Nightfire | The Whispering Wall #1

Six: Verdict

"Is the Assembly agreed on this verdict?"

The lord's voice echoed uncomfortably loud. The hands that went up went up in silence. On the far right of the hall, a congregation of men and women in burgundy robes all but sat on their hands, glowering at the others around the room who had put them up.

"Agreed." The lord slapped the table with the strength of a gavel. Jordan jumped, even though he'd seen it coming. "The Heads will now vote. In favour of punishment, hands up."

Jordan shrank under Eril's glare as the old man's hand went up. The woman sat beside Yddris, her robes in blue and white, also raised her hand.

"In favour of innocence, hands up."

Yddris's hand went up, as did that of the woman sat on the lord's left. At the end of the row, the papery little man with the wizened face wearing robes of deep grey, whom Jordan hadn't heard speak once, raised his hand. The woman on the lord's left, so composed up until this point, openly gaped and a chorus of whisperings set up around the room, silenced instantly by the lord's hand rising.

Jordan glanced around, and found everyone's eyes on the man in grey, but if the attention bothered him it didn't show on his face.

"Agreed." A bang. "The accused are ruled innocent."

Jordan's knees turned to jelly. It was an effort to stay standing, especially in the face of the impotent rage in Eril's expression.

"When can we go home?"

Jordan turned to Grace, who was staring up the High Table with hard eyes. Then he turned to the lord, also waiting for an answer. He was more than ready to get back and dismiss this all as a terrible dream. The alternative – living with the knowledge that there more worlds out there, that things like that demon existed – was too much to contemplate.

Lord Harkenn returned her look for a long moment. "You aren't getting home."

"What?"

Jordan didn't know if he or Grace said it. He thought perhaps they both had. Or maybe he had thought it.

"But we got here," Grace said, "There must be a way back."

"Oh yes, I'm sure there is," Harkenn said. "Somewhere, somehow. There is a reason that portal you came through caused such a stir, though, girl, and that is because nobody knows how to create one. Portals that occur naturally are rare. And out of the myriad worlds each portal could connect between, how likely do you think it is that another will appear between here and the exact place and time you came from?" He made a dismissive gesture. "Miniscule. Infinitesimal. I'm afraid, girl, you're going to have to start again here."

"But..."

"This case is dismissed." Another bang on the table cut her off, and people began to get up and leave. Chairs scraped back, conversations started, and Jordan was sure everybody took at least one good long look at them as they exited. He was past caring. His brain had turned to mash and it was hard to hear what anyone was saying to him. He wasn't sure anyone even was talking to him, because one minute there was talking and the next minute Yddris was there.

"Snap out of it, boy." The man snapped his fingers in front of Jordan's face.

Jordan blinked and looked up. The rows were almost empty.

He turned to Grace, who was staring at the floor. As if she sensed him looking, she turned. There were tear tracks on her face, and when she tried to smile it failed.

"What did he mean," Jordan said blankly, "that there's no way home?"

He had been asking this over and over in his head since the Lord had said it, and he almost didn't realised he had asked it aloud until Yddris replied.