The Veil (32 page)

“Weren’t you saying, Renard, in your own opening statement that if Ms. Prescott were fully human, then Law Thirty-Seven would have to be strictly applied, regardless of how she became aware of such knowledge?” Damon Mallory demanded. “Mr. Whitting is a human—how he became aware of our world is of no consequence whatsoever. He has just told us everything he knows and so, under the law—”

“Ridiculous!” Mr. Stratton thundered. “High Councilor, using that logic, Mr. Mallory could drag dozens of unwitting humans before you, thus making them aware of our world and forcing you to execute them!”

“I didn’t drag dozens of humans before the Council,” Damon Mallory pointed out in a sickeningly calm voice. “I dragged one. And in doing so, I only confirmed the knowledge that was already in his head—knowledge Ms. Prescott put there! What better proof can I give the Council that she is a danger to us all? Even her best friend is not safe around her!”

His words hit me like a slap in the face. I could hate Damon Mallory. I could blame him all that I wanted. But regardless of anything he had done, it was my fault Nate was here now. There was no getting around the fact that if it hadn’t been for me—me and my stupid journal—Nate would be somewhere safe.

“Enough!” the high councilor’s voice boomed throughout the room. “That
is
enough. My colleagues and I will confer, and then we will deliver our verdict. Take your seats, both of you, and give Mr. Whitting back to the guards.”

The seven Inquisitors stood and gathered in a huddle behind their chairs, turning their backs to the rest of us.

Oran Tighe reluctantly allowed two gray-suited guards to take Nate back from him. They half carried him until he was exactly between the table Luc, Mr. Stratton, and I occupied, and the one where Damon Mallory sat. Oran Tighe made his way back beside his fellow accuser, and the two sat with their heads close together,
talking in excited whispers. Damon Mallory was still smiling. I dearly hoped the Council’s verdict would wipe that grin away, but suddenly I was very, very doubtful that was going to happen.

Nate’s head peered around the shoulder of the guard standing closest to our table. “Addy?” he ventured. Nate sounded scared—not as scared as he should have been, under the circumstances, but still scared. Clearly he didn’t understand what was at stake here.

“No talking during deliberations,” one of the guards snapped.

Mr. Stratton leaned across me to speak to Luc. “You know what to do after they read the verdict,” he said.

“Dad—”

“We talked about this, Lucas,” Mr. Stratton’s eyes were stern, bordering on ferocious. “If you don’t think you can handle it, then leave now.”

Luc put an arm around me and pulled me into him, yanking me half off my chair and onto his. “I’m not going
anywhere
,” he told his father.

“Then remember what we talked about. You agreed it was the only way.”

Luc just nodded, and Mr. Stratton sat back in his chair, eyes closed.

“What’s the only way?” I whispered to Luc.

“We have to let them take you,” he whispered back, so close that his lips were almost brushing my ear. “If they decide against you, that’s the only way we’ll be able to get you back.”

In spite of his words, he didn’t sound like he had any intention of actually doing that. I turned hard eyes on him. “Your father is right,” I told him in an angry whisper. “I won’t let you get hurt for me, Luc! You can’t possibly fight against the entire Council. You have to count on Gran’s boys.”

“Shhhh,” he glanced over my head at the guards on either side of Nate. “Don’t worry.”

“Promise me. Promise you’ll let them—”

I was interrupted by a loud banging sound. When I turned my head, I saw that all seven Inquisitors were lined up in front of their chairs. Everyone in the room except for Luc and me was on their feet; the banging sound had been the high councilor hitting the table and demanding that the room come to order.

Luc and I stood. I looked nervously over at Nate—my concern for myself was miles away; I was a thousand times more worried about what was going to happen to Nate than I’d ever been about what was going to happen to me.

And somehow, I was even more tormented about what would happen to Luc when he refused to let Damon Mallory take me.

——

“We have before us today an issue of great interest to many in the Annorasi world,” the high councilor began. “The only half human, half Annorasi in modern times. What to do with such a creature? We agree with Mr. Stratton that applying a law meant solely for humans seems unjust, but we also agree with Mr. Mallory that there is a danger here to the secrecy that has kept our society intact for centuries. Perhaps not so great a danger as Mr. Mallory would have us believe, but Mr. Whitting’s presence among us today brings this matter into a much more serious light.”

