Lyssa, Carth, and Sypara turned to face Gavin, and he felt his ears heat again. He looked at Lillian and saw her staring at the table.
“Lillian?” Gavin asked. “Are you okay with this?”
Lillian lifted her head just enough to look at Gavin from the corner of her eyes, nodding. “Go ahead, Gavin; they need to know.”
“Okay. I’m sorry,” Gavin said before turning back to the group. “I had just finished speaking with Valera at one of her flowerbeds when I felt an Enchantment effect deeper in the gardens, in the general direction of the hedge maze. I followed the faint resonance, which led me to the maze. I made use of the shortcut to the maze’s center and saw a young man standing over a woman lying on the stone block. I could see she was not wearing any clothes, but I couldn’t see her face.
“The man was talking to her, talking about how he’d looked forward to this since he first saw her and other sick things like that. At one point, he made a reference to ‘all the rest.’
“To make a long story short, I stopped him and saw the woman was Lillian; she was held with a paralysis effect. I covered her with my robe and subdued the guy until Valera, an Inquisitor, and Mariana arrived.”
Lyssa turned to her daughter, asking, “How did you come to be involved?”
“Commander Roshan re-assigned me to the College to assist with updating the Battle-mage curriculum. You remember Reyna, my best friend when I was at the College? She’s stationed at the College now, and I was visiting with her when Valera arrived, so I walked with her.”
“As I understand the situation,” Carth Roshan said, “this Rolf of House Sivas not only committed one of the most heinous offenses delineated in the Code, but he also attacked the Great Houses doing it. I don’t have any idea when someone last attacked our Houses; does anyone?”
Lyssa looked to Mariana, who sighed and closed her eyes as she leaned her head back against the chair. After a very brief moment, she opened her eyes and lifted her head, saying, “3367 PG.”
Carth grimaced. “Oh.”
“I’m sorry,” Gavin said, “but what happened in 3367?”
“A Termagus of House Throsk caused the death of the Head of House Wygoth at the time,” Torval said. “A number of people died in wizards’ duels, and circumstances spiraled to a hair’s breadth of a civil war. It didn’t help matters that the Archmagister at the time happened to be from House Roshan, and she took the matter rather poorly.”
“I see,” Gavin said. “That’s not so good a precedent.”
“No,” Torval said, shaking his head.
“I know the Council was supposed to be in session this morning,” Gavin said, “and I thought it was about the complaint that Lillian filed last night. Is there anything wrong with waiting to see what the Council chooses to do?”
Lyssa sneered. Carth sighed. Sypara scoffed.
Torval grimaced and said, “Gavin, the Council has become increasingly less of a friend toward the Great Houses in the past few years, and it doesn’t help that the young man’s father is a close friend of the king.”
“What’s that got to do with anything?” Gavin asked. “I thought the Constitution of Tel said that the king has authority only over the civil affairs of the Kingdom of Tel…and only during the times when there is no Archmagister.”
“Gavin,” Sypara said, “there have been rumors for quite some time now that the king is actively looking for an excuse to assault the College and bring the Society of the Arcane under his direct authority.”
“But that makes no sense,” Gavin said. “Moving against the Society would violate his oath and give the four of you just cause to depose him and declare a regent.”
“It doesn’t matter what authority we have,” Lyssa said. “Right now, the king controls the bulk of the martial force in the city. He has subtly manipulated personnel assignments in the army to put people who favor him-if not outright support him-in the major command positions. Our information indicates that the army would sit and wait it out if the king orders the Royal Guard to assault the College.”
“It wouldn’t be so bad if there were anyone alive today who could activate the city’s garrison,” Carth said. “Twenty-five thousand spectral warriors would make even the king step back and reconsider things.”
“How does one activate the garrison?” Gavin asked, a sinking feeling starting to form in the pit of his stomach.
“As long as you meet the criteria,” Torval said, “you just go to one of the activation sigils scattered around the city and speak the command word, but that’s the problem. I’m not sure if even Mariana knows what the criteria are. Kirloth never recorded them that I’m aware.”
Mariana shook her head in silence.
“Torval,” Lyssa said, “it’s good that you called the Conclave. We all needed to know what happened, but as much as I would like to believe the Council will fail to handle this according to the Code, we should wait to be sure before we start formulating a course of action.”
“Agreed,” Carth said. “I, too, am glad you called the Conclave. I think the Council should see us together in the gallery when they get around to announcing their findings.”
“Does anyone object to us adjourning until the Council makes its announcement?” Sypara asked.
When no one spoke, Torval rapped his knuckles on the table once more. “Under general acclamation, I declare this Conclave adjourned.”
Chapter 27
Three days later, the Council of Magisters gave notice they would deliver their verdict. As with all meetings of the Council, the proceedings took place in the hall known as the Chamber of the Council. The space was set up like a series of tiered horseshoes, and the very center of the space was a recessed oval. At Gavin’s right as he walked down a slight grade to the oval, an unoccupied throne sat on a raised dais just a few steps higher than the floor. It was a simple throne, more of a wooden chair with a padded seat and back and decorated with intricate carvings. Behind the throne, Gavin saw a door, and his sense of direction told him that door should open somehow into the Grand Stair.
Opposite the throne was a horseshoe-shaped table large enough to sit nine people in comfort, and today, every seat was occupied. Gavin saw almost every color robe represented, along with a wide variety of rune colors. The only color not present at the table was the black robe that signified a philosophy of the Art above all else.
On the one side of the oval, a statue stood atop a three-foot pedestal. The marble statue was a masterwork, depicting the person in intricate detail…everything from his pointed Van Dyke beard to the dragon-head medallion atop his sternum. He looked down upon the recessed oval, and his expression was one of wise consideration.
A spectator’s gallery curved around the space at the door’s level. It began on the left side of the walkway down from the door and curved all the way around to the edge of the statue’s pedestal. It had five rows of benches in a stadium-seating configuration. A good fifteen feet above the level of the door, another gallery ran all the way around the room, having nearly ten rows of benches for even more seating. These galleries provided seating for anyone wishing to watch the Council’s deliberations, and the Council was barred from forbidding access to them in the Arcanists’ Code.
Gavin, Lillian, Wynn, Braden, and Mariana sat in the first row of the lower gallery. Kiri sat on the floor at Gavin’s feet, no matter how hard Gavin tried to change her mind. Torval Mivar, Lyssa Cothos, Carth Roshan, and Sypara Wygoth sat in the second row. All nine Magisters occupied their respective seats at the table, including Valera and Tauron, and Rolf Sivas stood before the Council at the open end of the horseshoe.