Mayer Alan Brenner - Spell of Intrigue

“Give me the light, will you?” said Karlini. Haddo unhooded the lantern and passed it over.

“Good for you is not present Roni,” Haddo observed.

“Why is that?”

“Filth,” said Haddo succinctly. This place had obviously not been visited in years. Dust had covered every possible surface, as well as the tube that led down through the gap in the floor into the bowels of the Hall. Of course, much of that dust was now in the air, and most of the rest was covering Karlini.

“Who cares about a little grime? Did you finish rewinding the door mechanism?”

“As told you I when last time you asked, is still answer yes.” Once they’d packed themselves into the room and cast about with the lantern, the first feature they’d discovered was the windlass crank on the floor just in front of the revolving door element; its function had become clear when the door had begun to slow significantly and make sproinging sounds after its third trip around.

“What’s keeping him down there?” Karlini mumbled, sliding the small panel on the inner wall aside again and applying his eye to the peephole. Ahead of him and below, the circular Council hall beneath the domed rotunda was beginning to fill. The buzz of aisleway conversation was clearly apparent.

“Without Favored,” Haddo said, “would be here none of us.”

“I had something to do with it, too, if you’ll remember.”

“If had not known Favored Fabricator who this building built -”

“Yeah, all right, but if he doesn’t stop that banging, he may have gotten us here but we’re not going to be here real long either before somebody finds us.” Karlini closed the viewing panel and flopped down to the floor again. “At least hold down the noise, will you?” he muttered into the vent.

The voice of Favored-of-the-Gods floated faintly out of the duct. “Give me a break, will you? I’ve never even seen this stuff before, and it probably hasn’t moved in the last thousand years anyway. Where the hell’s that motor oil?”

“If they hear you out there-”

“Shut up already - I told you I’m working on it!”

“Quiet!” Haddo hissed at Karlini. “To this listen!” Karlini held his breath. From outside the hidden door, he could clearly hear the tramp of feet trudging up the stairs. Toward their position?

Toward them, yes, but then without a hesitation past them as well. The steps faded out above, still tracking around to the right. “Didn’t Julio say no one ever came up here?” Karlini said. “The only thing higher than us in this place is supposed to be that observation deck.”

Haddo seemed about to say something but was superseded as a clatter of parts echoed up the tube, followed by an incensed “Yeouch!” Karlini winced, and not in sympathy either. “He’s not finished and they’re starting out there,” said Karlini. “They’re not just going to think it’s rats.”

“Busy will be debate. Over talk nothing will they hear.”

Karlini clasped his hands behind his back and tried to pace, but one step brought him face-to-face with the farther wall. “We can’t just sit here doing nothing,” he grumbled to it.

“Know you spell of soundproofing?” Haddo suggested.

***

Haalsen Groot had made his share of dramatic entrances into this august hall and flamboyant gestures on its floor, but for him this was a whole new category. The members were not yet at their seats along the curved benches surrounding the central Pit of Debate, but they had arranged themselves in their habitual clumps in the aisles, around the punch bowls and water barrel, in the Pit itself, and along the entranceway, and a few small clusters were still hanging about in the corridor outside, too, having yet to straggle through the door themselves. The loiterers were thus the ones privileged to catch the first sight of Groot and his escort, of whom there were a generous ten: four before him and four after, and one on either side holding the chains to the closest arm and leg. Between their police sashes, their tall caps, their swords, and the four halberds just surrounding him to front and rear, the escort made its own statement of power coercively applied and officiously maintained; this much Groot had expected. The challenge that had confronted him was which statement would be best to make for himself.

He had been initially of two minds. One approach, certainly the mainstream one and perhaps also the safest, would have been to appear meek and innocuous, neatly groomed and conservatively garbed, as one who could present no threat to the smallest creature, let alone a great city such as Oolsmouth; in short, to remind the members of the Council before a word was spoken that he was one of them, torn unfairly and most heinously from their midst. Julio’s politicking on his behalf and that of the lawyer Snee, though, had already made those points. Further, Groot in his time had been many things, but meek and innocuous had not typically been among them. Donning that particular mantle of martyrdom, then, might have seemed a little too ingenuous of him. His fellow Councillors were a tricky lot themselves, whether merchants, citizens’ representatives, or ruffians-at-large - the last thing he wanted was to have them think he was trying to hoodwink them . On the other hand, the other principal approach, while none the less histrionic in its own right, held out the attraction of the power of shock appeal.

Accordingly, he had uncovered the gash on his cheek for the occasion, and had let more than a hint of the dried blood remain smeared on his face as well. His clothes were torn and grimy. His hair showed that although he had tried to comb it, the circumstances had been unfavorable, and he had also managed to miss certain areas of filth when washing his hands and face. The effect was hopefully that of someone trying to make himself presentable through adversity that was not his fault, someone who has been dramatically and unrightfully put upon. He had been pleased to discover that he harmonized quite appropriately with the picture cut by his escort. The group of them, then, presented in one easily captured image the quintessence of man caught up by the wheels of rogue authority. Or at least that was the idea.

Faces turned toward them, conversation stilled, jaws opened or lips pursed, as the bunch of them marched through, Groot clanking in his chains. When they came out of the anteroom into the Council chamber itself and started down the aisle, Groot saw that an area had been set aside in the Pit next to the central lectern of the presiding Speaker, an area with an elevated display box for him to stand in, surrounded by enough space for his entire troop of guards. After a quick consultation with the Doorkeeper, the commander of the guard detachment led them out into the Pit and installed each one in their assigned place.

Actually, Groot’s escort had really numbered eleven: the ten guards from the police, and Eelmon, who had been drifting along behind them dogging their steps and generally keeping his eye on things, not that there seemed to be much he could do if anything went sour but run for help. Julio, too, had been waiting in the corridor as they’d passed. He’d pulled Eelmon aside for a brief consultation, after which Eelmon had disappeared down a side turning and Julio had followed Groot and the guards into the Council chamber.

As the members left their eddies of conversation and filed into the benches, Groot made a point of trying to fix as many of them as possible with his gaze during the moments when they glanced in his direction. Those Councillors Julio had tallied for him during their last consultation session in his cell all appeared to be present - there was Darkan, of course, and Penn Galtick, and Queeling the Procrastinator, and even old Caloot, but where was Dooglas? Snee the lawyer had his head together with Julio’s, the two of them punctuating their deliberation by nods here and there in the direction of certain Council members. Then Snee nodded reassuringly to Julio himself and made his way toward the Speaker, who was mounting his pulpit. They exchanged their own few words before Snee crossed over to sit at a small table next to Groot’s compartment as the Speaker called the session to order.