Eliason looked around the grim, unhappy group. “And so what are we to do?”
As an elf his natural inclination must have been to do nothing, wait, and see what time brought. But, according to my father, Eliason was an intelligent ruler, one of the more realistic and practical of his race. He knew, though he would have liked to ignore the fact, that his people’s days on their seamoon were numbered. A decision had to be made, therefore, but he was quite content to let others make it.
“We have one hundred cycles left until the full effects of the wandering of the seasun will begin to be felt,” stated Dumaka. “Time to build more sun-chasers.”
“// the serpents let us,” said my father ominously. “Which I much doubt. And what did they mean by payment? What could they possibly want?”
All were silent, thinking.
“Let us look at this logically,” Eliason said finally. “Why do people fight? Why did our races fight each other, generations ago? Through fear, misunderstanding. When we came together and discussed our differences, we found ways to deal with them and we have lived in peace ever since. Perhaps these serpents, powerful as they seem, are, in reality, afraid of us. They see us as a threat. If we tried to talk to them, reassure them that we mean them no harm, that we want only to leave and travel to this new seamoon, then perhaps—” A clamor interrupted him.
The noise had come from the part of the terrace attached to the palace—a part hidden from my view—being short, it was difficult for me to see out the window.
“What’s going on?” I demanded impatiently.
“I don’t know . . .” Sabia was trying to see without being seen.
Alake actually poked her head out the opening. Fortunately, our parents were paying no attention to us.
“A messenger of some sort,” she reported.
“Interrupting a royal conference?” Sabia was shocked.
I dragged over a footstool and climbed up on it. I could now see the white-faced footman who had, against all rules of protocol, actually run onto the terrace. The footman, seeming nearly about to faint, leaned to whisper something in Eliason’s ear. The elven king listened, frowning.
“Bring him here,” he said at last.
The footman hastened off.
Eliason looked gravely at his friends. “One of the message riders was attacked oh the road and is, apparently, grievously wounded. He bears a message, he says, which is to be delivered to us, to all of us gathered here this day. I have ordered them to bring him here.”
“Who attacked him?” asked Dumaka.
Eliason was silent a moment, then said, “Serpents.”
“A message ‘to all of us gathered here,’ ” repeated my father dourly. “I was right. They are watching us.”
“Payment,” said my mother, the first word she’d spoken since the conference began.
“I don’t understand.” Eliason sounded frustrated. “What can they possibly want?”
“I’ll wager we are about to find out.”
They said nothing further, but sat waiting, unwilling to look at each other, finding no comfort in seeing the reflection of their own dazed bewilderment on the faces of their friends.
“We shouldn’t be here. We shouldn’t be doing this,” said Sabia suddenly. Her face was very pale; her lips trembled.
Alake and I looked at her, looked at each other, looked down at the floor in shame. Sabia was right. This spying on our parents had always been a game to us, something we could giggle over in the night after they’d sent us to our beds. Now it was a game no longer. I don’t know how the other two felt, but I found it frightening to see my parents, who had always seemed so strong and wise, in such confusion, such distress.
“We should leave, now,” Sabia urged, and I knew she was right, but I could no more have climbed down off that footstool than I could have flown out the window.
“Just a moment more,” said Alake.
The sound of slippered feet, moving slowly, shuffling as if bearing a burden, came to us. Our parents drew themselves upright, standing straight and tall, disquiet replaced by stern gravity. My father smoothed his beard. Dumaka folded his arms across his chest. Delu drew a stone from a pouch she wore at her side and rubbed it in her hand, her lips moving.