The Awakening (18 page)

“Well, dinner awaits and then Master Jaax will be here to pick you up.”

“He’s not here already?” Jahrra asked, picking up her skirts to keep from tripping down the stairs.

Neira shook her head. “He was busy all day and is only returning home to collect you.”

“Surely I could find my own way if he left the directions,” Jahrra replied with a grumble.

“Oh no, arriving alone to your first introduction to the Coalition?” The maid clucked her tongue. “Borderline scandalous.”

Jahrra grinned then. She had to admit; trying to find the meeting and then entering by herself seemed very daunting indeed. Perhaps it wouldn’t be so bad after all to have Jaax there to introduce her. Introduce her to diplomats and members of the royal families of Ethoes. Oh yes, she was going to need all the help she could get.

-
Chapter Eleven
-

A Grand Event and a Prince in Disguise

By the time Jahrra and Neira finished a quick dinner in the kitchen Jaax had arrived. He waited in the main room, his back to the kitchen door as he watched the flames of the lanterns cast shadows against the wall. He turned when he heard the two women enter, his eyebrows arching when he spotted Jahrra.

“That’s a good color on you,” he said.

Jahrra looked away, feeling suddenly self-conscious. Neira merely grinned and voiced her agreement. Eventually, Jahrra got over her discomfort and glanced at her guardian. If she didn’t know any better she would have said someone had polished his scales. He wore a great garland of gold and jewels around his neck, the pendant hanging below his throat a great blood rose crafted of rubies, emeralds, topaz and garnets. Jahrra gaped. It was something she would imagine seeing on a king or an emperor, not her brooding guardian.

Jaax seemed to notice her surprise.

“It’s required of the head of the Coalition to wear the Blood Rose pendant,” he said, sounding a bit uncomfortable himself.

Jahrra lifted her gaze and caught sight of the simple silver filigree that was expertly sitting atop his head, intertwining elegantly with his horns.

“That, too, is something we high ranking Coalition members are expected to wear,” he said with a weary sigh.

Jahrra got the impression it goaded him to wear such finery and she had to stifle a giggle at his expense. In a way it made her feel better about wearing the dress.

“Well, I think you both look rather fine,” Neira trilled, trying to smooth over the awkward moment.

“Thank you, Neira,” Jahrra said, smiling.

“Since we are both ready I suggest we get moving. The meeting starts shortly and I fear we will be late as it is.”

Jahrra nodded and followed her guardian out the door. Phrym was waiting for her, secured to the oak where she had left him. He eyed her quizzically as she stepped up, as if he wondered who this person in the strange garment was.

Once in the saddle, Jahrra spent a few moments arranging her skirts so that they wouldn’t be wrinkled when they arrived. The drive was dark but once they made their way into the more populated part of the city the street lamps offered a soft glow that took away the gloominess. Several citizens of Lidien still wandered about, visiting taverns and restaurants or the odd student going to or coming from the library for some studying after dark.

Jahrra heaved a great sigh and glanced over at Jaax.

“So, where exactly are we going?”

“To the Essyel Auditorium in the academy building where you have your history class.”

Jahrra blinked, recalling that first day of class when she had been awed by the auditorium’s size. She remembered Anthar, an unknown centaur to her at the time, telling her that the great room was used by groups and organizations seeking peace and change. It had never occurred to her that it was the very place where the Coalition would meet. Of course it made sense now.

As they drew closer to the University campus, Jaax told Jahrra about some of the more prominent members she would be meeting tonight. Jahrra tried her best to remember the titles her guardian listed but after a while she gave up, hoping she would do a better job when officially introduced. Among the members were the nobility he promised earlier: dukes and lords, princes, princesses, cousins of kings and queens or war heroes from long ago.

Jahrra, if at all possible, felt even more overwhelmed. How was she to know how to behave in front of these people? The most distinguished people she had ever met were Eydeth and Ellysian, and if the Coalition members were anything like those two she would like nothing better than to turn Phrym around and flee in the opposite direction.

“You’ll behave as you normally do, minus your occasional flippancy and that tendency to speak whatever snide response pops into your head,” Jaax said dryly as they entered the great plaza of Lidien’s university.

Jahrra bit her cheek. She did
not
speak whatever thought popped into her head. At least not that often. Only in the presence of her insufferable guardian and those going out of their way to be rude to her. She dearly hoped that if someone were to say something even remotely degrading this evening she would be too frightened to speak at all.

Ahead of them loomed Emehriel Hall and Jahrra had to swallow back her nervousness. The streetlamps and lanterns hanging throughout the University gave the great building an enchanting glow and Jahrra had to remind herself that magic may very well be at play.

“We’re ten minutes late so most likely everyone is inside waiting for us,” Jaax said.

Jahrra led Phrym to the great oak tree and tethered him to the fence that stood there. There was a line of several other horses, blinking curiously at this new arrival. After she dismounted she took several deep breaths with the hope to calm her racing heart, but it was no use. She was a mess. Jaax waited expectantly at the bottom of the stairs and after a few moments, Jahrra started walking towards him, her red slippers not making a sound against the lawn.

“Relax,” he grumbled as they entered the building and headed straight for the hall.

Jahrra tried but the closer they got the more her heart fluttered. The giant doors were propped open and from the depths of the room she could hear the busy murmur of a hundred or more voices. Jaax cast her one more look before they stepped through the massive doorway and into the bright light of the auditorium.

Jahrra had closed her eyes but when the dead silence she’d expected didn’t come she slowly opened them. No one had noticed them yet. But as they descended the stairs leading to the wide stage below, the chatter began to fizzle out. Everyone would know Jaax, being that he was their leader. They wouldn’t know Jahrra but she was sure her guardian would have told them he was bringing her, so they would know who she was by association. The faces that watched her did not smile nor did they frown. One step at a time she and her guardian descended, the blank stares of a large variety of men and women watching her like a beacon on an endless night.

Jahrra huddled closer to Jaax, risking the chance that he might actually trip over her. Finally they found the stage and she glanced up at those sitting in the ornately carved wooden chairs placed there for their convenience. The men and women sitting in those small thrones were impeccably dressed in the finest clothing and jewelry available.
These must be the highest ranking nobles present
, Jahrra thought. They all looked elvin to her but most people did when attired so flawlessly.

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.