He turned to look sharply at me.

“We are
most
disappointed in Ms. Prescott’s lack of discretion. The existence of the Annorasi world is a most precious secret, upon which an entire way of life hinges. It is not to be taken lightly, Ms. Prescott, and your casual disregard for its importance was almost enough to convince a majority of us to rule against you—almost.”

I drew in a breath and held it as he continued.

“We feel Ms. Prescott is in a unique situation, one which our laws were not designed to address. Our choice was either to stretch our existing laws to fit this case, as Mr. Mallory invited us to do, or, to cast aside our laws completely, as Mr. Stratton urged. In the end, we chose neither of these.”

He looked directly at me again.

“Ms. Prescott, you will not be punished for your ability to see our world. We were persuaded by Mr. Stratton’s argument that doing so would fly in the face of everything this Council, and the best of our Annorasi society, stands for. We are also inclined to forgive you for your careless actions that led, however indirectly, to a human discovering the existence of our world. We find in your favor, Addison Rose Prescott, and we decline to subject you to the penalty called for under Law Thirty-Seven.”

Luc hugged me around the shoulders, and Mr. Stratton let out a very satisfied sigh.

“You will be carefully watched, Ms. Prescott,” the high councilor cautioned me. “As your Annorasi abilities develop, we will reevaluate our decision today as often as we deem necessary to safeguard the interests of the Annorasi world. If, at any time, we feel you have become or are in danger of becoming a threat to the continued secrecy of our world, we will not hesitate to subject you to the measures called for under the law. You have been warned, Ms. Prescott. Do not disappoint us.”

He paused for a moment, and I realized he was not done. When he shifted his gaze over to Nate, my stomach dropped down to my knees.

“Unfortunately,” the high councilor continued. “We can not escape the reality that there now exists a human with intimate knowledge of the Annorasi world. We agree this knowledge was acquired accidentally, and that it was furthered in large part by Mr. Mallory’s own actions in bringing this human before us today. But, as Mr. Mallory pointed out, even you, Mr. Stratton—long-time defender of humans that you are—even you admitted in our presence today that any human who acquires knowledge of the Annorasi world would be guilty on the face of Law Thirty-Seven, regardless of how that knowledge was acquired. And we agree. We hereby find Nathan Anthony Whitting guilty of knowledge as set
forth in Law Thirty-Seven, and thereby subject to the penalties thereunder.”

“N—” was all I was able to get out before Luc clamped a hand over my mouth. I saw Nate’s eyes go wide as he looked from the Inquisitors, to me, and back to the Inquisitors again. I could tell that my reaction scared him far more than the high councilor’s words. His eyes filled with fear and I started to cry; I had never felt so helpless in my entire life.

“Mr. Whitting,” the high councilor continued, “you will be given over to your accusers who will take you from this place, to a discrete location of their choosing outside of the city of San Francisco, where your sentence will be carried out.”

“What sentence?” Nate asked, looking warily over at me again.

The high councilor gave him an ever-so-slightly regretful look before standing up and filing out of the room through a side door with the rest of his red-robed brethren.

“What
sentence
?
”
Nate repeated, looking more panicked by the second. Oran Tighe walked greedily toward him and when Nate turned toward me, his eyes were wild. “
Addy! What does that mean
?”

“NATE!” I screamed in the split second that Luc let his hand slip.

Mr. Stratton stood up quickly, putting himself between Nate and me.

“Addy!” Luc swiftly pinned both of my struggling arms back, trapping them with one of his hands while still using the other to cover my mouth. “This won’t help him!” he said in my ear. “Remember what you just said to me. We
have
to let him go.”

I screamed something that came out as an unintelligible sob underneath his hand. I continued to fight him—I could think of absolutely nothing but getting to Nate—but Luc hoisted me easily out of my chair and half carried me toward the double doors in the back of the room. Mr. Stratton followed us, ready to lend a hand if Luc lost his grip on me. Over his shoulder, I saw
Damon Mallory leaving the room out of the same side door the Inquisitors had just used. Oran Tighe was right behind, dragging Nate after him.

