The Rossem Project

Departure - Part 3

     They were granted an interview with the Elders of Haven later that week.

     Derrin was given a day off school to go with his parents to the Silver City. He'd only been to the city half a dozen times in his short life, and he stared around in wonder at the artfully decorated stone buildings rising three or four storeys above the bustling, crowded streets. High bridges arched gracefully over the sparkling clear waters of the river, and the wide avenues were lined with trees and colourful flower beds. The city had several green spaces where children and elderly humans sat on long wooden benches to watch squirrels hunt for the last of the winter nuts, and birds sang in the trees and flowering bushes.

     In the centre of the city rose the crystal towers, some of which belonged to administration buildings but which mostly belonged to the palace itself. Thomas knew that they were only there for their looks, that they served no practical purpose, but each one had a room at the top accessed by a levitation shaft below. The largest and tallest, rising from the very centre of the palace, contained the bedchamber and private rooms of the Queen and her consort and had a balcony from which she could look out across the whole valley. She was rarely seen there, though, preferring to use the much lower balcony above the palace’s main entrance whenever she needed to be seen on state occasions.

     Derrin, who had been too young to appreciate it on his previous visits, gaped in wonder and delight at every new sight. It was a wonder shared by Thomas, who'd known the city only a couple of years longer than his son, and Lirenna beamed with the pride of ownership, feeling that she was showing off 'her' city to the two people she loved most in all the world. She'd had nothing to do with the creation or growth of the city and, in fact, had visited it scarcely more often than her husband and son, preferring the open countryside with its forests, grasslands and wild, unpredictable weather, but the fact that she'd lived in Haven for the first sixty years of her life made her feel that she belonged to it, and it to her, more than either of the others. She knew it was nonsense, of course, but it was nevertheless too strong to deny and she felt a glow of pleasure and pride with every word and cry of delight that Thomas and Derrin uttered.

     The city's principle road, a wide avenue with a line of trees and shrubbery along its centre and strips of open parkland on either side, led straight towards the palace itself, a fairytale structure that seemed to consist entirely of the onion topped towers; tall around the outside but even taller near the centre, fluttering with flags and pennants and glowing with a soft, pearly radiance caused by wizardly illusion spells. The Hall of the Elders stood about a hundred yards from it, on the north side of Palace Avenue, and was scarcely less impressive with its representations of the founders of Haven, carved out of the local mountain rock, on either side of the large, oaken double doors that formed the building's main entrance. A doorman, splendid in his smart, colourful uniform, checked their names against a list and then stood aside to let them in, holding the door for them as he did so.

     The building was far smaller than would have been needed by most other nations of Haven's size, since the secret valley had little need for administration. Every town and village had its own council, elected by the locals from among their own number, and they took care of all local business, leaving the Elders free to concentrate on those matters that affected the valley as a whole. The so called Hall of the Elders was, in fact, the Silver City town hall, from which the city itself was governed, and the Elders themselves only occupied a small group of rooms at the back of the ground floor. An usher directed them towards these rooms and told them to knock and wait.

     The door was opened by another doorman who led them to the main conference room, the room in which the Elders met people on business matters. The Elders themselves would sit on a row of seven large, wooden chairs on the other side of a long, wooden table, and about twenty smaller chairs were piled up against the opposite wall, indicating the normal size of the delegations that came to see them. Three of the chairs had been lined up ready for them on their side of the long table and they took their places on them, with Derrin in the middle.

     There was a plain wooden door in the wall behind the seven large chairs, and from the room beyond they heard muffled voices talking over something in low, serious tones, punctuated by the occasional chuckle of amusement. The voices sounded old and wise, and they guessed that it was the Elders themselves, finishing some minor piece of business before coming to see them. One of the voices sounded vaguely familiar and Thomas guessed that it was Moeslo, one of the Elders he'd met before. He felt reassured. He was glad they wouldn't be talking to complete strangers. He liked Moeslo, and was confident that he'd listen to their request with compassion and understanding.

     In the meantime, though, there was nothing to do but sit and wait, and Thomas found himself looking at the seven large, wooden chairs. He'd been in this room before and had seen those chairs before, but all of a sudden he felt he was seeing them in a slightly different way. In his mind, another image seemed to be forming, an image triggered by its similarity to this room. Seven thrones, all in a row. Just like the chairs of the Elders but larger, much more magnificent, and all different colours. All apparently made of coloured glass. Semi-transparent and opaque below a couple of inches of their surfaces. No, not glass, he realised. Gemstones! Each throne was carved out of a single giant gemstone...

     "Tom?" said Lirenna, her voice carrying a note of concern as she reached behind Derrin's head to touch his shoulder. "Is anything wrong?"

     "Uh?" said Thomas with a sudden start. He glanced at her, past Derrin's astonished face, and then looked back at the seven chairs. The vision, if that's what it had been, had vanished, and they were just ordinary wooden chairs again. He looked back at Lirenna, intending to give her a reassuring explanation that would put her mind at rest and give him a chance to figure out what was happening to him, but before he could speak the door opened and two of the Elders entered.

     One of them was indeed Moeslo, as they'd hoped and expected. He was the eldest of the Elders and popularly considered to be the wisest of them. He walked with the aid of a wooden cane, his back bent and his snow white hair thinning to reveal a liver spotted scalp, but his eyes were still bright with intelligence and his voice had the strength to make younger men shut up and listen. He doubled as the Queen's chief advisor, and it was said that she consulted with him before making any important decision.

     The other man was taller but thinner and had a half starved look. The shape of his skull was clearly visible beneath the thinly stretched skin and every knuckle stood out on his long, thin fingers. Looking at his hands, Thomas could almost imagine them to be the hands of a strangler. It was so easy to imagine those fingers slipping around someone's throat and squeezing, squeezing... But there was no coldness or malice on his face and there was even the trace of a smile on his thin lips, as if he knew the effect his appearance was having on them and was vaguely amused by it. Thomas found himself returning the smile, more out of embarrassment than anything else and, not for the first time, he chided himself for his overactive imagination. Poor man, he thought. Can't help how he looks. He's probably the nicest man in the whole valley once you get to know him.

     Thomas and his family stood as they entered, but Moeslo waved them to sit again. "Good morning," he said as he took his own seat, the central of the seven chairs. The other man took the seat to his left. "You know me, we've met before, and this is Gantry, my good friend and colleague.”

     “Thank you for agreeing to see us,” said Thomas. “I know how busy you must be.”

     “Not as busy as you might think, actually,” the Elder replied. “This valley pretty much runs itself. Now then. Dallon has given us the essentials of what you wanted to speak to us about, but before we go any further perhaps you could tell us yourselves, in your own words, including any details that the inestimable Dallon may have omitted."

     He then sat back in his chair, or as far back as his curved spine would allow, and the two Elders fixed their gazes on the two wizards, waiting expectantly. Thomas and Lirenna glanced at each other nervously, then cleared their throats and began speaking.