The doors creaked open, revealing the chamber within. It was a circular room with several tiered levels overlooking the middle. Each tier was filled with men and women in robes, their hoods up.
Shea kept her snort to herself. Her people were certainly dramatic, she’d give them that.
Two pathfinders stepped in front of their group before they could go any further. “Only the warlord and the pathfinder may proceed. The rest will wait along the walls. They may observe but not address the council.”
Caden looked like he was about to object, his face wrinkled with displeasure. Shea would like to say she was surprised at the command, but she wasn’t. This was normal procedure. It left the person standing down there feeling like a child called to task by a parent. It was carefully designed to dig away at your confidence and leave you feeling off balance.
She’d only been called before them once, but they’d done something similar then too.
Caden bent so his words could only be heard by Fallon and Shea. “We won’t be able to protect you down there if they have archers above.”
Fallon clapped his first on the shoulder. “We’re not here to make war. Besides, you know what to do if it comes to it.”
Fallon and Caden shared a long look before Fallon stepped past, turning to hold his hand out to Shea. She took it without hesitation, lifting her chin and taking a deep breath.
He squeezed her fingers gently before letting go. Together, they stepped forward to face the consideration of the council together. A council of ten men and women, who had decided to meet with an outsider for the first time in their recorded history.
A woman in a dark green robe stood in front of the rest, one step above Shea and Fallon.
For a long moment they waited, Fallon looking around the chamber, his face reserved and his focus intense.
Shea didn’t look away from the woman. From the moment she’d entered, the leader had held her entire attention.
Silence filled the chamber, the pathfinders on one side of a great abyss, Shea and Fallon on the other.
The woman reached up and slid her hood back. Shea’s mother shook her hair loose as she stared down at the two of them.
Lainey’s attention turned to Fallon, ignoring Shea for the moment. Her mother’s gaze held the sharp intellect of a tactician every bit as skilled as Fallon. “It is a surprising thing to hear a barbarian tribe from the Outlands has managed to throw the Lowlands into such disarray.”
Shea took a deep breath. So that was how it was going to be then? Backhanded insults that poked and prodded to see what kind of reaction they could engender?
Fallon stared at Shea’s mother for a second before his lips twitched into a smile, and he threw his head back to let out a roar of laughter. “Is that what the vaunted pathfinders have called me here for? To waste my time with such inane conversation?”
Unfortunately for the council, Fallon was as unlike Shea as any person could be. His temper was every bit as fierce but not something he would allow free rein in a situation like this.
Fallon’s face turned cruel. “I suggest, lady, you get to the point. Your relation to my telroi will only work in your favor so far.”
Lainey gave him a cutting look, lifting her eyebrows in a superior expression as her lips tilted up in a cold smile. “Very well. Let’s set niceties aside then. You barbarians aren’t exactly known for such matters anyway.”
Shea gave her mother a look, not bothering to comment on her choice of words.
“My dear, I’m disappointed in the company you keep,” her mother said in a kind voice. “If you had to betray us, I at least, expected you to have better standards.”
“I’m sorry, Mother.” Shea put emphasis on that last word. “I’ll make sure to be kidnapped by the right sort of people next time. Wouldn’t want to court your disappointment, now would we?”
Fallon felt an inner spurt of amusement at his telori’s dry words. He let out a dark chuckle, finding the whole thing amusing.
Her mother’s eyes came to him as she frowned slightly. His reaction wasn’t the one she was expecting. Good. If she was as smart as her daughter, she’d take a lesson from that. Fallon rarely played according to another’s rules. This time would be no different, despite the sticky familial bonds.
“We seem to amuse you,” Lainey stated, no evidence of irritation in her voice.
“This whole thing is laughable,” Fallon said, the amusement draining from his face as if it had never been. He bared his teeth at the woman in front of him. “I find it highly amusing that you’ve wasted my time in this way. Even my men are properly entertained.”
He nodded to where his Anateri lined the wall. They watched the proceedings with an intent focus, like lions on the plains amid a group of antelope.
None of them looked even remotely happy.
Lainey’s eyes went from Fallon to the men behind him. Her shoulders rose and fell, but the same patronizing look remained pinned to her face.
