A hiss of sucked-in breaths sounded from both groups.
Lady Cosgrave’s face was bone-white. The elves, glittering and undefeatable, were glaring at me en masse, the magic that they carried within them building like a second storm and thickening the air all around us with menace.
But as I watched, one corner of the king’s mouth unmistakably curved upwards. “Indeed?” he said coolly. “Do explain. To all of us, if you please.”
“Humans lie, and we all know it!” Lord Ihlmere started forward, shining with fury. “You cannot trust any human to tell the truth, or—”
“But you can trust an elf-lord, can’t you?” Jonathan said behind me. His voice came out as easily as if he were engaging in intellectual debate, and when I looked back, I found him in a relaxed pose, his arms crossed and head tilted with scholarly interest. “Isn’t it true, my lords, that you never lie?”
“Never,” snapped the elf-lord on Lord Ihlmere’s left, his eyes narrowing. “Any such abomination would be identified immediately by every other member in this group. We can all attest to the truth in each other’s words.”
“Well, then,” Amy said, from the inner semicircle. “Why don’t you tell us, Cassandra, exactly what Lord Ihlmere said to you? And he may tell us all whether you’re repeating his words correctly.”
“Of course.” I bowed respectfully to the group around me. “Lord Ihlmere,” I said to the gathered elves and humans, “claimed that the laws in his kingdom utterly prohibit any such atrocity of nature as this spelled storm—and that it is your kingdom, not our nation, that is most harmed by it, as it has injured your pets and ruined your hunts. Therefore,” I finished, “he pointed out, as I recall, that any observer with a shred of logic would tell us that one of our own magicians must be the ones directing all of it.”
“Well?” The king turned his clear, cold gaze upon his elf-lord. “Is the human lying? Yes or no?”
Ihlmere’s words sounded as if they’d been ground out through his sharp-edged jaw. “No,” he said harshly. “Which is why any elf lord in this group, unlike a human magician, would never cast such reckless magic as an experiment!”
“As an experiment? I don’t think so.” I tilted my head. “But in order to break our treaty...and perhaps win yourself full power, too?”
For the first time, the group of elves broke formation. Heads turned. Booted feet shifted.
Suddenly, there was a space between Lord Ihlmere and his fellows.
“I expect there’s been a great deal of unhappiness in the elven court,” said Miss Fennell knowledgeably, from her space in the outer semicircle. “Based on my reading, I would guess that a good deal of blame has probably been cast about in this past se’nnight. Perhaps a few questions might even have been raised about the fitness of a ruler who wouldn’t step up to defend his realm when mere humans were causing such disruptions?”
“And our own disruptions,” Lady Cosgrave added sharply, “were all to the detriment of this particular ceremony. This sudden storm, so carefully timed, made it nearly impossible for all of our intended attendees to gather...as I recall you noting, Lord Ihlmere, in your unexpected visit to us last week.”
More elves stepped away from Lord Ihlmere.
One of them shook his head in open shock. “Without our hunts...”
“I cannot believe any of you would listen to human slander!” Lord Ihlmere spat. “You know they care nothing for the truth. You know—”
“I know how good you are at twisting it.” I took another inexorable step forward. “You chose your words very carefully last week, didn’t you? You said that any observer would tell us that a human magician must be behind it all. But you aren’t just any observer, are you? You’re the architect behind it all.”
“You did this?” demanded the single elf-lord who still stood beside Lord Ihlmere. His pale face was gaunt with horror as he stared at his fellow lord. “You hurt our pets until their cries haunted all of our dreams? You disrupted our hunts? You know—!”
“You have no proof!” Lord Ihlmere snarled. “None beyond the words of this demented monstrosity of a human female, whose bones reek of a magic she should never have been allowed to share! She doesn’t even deserve to stand here among us, or—”
“I shall not take her word as proof.” The elven king stepped forward with every other elf suddenly behind him, a flanking army of glittering and unmistakable power. “I shall take your word before this assembled company, Lord Ihlmere.
“Highest and oldest among our advisors. Most mighty and most proud, across the centuries.” His gaze flicked across the elf-lord’s enraged expression, and his narrow lips twisted. “You will answer us all and in one word only. Did you summon this enchanted storm, breaking the ancient laws of our realm and putting every one of our company in mortal peril?”
Lord Ihlmere swept one hand through the air in a furiously cutting gesture. “Cannot you see how we’ve been weakened? Human corruption and influence unbounded and—”
“Lord Ihlmere!” White light flared out from around the king’s skin as he took another gliding step forward. The rest of the elves moved with him in perfect, sinuous synchronicity. “We await your answer. Did you betray your kingdom?”
“There is no betrayal in protecting it from enemies!” said Lord Ihlmere. “I sought only to bring us back to greatness! To—”
“The answer,” said the elven king in a clarion voice, “has been given.”
A sigh rippled through the elves behind him. Then the gathered elves glided outward until they formed a perfect circle around Lord Ihlmere, who stood like a trapped wolf, searching for escape.
The trolls closed in around them with earth-shaking steps, their great heads tilted and stony gazes fixed on the elf-lord who had betrayed them.
I didn’t dare release the breath that I held in my chest.
“Lord Ihlmere,” said the king, “by our most ancient laws and rites, you are banished. You are lost to your brethren and to your land. The soil will not shelter you. The air will not sing to you. You are broken, root and branch, from our tree.”
“You—she—!”
With a sudden surge, Lord Ihlmere broke through the elven circle. His beautiful face contorted in rage. He threw up one ice-white hand and pointed it straight at me.
Wrexham threw himself between us, his own arms rising and his lean form beautiful and deadly: my fiancé, determined to save me this time after all.
But this time, he wasn’t alone.
Every magician in the group lunged into place behind him without an instant’s hesitation...even scarlet-coated Mr. Sansom, the obnoxious young Luton, and young Miss Banks with her chin held high, hectic color in her cheeks, and her slim arms thrown up into exactly the right position. She’d been reading the books that I’d found for her, this past week.
Even together, the whole group wouldn’t be enough to stop him. But a warmth that had nothing to do with magic filled my chest as I looked at the protective wall they’d formed in front of me:
My old classmates.
My peers.