Long, Dark Road

by Bianculli, Susan

  The Head councilor strode into the center between the two semi-circles of chairs, and started pontificating. “Humans are the ultimate cause of Under-elves coming into existence in the first place. It was not our decision to become as we are now, though it has been ultimately for the better for us, and these three will pay the price for the sundering of the original Elven race!”

  He then launched into the backstory that Dusk had told us some time ago—about the world being split into two, the Divine interfering in the magical working that caused the Disjoin, and the resulting creation of the Under-elven race. Despite his twisting of events, it was remarkably like what Dusk had told us. Heather, despite our danger, had never heard the story and couldn’t help but be a little intrigued by it. Since the Head councilor was distracted by his oration, I decided it was time to get out the dragon scale because things had gone too far. I started to bend down to my boot but was pulled upright by my guard. Annoyed, I tried for it a second time while the Councilor droned on, but was yanked up again and pinioned upright against his chest. I struggled, but a knife’s sharp edge at my lips made me stop.

  “We turned our backs on the Surface as they had turned from us!” the Head councilor said, finishing the history lesson. “But we never forgave the Humans that caused all of it, because if Humans had not defected from the Gods and the other races of the world, this,” he spat out, waving his hands around the cavern, “never would have come to pass!”

  The Under-elf leader paused to calm himself down. “There is no need for you to speak, because you can have no defense,” he said in a more measured tone, regarding Heather, Jason and myself with a surprising amount of animosity in his eyes. “You are what you are, and your termination will have to stand for the termination of the Human race, should my fellows agree with me in deciding that course is proper.” He looked at his fellow still seated in the chairs. “What say each of you?”

  The relayers ran off to do their job while one by one, each seated Under-elf pointed to the long rod that bore the black square obsidian top on each table. And one by one, each servitor took the indicated rod and placed it in a holder in the back of the chair, until five black squares topped five black chairs. The Head councilor nodded at each, like he’d expected how each vote went, before having his lackey add his square to the back of his chair as the relayers returned.

  The Head councilor looked at us almost triumphantly. “Six black squares. A unanimous decision, which is rare to happen so quickly. Be proud that your deaths will provide a drop of balm to the suffering of Under-elven souls. Do any of you have any last words before sentence is carried out here and now?”

  Sentencing? Here and now? My face paled, the dizziness in my head grew more pronounced, and I caught Jason’s and Heather’s frightened eyes with my own.

  Dusk, Ragar, and Auraus looked worried and frantic. I glanced warily at the guard holding me.

  “Am I allowed to talk now?” I asked pointedly, unable to keep a quiver of fear from my voice.

  He said nothing and removed the blade, so I took his silence as a “yes.” I thought about trying for the scale one more time, but it would probably take time for Frelanfur to get here even if I could activate it before it was taken away, and the dragon might come too late for us. But I still had another ace in the hole.

  “Please, can the Conductivus be called for now?” I asked.

  The look of shock from all the Under-elves on the stage was kind of gratifying, but also annoying, because it meant that the Coordinator had not filled out the request like Quorik had said would be done. I shot a look at Havel, who narrowed his eyes back angrily as a sullen look appeared on his face. I guessed he’d hoped that my request back at the jail cell would get lost and forgotten in the trial. No such luck, buddy.

  “How do you know of him?” one of the seated Under-elven councilors gasped.

  I sighed. “My companions and I made it perfectly plain to the Duty Scouts who brought us in that we wanted the Conductivus to judge us. But because of the magic, or abominations like you guys call it, the Sub-leader said that the councilors had to become involved. Later, we told the Coordinator in the cell block that we wanted the Conductivus, and the Sub-leader said the Coordinator would fill out a request. That you are surprised at my question tells me that he didn’t do as he promised, because I know that once a request for a Conductivus has been made, it has to be honored. Isn’t that Under-elven law?”

