“I had an errand,” said Wil . Up close Tessa could see that he looked tired. His eyes were rimmed with red, the shadows beneath them nearly purple. His clothes looked crumpled, as if he had slept in them, and his hair wanted cutting. But that has nothing to do with you, she told herself sternly, looking away from the soft dark waves that curled around his ears, the back of his neck. It does not matter what you think of how he looks or how he chooses to spend his time. He has made that very clear. “And you are not exactly on the dot of the hour yourselves.”
“I wanted to show Tessa Poets’ Corner,” said Jem. “I thought she would like it.” He spoke so simply and plainly, no one could ever doubt him or imagine he said anything but the truth. In the face of his simple desire to please, even Wil didn’t seem to be able to think of anything unpleasant to say; he merely shrugged, and moved on ahead of them at a rapid pace through the abbey and out into the East Cloister.
There was a square garden here surrounded by cloister wal s, and people were walking around the edges of it, murmuring in low voices as if they were stil in the church. None of them took notice of Tessa and her companions as they approached a set of double oak doors set into one of the wal s. Wil , after glancing around, took his stele from his pocket and drew the tip across the wood. The door sparked with a brief blue light and swung open. Wil stepped inside, Jem and Tessa fol owing just behind. The door was heavy, and closed with a resounding bang behind Tessa, nearly trapping her skirts; she pul ed them away only just in time, and stepped backward quickly, turning around in what was a near pitch-darkness.
“Jem?”
Light blazed up; it was Wil , holding his witchlight stone. They were in a large stone-bound room with vaulted ceilings. The floor appeared to be brick, and there was an altar at one end of the room. “We’re in the Pyx Chamber,” he said. “Used to be a treasury. Boxes of gold and silver al along the wal s.”
“A Shadowhunter treasury?” Tessa was thoroughly puzzled.
“No, the British royal treasury—thus the thick wal s and doors,” said Jem. “But we Shadowhunters have always had access.” He smiled at her expression. “Monarchies down through the ages have tithed to the Nephilim, in secret, to keep their kingdoms safe from demons.”
“Not in America,” said Tessa with spirit. “We haven’t got a monarchy—”
“You’ve got a branch of government that deals with Nephilim, never fear,” said Wil , crossing the floor to the altar. “It used to be the Department of War, but now there’s a branch of the Department of Justice—”
He was cut off as the altar moved sideways with a groan, revealing a dark, empty hole behind it. Tessa could see faint flickers of light in among the shadows. Wil ducked into the hole, his witchlight il uminating the darkness.
When Tessa fol owed, she found herself in a long downward-sloping stone corridor. The stone of the wal s, floors, and ceiling was al the same, giving the impression that the passage had been hewed directly through the rock, though it was smooth instead of rough. Every few feet witchlight burned in a sconce shaped like a human hand pushing through the wal , fingers gripping a torch.
The altar slid shut behind them, and they set off. As they went, the passage began to slope more steeply downward. The torches burned with a blue-green glow, il uminating carvings in the rock—the same motif, repeated over and over, of an angel rising in burning fire from a lake, carrying a sword in one hand and a cup in the other.
At last they found themselves standing before two great silver doors. Each door was carved with a design Tessa had seen before—four interlocking Cs. Jem pointed to them. “They stand for Clave and Council, Covenant and Consul,” he said, before she could ask.
“The Consul. He’s—the head of the Clave? Like a sort of king?”
“Not quite so inbred as your usual monarch,” said Wil . “He’s elected, like the president or the prime minister.”
“And the Council?”
“You’l see them soon enough.” Wil pushed the doors open.
Tessa’s mouth fel open; she closed it quickly, but not before she caught an amused look from Jem, standing at her right side. The room beyond them was one of the biggest she had ever seen, a huge domed space, the ceiling of which was painted with a pattern of stars and constel ations. A great chandelier in the shape of an angel holding blazing torches dangled from the highest point of the dome. The rest of the room was set up as an amphitheater, with long, curving benches. Wil , Jem, and Tessa were standing at the top of a row of stairs that cut through the center of the seating area, which was three quarters ful of people. Down at the bottom of the steps was a raised platform, and on that platform were several uncomfortable-looking high-backed wooden chairs.