulders back in a show of royalty. "And she is gone for good."
Grobbs looked surprised. "Truly? You look so much alike." His palsied left hand began to shake. "I don't recall having seen you at a council before." He frowned.
Score shrugged. "We don't get out much."
"But tell me, what news have you heard of Sarman?" The sharp-nosed woman again. "We haven't seen him in a decade or so."
"He is...incapacitated." That was one of Score's father's mob terms. Generally, it meant someone had been whacked.
"Interesting. But tell me. Who are you, if not the Triad?" A rotund little man with beetle eyes posed this question.
"I am Renald of Ordin, this is Score of Earth. We currently reside on Dondar."
"Garonath's planet yes? He used to be in the third tier, awhile back. He stopped coming years and years ago. Have you heard from him?" Grobbs finished his question with a fit of coughing.
"In a way. But now, it is our turn." Helaine turned a steely eye towards the gathering. "Who are all of you?"
The sharp-nosed woman sighed. "We are the remnants of Jewel's Thirteen."
"I see only seven." Score raised an eyebrow
"I said remnants!" she snapped. She cooled for a second, then continued. "Once, we were the personal guards and advisors to the Triad. We governed the outer provinces of the Diadem and kept the others in check."
"You, Lady Splendor, never were" a thin, aging woman glared bitterly at the younger girl. "Your grandfather was, and you inherited the bloody position long after they kicked us out for treason. You just like to sit with us at the councils and show off."
The Lady Splendor, if indeed that was her name, turned a critical eye to the older woman. "If we only count members who actually served the Triad then only you and Old Grobbs would be hanging around." The others nodded at this assessment.
"However..." the beetle-man wormed his way up close to Helaine and peered greedily into her stony face. "Perhaps, as the new rulers, you would care to reinstate the Thirteen?" His fellows murmured their approval.
Helaine and Score exchanged a confused glance. Luckily, the last of the sand had slipped through the waist of the hourglass and a little chime went off, accompanied by the Council's trademark blinding white light. Score and Helaine, not having anyone other than themselves to navigate through, made their way back to the first tier quickly, and while they waited for those in the high reaches of the arena -Helaine thought she saw Oracle somewhere up there- Score took advantage of their few spare minutes.
"What did you think of them?" He asked in low tones. She said something in reply, but he couldn't hear her over the din of shuffling feet and robes, and asked her to repeat. She leaned in to his ear, placing a hand on his knee for balance.
"I think they're a scummy lot of scheming vultures."
"A fair assessment."
"What about-" The light cut Helaine off, and she leaned back into her seat. Score rubbed his eyes. Did she look regretful? The stupid light kept blinding and re-blinding him. It was almost like being in school, only with the blasted light instead of a bell to tell him what to do.
The voice from before spoke sharply, almost reprimanding Score for his comparison. "The Lady Gossamer is granted the floor." A stately old woman with the air of authority disappeared from somewhere in the third tier and reappeared in the central floor, standing about eye-level with Helaine.
"Greetings," she began, in a rusty accent that suggested no language still spoken was native to her. "As the oldest attending member, I am allowed first voice." Some spell must amplify her speech, Helaine thought bemusedly, or else the people in the back wouldn't hear her. "With this great honor and privilege, I..." Helaine tuned the woman out as she listed some boring titles and pledges. "...and so, after dutiful consideration, I choose to open this council with this: who are the young people in the first tier?"
Score shuddered as he again felt every eye turn to him and look him over. The assemblage muttered and murmured as the old crone reappeared back in the third tier, the general consensus seeming to be that this was a worthy and interesting question, and ought to be answered. With that in mind, Score hopped down onto the floor. This seemed to shock people, as though he ought to have transported himself down by some other means. Looking up at the mass of faces, Score froze for a moment. Helaine gave him a double thumbs up and grinned.
"Listen up. I'm Score, that's Renald, and Pixel is baby-sitting back home. We're not interested in taking over the Diadem. We're not interested in moving in on your turf. What we'd really like to be left alone. Oh, and we're also not the Triad." Feeling pleasantly satisfied, Score turned to climb back up to his seat, when he remembered one last thing. "By the way, the blinding-light thing really sucks."
As if to make a point, the lights blared. Score frowned, then returned to sit next to Helaine. "You were brilliant!" She said, with a locked-in laugh. She actually sounded genuinely pleased.
"You think so?"
"I usually do."
Score stared at Helaine unabashedly, and she stared back, just as bold. A man taking the center interrupted them, but he proved to be wholesomely boring. Something about lifting the ban on travel to some planet...or something...
"This is rather boring." That was Helaine, whispering again. "I thought it would be rowdy and bustling, but instead there is all this silly protocol and absolutely no ballyhoo." Her lips caught the edge of his ear on the last syllable of 'ballyhoo' and Score shivered.
A small apparition tugging on his pant hem distracted Score. He looked down, and saw what appeared to be a mini-Oracle, albeit a slightly more solid one, gazing up anxiously.
"She wishes to speak to you, please."
"Who does?" Helaine bent down to get a better look at the figure.
"SHE does." The emphasis on the pronoun was marked, and bordered on adulation. "Please follow me."
Helaine and Score exchanged a glance, then a shrug. "Lead away."
The small creature traced a tall rectangle in the air and a door solidified. It opened the door and waved them through.
A young woman with a tumble of curly black hair stood with her back to them in a large room devoid of furnishings, bordered on all sides by large panes of glass. Outside the windows sunlight trickled through blue-green water, and fish of all sizes swam ignorantly. She did not turn around.
"Well," she said, tiredly, "you've finally come back."
There was a long pause, and Score finally ventured a question. "Come back where?"
The woman turned around. She couldn't have been very old, but her eyes brimmed with the sorrow of one who has seen far too much. She stared blankly at Score and Helaine, then spread her hands wide, indicating the watery abyss around her.
"Home."
*****
Happy New Year everybody.
Everything will be made clear in chapter twenty, with a few hasty thank-yous and explanations in order then.
In the meantime, count your blessings, and be glad you didn't have two funerals to attend in the past week. Take care of yourselves, and I'll update when I'm feeling better.
Much aroo, but with little exclamation.
Chapter 1. Morning
Chapter 2. Changes
Chapter 3. Last Night
Chapter 4. White Monkey
Chapter 5. Searching
Chapter 6. Child
Chapter 7. One Candle
Chapter 8. Crow
Chapter 9. Dorian
Chapter 10. Ordin
Chapter 11. Votrins
Chapter 12. Gone
Chapter 13. Mother
Chapter 14. Mardren
Chapter 15. Scars
Chapter 16. Tears
Chapter 17. Mend
Chapter 18. Summons
Chapter 19. Council