  I stopped, and the runners sprinted away from the stage to relay the votes and what I’d said to the crowds. On the runners’ way back, the sound of the seated Under-elves muttering to each other from afar rolled over us like a sighing wind. Havel started sputtering that we had certainly never said any such thing to him. A concerted glare from all the councilors shut him up, and the relayers were told not to report on that to the crowds.

  A sudden rolling hush started from the direction of the entrance to Central Court that we’d come in by. Everyone, including us on the stage, turned to see what was happening.

  Chapter 20

  My heart leapt in hope at the cause of the rolling silence and pushed back the fuzziness in my brain. Strolling down the path we’d taken to the stage, tall white staff keeping beat with his feet, a tall figure made his way towards us dressed in fluttering white layers. My knees went slightly weak with relief because the clothing he wore was roughly the same as the other Conductivus’, so this had to be the Kelsavaxian one! The Under-elven guards and the relayers parted for him like the Red Sea must have parted for Moses, and he ascended the black stone stairs regally. Up closer I could see this Conductivus looked a lot stronger than the Chirasnivian one, and for some reason that encouraged me. I blinked as I saw a second figure quietly ascend the stage to stop at the top of the stairs behind the fluttering form, and a smile spread across my face. It was Sub-leader Quorik. He’d kept his promise to see that the Conductivus came!

  “I have been told that my presence is required,” the figure in white said calmly, walking past where Auraus, Dusk, Ragar, Heather, Jason, and I were being held to stand in the exact middle of the semi-circle of chairs. “How fortunate to have run into Sub-leader Quorik to confirm for me what my souls have told me is going on here.”

  “Now, Conductivus, I hardly think that you need to bother yourself with these proceedings,” began the Head councilor, backing out of the center spot in the face of the other’s advance, but he didn’t finish his sentence because the Conductivus raised a very pale hand the color of his clothes to stop him.

  “You are correct, Councilor Skorvus. You hardly think,” the Conductivus said.

  Oh, burn! I thought, a smile I couldn’t stop forming on my lips.

  I caught Heather’s eye and saw she’d smiled at the insult, too.

  Skorvus looked offended as the Under-elf in white spread his arms, making the fabric fringes on his sleeves flutter. “The oldest of my friends with me are very concerned about the charges of abomination. I am here to represent them.”

  Disappointment crushed me. “Not because I’d asked for you?” I blurted out.

  He turned in a flurry of movement to face me and raised one hand commandingly just in time to stop my guard from cutting me, or doing worse.

  “That, too,” he then said to me, “or so Quorik has said. I am glad to hear it confirmed.”

  The Conductivus beckoned me to step forward. I started to, but a signal from the Coordinator to my guard made him hold me back.

  “Conductivus, please!” sputtered Havel. “The female is only saying that because she wants to delay sentencing! Can you please ignore her words and forget she ever said them?”

  The Conductivus raised an eyebrow and, disregarding Havel, looked back at Quorik. “Speak,” he said simply to the Sub-leader.

  Quorik cleared his throat, clearly uncomfortable at speaking on the stage. “It is true, councilors, that the female Surfacer asked for the Conductivus when I and my Duty Scouts captured her and her comrades outside of Kelsavax. And she did so
again when I turned her and her companions over to the Coordinator.”

  The Conductivus frowned, and relayers raced off to do their job. The extremely pale Under-elf tapped his foot with angry impatience while waiting until the runners returned, whereas Havel looked like he wished they’d never come back. As the relayers returned, the Conductivus stiffened and went perfectly still as his white pupiled eyes turned completely black. All the Under-elves on stage practically held their breath and stared at the singular-looking Under-elf in white. After about a minute had passed and nothing had happened, I started looking from being to being, hoping for an explanation.

  Dusk dared to whisper, “I think the souls are communicating with him, Lise.”

  It was a measure of the situation that the Miscere Surface-elf and the rest of us weren’t hurt in some way by the guards, as just then the Conductivus became animated again. His eyes returned to their normal state, and a look that was part irritated and part angry appeared on his face as he turned to Havel.

  “My charges are annoyed, Coordinator,” he said flatly.

  Havel’s face turned the color of dirty marshmallows.