My eyes filled with tears, and the room became an unrecognizable blur. I stopped fighting Luc and began to walk. I stumbled a bit, but I walked the rest of the way to the doors under my own power.

——

Not one of the three of us said a single word as we boarded the elevator at the end of the hall. Before the doors opened again, I had stopped crying, and my hands had balled themselves into fists at my sides.
Ding.
I marched three steps out of the doors, ahead of Luc and Mr. Stratton before I realized we were not where I expected. We hadn’t gone down to the lobby; we were on the roof.

How dare these people think they can kill Nate!

Gran was waiting for us, cell phone in hand. “My boys have them in sight,” she assured us, pausing to listen to the voice on the other end of the phone. “Damon and the others are flying, and my boys are following on the ground.”

“They’re flying with him?” I gulped, shivering as the wind whipped all around us on the unsheltered roof. Nate must be terrified. “Where are they going?”

“I don’t know yet. Don’t worry, Addy. My boys will take care of this.”

“They have to take him outside the city,” Luc explained, keeping a hand clamped on my shoulder, in case I had any ideas about going after them. “You heard the Council.”

“Yes I heard them!” I exploded suddenly, shaking his hand off. “How can they do that? How can they just sit there and decide Nate should die for something that wasn’t even his fault?”

“Addy.” Luc went to put his arms around me, but I stepped back, suddenly furious at him.

“It’s because he’s human, isn’t it?” I demanded, looking from Luc’s stunned face to his father’s calm one. “
Isn’t it
? They couldn’t
kill me because I’m one of you—half of me, anyway—but not Nate. Nate, they can kill, because he means nothing to them!”

“Addy that isn’t what happened . . .” Luc began uselessly.

“Yes it is! I hate you for this—all of you! You all claim you have the best interests of humans at heart, and yet you and every other Annorasi in the room just sat there and watched one be sentenced to death! And for what? For finding out, by accident, that you exist? What can Nate possibly do to hurt you? How is he even the slightest threat to you?”

“First of all,” Luc began levelly, “we are not just
sitting
here. We are on our way to rescue him. And second, the rule that prevents humans from knowing about us was created in order to preserve the humans, not us.”

“Preserve them? How, by
executing
them? How many humans has your kind killed over the centuries, Luc? And all the time you claim to be protecting them.”

“We don’t have time for this, Addy,” Mr. Stratton broke in. “Later, you and I will sit down, and I’ll explain to you the importance of having such a law. I’ll tell you about all of the times in history when humans have discovered us and been horribly taken advantage of by our kind—yes,
our
kind, Addy,” he threw in when I opened my mouth to object. “You
are
one of us, whether you like it or not. And our history of interacting with the human race is not something we’re proud of. Do you really think those stories humans have about making deals with the devil came out of nowhere? Someday I will tell you why the law is what it is—someday, Addy, but not today. Not when we have more important things to deal with.” He turned and took Gran’s arm, leading her away from Luc and me.

Luc reached out for me again, but I turned my back on him; I was too angry to worry about how unfair I was being.

“Look,” he said from behind me, his voice a bit sharper than usual. “I know you’re upset, Addy, and you have every right to be. But this is not our fault—certainly not
my
fault. We’re going to do
everything in our power to rescue Nate before anything happens to him—what about that isn’t good enough for you?”

“Sure, you’ll rescue him,” I turned around, furious again. “But only because of his connection to me. What if you didn’t know me? What would happen to him then? He’d be just another human to you. You wouldn’t be rushing to his rescue then, would you? If it wasn’t for me—”

“If it wasn’t for you,” Luc said slowly, carefully, “I wouldn’t have to be running to Nate’s rescue at all, because he wouldn’t be in any danger. There would be nothing for me to rescue him from.”

That
stopped me dead in my tracks.

Luc’s eyes widened. He stepped forward too quickly for me to stop him and wrapped his arms around me, crushing my head into his chest. I wouldn’t have stopped him anyway; I could no longer remember why I’d been yelling at him in the first place. Why was I blaming anyone but myself right now?