To keep herself distracted from the silent crowd that fanned up the stadium seats behind her, Jahrra studied the faces of the decorated people. One woman wore a jewel-encrusted gown and an extremely haughty look. One of the men must have been half Jahrra’s height and sported a crown of every gemstone she had ever seen. A dwarf, she thought with amusement.
Casting her eyes down the line of seated people, she tried to decipher their heritage or their titles. When her gaze fell upon the youngest looking of them all she nearly collapsed onto the stage in shock. It was Dathian. The young elf was returning her look of horror and surprise, his face as white as that day she asked him about his book on Dhonoara. He, too, was dressed in finery, his glasses looking painfully out of place.
“Jahrra,” Jaax whispered as he turned to face the crowd, “are you alright?”
Jahrra tore her gaze away from the elf and looked up at the Tanaan dragon.
“Fine,” she murmured.
But she wasn’t fine. Dathian was descended from nobility? But he seemed so completely ordinary. A scholar and nothing else, no ambitions but to perhaps someday teach the class that was currently taught by Professor Anthar.
Jahrra shook her head and focused her attention on the crowd. She scanned the faces, noting the dragons immediately. Shiroxx, her scarlet scales standing out like a stain, stood next to two other Tanaan dragons, one nearly black, the other more of a golden bronze. She spotted the centaurs next, a group of them standing on a platform about halfway up the fan of seats. She nearly cried out in surprise when she recognized the buckskin coat and dark hair of Anthar. He was a member of the Coalition? Him and Dathian? Why hadn’t she ever been told?
“Good evening, members of the Coalition for Ethoes,” Jaax boomed over the heads of the crowd.
As a group they returned his greeting.
“For hundreds of years, we have endured the suppression of the Tyrant, some more than others,” he continued, “and for centuries we have gathered and planned, building up a resistance to the Crimson King’s power. Soon, that planning will come to an end and we will finally find it necessary to act.”
The crowd began murmuring once again, either agreeing with Jaax or turning his words over with their friends.
The dragon continued after a while, speaking about the offenses of the Tyrant king and the Coalition’s struggle to bring change to Ethoes. Jahrra already knew much of this from Hroombra so she didn’t feel guilty sending her attention somewhere else. Once again she began scanning the crowd, looking and listening, trying to get a feel for what these people were like. She spotted one of her teachers and a few moments later, another. Was it a mere coincidence, or . . . ?
Jahrra felt her stomach lurch and she glanced up at her guardian, his focus entirely on giving his speech. He had sat with her that night she’d perused through the University brochure, looking for classes. She had thought she made all the choices herself, but could Jaax have led her? Now that she thought about it, however, she hadn’t quite picked the classes that had been her first choices. Jaax had urged her with kind words and what seemed at the time, logical reasons, why she should or should not sign up for a particular class. Had he lured her into the classes she was currently enrolled in because of who taught them? All Coalition members? For what purpose? To keep an extra eye on her?
Jahrra no longer felt nervous. No, she felt highly annoyed, angry even. Was she never to have any control over her life?
“And so, I am very pleased to say that, after several hundred years, my search for the human child is at an end,” Jaax was saying as Jahrra returned her attention to the meeting that was currently taking place.
“I am proud to present to you, esteemed members of the Coalition for Ethoes, Jahrraneh Drisihn.”
Jaax stepped aside for her to move forward where all could see her. Casting him a look of pure indignation, she stomped to the front of the stage, eying the crowd as if they were a clustering of cockroaches. Oh yes, she would play her part tonight for him but when they got back home she would give him a piece of her mind.
Jahrra was met with silence and blank stares once again but then behind her someone cleared her throat.
“May I speak, Raejaax?”
It was the woman with the haughty look. She stood and then teetered ever so slightly, as if all her gold and jewels weighed her down.
“Very well, Nabene,” Jaax murmured.
The elvin woman smiled and Jahrra watched her warily. There was something about the glint in her eye that reminded her of Shiroxx and Ellysian.
“On behalf of the elvin clans of the north I, Nabene of the Baer Mountains and queen of Rhohwynd, am pleased to extend my respect to the girl Jahrraneh Drisihn and to acknowledge her valued role in our Coalition.”
The elvin woman, the queen, gave a graceful curtsy then waved her hand expectantly at her fellow nobles. Each and every one of them stood and gave their names, each a prince or duke or lord, all from one of the principalities or small kingdoms of Felldreim or Oescienne. The dwarf, Lord Koblahn, was from Doribas, the land of the famed mines in the Kourhiont Mountain to the east.
Finally, Dathian stood and Jahrra felt herself go rigid. He seemed to have composed his face however; the shock from seeing her gone and currently replaced with calm indifference.
He gave Jahrra a royal bow and said, “I, Prince Dathian of Dhonoara, also extend my gratitude and respect to Jahrraneh Drisihn. May her part in all this come with as little hardship as possible.”
A prince. Dathian was a prince! And not just any prince, a prince of Dhonoara! Jahrra thought her knees might collapse under her. And she had been so, blatant, in her speaking with him. But why hadn’t he said anything?
Jahrra shook her head and thought to consider it all later when her brain didn’t hurt so much. Jaax motioned her to sit in one of the chairs closest to him and as he delved into the many issues that the Coalition members discussed during any given meeting, Jahrra receded into herself, thinking about this first and memorable meeting with those who would be fighting for the salvation of their world with her.
Finally, all announcements and pressing issues had been discussed and considered. Jaax spoke a few words of closure and then turned his head to the crowd once again.
“Jahrra and I will be available in the lobby to make a more personal introduction, so if you wish to speak with her please do so on the way out.”
Jahrra blinked up at her guardian. They would be here all night! No wonder he had told her not to make any plans for that weekend. She sighed. She should be grateful, really. She wasn’t asked to make any grand speeches or to answer any tough questions, at least not in front of everybody.
Jaax indicated Jahrra to join him and as they made their way back up the steps and out into the lobby, the voices of the crowd rose once again. Jahrra wanted nothing more than to run from the building, leap upon Phrym and ride home as fast as she could. There were at least two hundred people, maybe more, in that assembly hall. Would they all want to talk to her?
“If it makes you feel any better,” Jaax murmured next to her ear as they crested the final few steps, “refreshments will be provided.”
“You purposely neglected to tell me I would have to personally greet every single member of the Coalition,” she hissed back.