  “I give you one chance. What is the truth of this story this–Surfacer?–says?” the Conductivus asked him. “Was I asked for by Under-elven law?”

  Councilor Skorvus broke in. “With all due respect, Conductivus, these Surfacers are not Under-elves.”

  Every Under-elf on stage gasped at the interruption by the Head councilor. This made me realize just how far above, or apart, the Conductivus was. The Conductivus turned and regarded the Head councilor like he was an insect under a microscope. Skorvus reddened but rushed on.

  “And in any event, the charges are no longer of abomination. These three Surfacers here,” the Head councilor indicated Ragar, Dusk and Auraus with a wave of his pale hand, “are slated for Art as they have been cleared of purposeful abomination—once the female has been made fingerless and tongueless, that is. These three,” he pointed at Jason, Heather, and myself, “have been discovered to be Humans! Therefore, they are on trial for the sins of humanity against the Under-elves and the sundering of the original Elven race. And as they cannot refute what happened, they are slated for immediate death. What else is there to discuss?”

  The Conductivus looked at him levelly for a moment and then turned and spoke to Havel as if the Head councilor had never said anything at all.

  “What is your reply to my question, Coordinator?” he asked.

  Behind him, Skorvus visibly deflated.

  “Errrr,” Havel hedged, looking at Skorvus for help.

  The Head councilor, tellingly, looked away.

  “You must understand, Conductivus, these Surfacers–these Humans–do not merit ….” Havel began, but the Under-elf in white cut him off.

  “Under-elven law is Under-elven law. You do not get to change it because you do not agree with it, or because you do not wish to perform your duties for a particular being, or because of whatever other reason your tiny mind seems to want to grasp. You do what you are supposed to do, or you step down. I was specifically asked for. That makes it my jurisdiction,” he said ringingly.

  I wanted to applaud him but couldn’t because my hands were still tied. The Conductivus turned away from the Coordinator to face Councilor Skorvus again.

  “But, Conductivus,” Havel said daringly behind him.

  The Conductivus whirled around, eyes going black again as he raised one hand and pointed a long, very pale finger at the Coordinator. Havel was blasted off the stage with what looked like an invisible football tackle. All of us Surfacers who could see, gasped. I remembered that Frelanfur the dragon had told us about the Conductivus being able to allow his or her energy to be tapped by the souls to do poltergeist-like things, but I’d never expected to actually see it! The ring of relayers parted to let Havel fall out of my sight, and I heard him hit the ground and cry out in pain. Once. The guards holding us released their grips and took a step backwards from each of us. The Conductivus, eyes reverting to normal again, turned back to the Head councilor.

  “Skorvus?” he asked, omitting the polite use of Skorvus’ title this time.

  “Please, Conductivus, take the floor,” the Head councilor replied in a shaken voice as he hurriedly took his seat among his fellows.

  The Conductivus went to stand center stage before turning and looking at me. “Speak,” he said.

  I looked at him blankly for a minute. There was so much to say, and I had no idea where to begin. My mouth opened and closed like a fish as I tried to figure out where to start.

  He, seeing me trying and failing to form my thoughts, offered, “Let me guide you.”

  I nodded gratefully.

  “I have been told of your capture and the journey to the cell area,” he began. “Before you tell me why you have asked for me, tell me of your background. How did you get to where the Duty Patrol found you?”

  “We were dropped off on top of a mountain somewhere up above by a dragon, who told us of a cave and tunnel that would eventually lead us down into the Sub-realms,” I replied dutifully.

  Every Under-elven eye bugged out, and even the Conductivus looked affected by my words. “A dragon, you say? Have you proof?”

  “Yes, I do.” I reached down into my boot to awkwardly pull out Frelanfur’s scale, since my hands were still tied.

  The Conductivus walked over to me and took it from my hands. He looked it over closely and then held it up for all on the platform to see. An audible “oooh” was heard around the stage, and the relayers raced away. Not long afterwards a sighing wind of “ohs” came from the stadium seats as the relayers rushed back.

  He handed it back to me. “You come with the scale of a dragon. You could have used it at any time. Why did you not?”

  “Well, we were being threatened constantly and I was afraid for my friends, but mostly because I believed the quickest way to meet up with you was to be cooperative with the Duty Patrol scouts,” I said.

  He raised a white eyebrow. “Me, specifically?”

  I nodded.

  “Why?”

  “Well, here’s where it gets complicated,” I said. “In short, I want you to talk to the Chirasnivian Conductivus and convince her to release an Under-elf named Arghen Spinnam, my Under-elven friend and mentor who originally came from the city-state of Relkanav. We believe he is currently in the Chirasnivian Art section.”

  The Conductivus frowned. “There has to be more to the story than that. Surely you would not risk death here with just that as a reason.”

  “Oh, there is,” I assured him. “You could also bring up with her the bargaining chip that you know that Chirasniv is doing something against what most Under-elves believe in.”

  “What is that?” he asked.

  “Do you want the whole explanation, or just a part?”

  “The whole,” he said without hesitation.

  I started the story of my time in this world from where Arghen, Jason and I were overlooking the cliff into the slaver keep’s backyard the very first time, having been directed there to rescue the prisoners kept there, though in self-preservation I didn’t say who directed us. I then moved on to finding out that the slaver keep of Morsca and Bascom had been established because Under-elves of Chirasniv had wanted to be able to make use of magic in their daily lives. However, since Under-elves could not use magic themselves because their ancestors had turned away from the Gods, the Chirasnivians created the Exchange—a crew of beautiful and handsome Surfacers who could wield magical items for the desires of the Under-elves at the pleasure of the rich and powerful of Chirasniv for things like dinner parties, celebrations, and the like. I told of the marital spat I’d witnessed of two long-mates coming to blows with each other over which Surfacers and magical items were to be rented for a time from the Exchange for their celebration of moving up to the Leadership Ring. I also told what I had witnessed at the Exchange, when a Surfacer’s time and a magical item had been rented to create pretty li
ghts at an Under-elven matron’s dinner party. I described the two separate chambers where the Surfacers and the magical items had been kept in the backside of the Civilian Ring. A frown appeared on the Conductivus’ face when I started speaking and grew only deeper as I went on.

  “And there you have it,” I said, winding down. “We rescued the Surfacers and the magical items from Chirasniv, but lost Arghen in the doing. But since magic isn’t really tolerated by Under-elves, or so I’d heard, we were hoping that you would help us rescue Arghen by talking with their Conductivus.” I looked half pleadingly, half hopefully, at him.

  The thunderous look on the Conductivus’ face that had grown during my storytelling remained there as the relayers raced away to do their job. Then the Conductivus’ eyes went completely black. The Under-elves around us who’d started to mutter among themselves after I’d finished went silent. Murmurs from the stands swelled and then faded as the relayers returned, and the Conductivus still hadn’t moved. I couldn’t tell you how many minutes passed before his eyes finally went back to their normal white color. His face, however, remained in a frown.

  “Her words seem to be true.”

  Everyone on and around the stage gasped in indignation and outrage.

  “Nearly all of my charges are in agreement,” he went on, speaking directly to the seated councilors. “What the Chirasnivians are doing must be dealt with. Remove your votes. They are nullified. The charges of these three Surfacers being sent to Art, and the charges for these Humans standing for the sins of Humanity, are hereby dismissed. They came here willingly and with a purpose that ultimately aligns with Under-elven society even if it was not their original purpose. I will not see them punished for bringing to our attention the fact that a whole city-state is out of covenant with Under-elven ideals. We shall prepare for war immediately.”

  Chapter 21

  A relieved and wild joy burst in my heart as the relayers raced away with the, to them, incredible news. I prayed happily to Caelestis, We aren’t going to be killed! even though I knew she wasn’t going to hear my words. But hard on the heels of that joy came the realization that it wasn’t going to just be a matter of hostage negotiation. The Kelsavaxians were jumping right into a war!