The Lanx

For night owls shriek, where mounting larks should sing." -William Shakespeare

"Well, aren't we the popular one?"

A short, compact girl with sleek blond hair eased her way into Monty's small allotment of space. A small wren perched on her head announced her arrival with a melodious whistle. Seth, who was nearest the entry, saw the crown of flared willow leaves the girl wore and tried to crush himself out of the way. He only succeeded in curling his lanky frame up into a vaguely ridiculous-looking ball. Julie shuffled sideways, and the girl squeezed expertly into the space left beside Monty. She was carrying a small cloth bag with moisture stains on it.

Moving with efficiency, the Medic pulled a handful of what appeared to be soaking leaves out of the bag and twisted them into a clump so that the liquid ran into their tips. She held the bundle over Monty's lips.

Monty started to attention so quickly that Julie suspected maybe he had never really been asleep. She wondered how much of their conversation he had heard.

She wondered if Monty knew, or guessed, how Fayola felt about him. And if he felt the same.

"Relax," the Medic said in an amiable voice. "It's the same infusion we gave you an hour ago. It'll help clear your mind after the concussion."

Monty smacked his lips and made an eloquent face. "I can see why," he croaked. "It tastes like scum."

"You patients," the girl said with an amused head-shake, repacking the leaves in her bag. "So ungrateful. Why should we even bother?" She grinned at them and winked. She seemed to find nothing unusual about so many mismatched people crowding around Monty's pallet.

When the Medic had told Monty that she'd return in a while to check on him and artfully slipped out again, the injured Silva looked balefully at Fayola again. "So, you aren't going to change your mind?"

"I can't," Fayola said softly. "Sorry."

Emil made a low, sad sound that reminded Julie of wind moaning through tree branches. The mockingbird listlessly groomed some of Monty's hair.

"Well," Monty sighed. "I guess all I can tell you is good luck. Are you intending to bring the case against my brother without my being there?"

"I'm not going to bring it without you," Fayola snorted. "That would be stupid. "I'm just going to submit it. Get the technical stuff out of the way."

Monty made a soft moaning sound that didn't seem to be related to his injury. "Fay…you're so calm about this. Do you understand what you're doing? Do you understand what this is going to do to the Silva, to Tamal? What are you suggesting they do to him if they find him guilty?"

Fayola looked away, staring at the wood wall of the branch. Mercury ruffled his feathers and ducked his head into the hollow of his shoulders as if trying to disappear.

"What do you want me to suggest, Monty?" she finally asked quietly.

Monty was quiet, looking up at the ceiling.

"Honestly," Fayola said, her voice gaining a slightly sharp edge. "Tell the truth."

"There's something wrong with me." Monty's voice was very, very soft.

Julie blinked. That comment had come out of nowhere.

"What?" Fayola's head came back around and she did look at Monty. "What are you babbling about?"

"Fay…I want my brother expelled. I want to see him suffer. And that's sick." He was almost whispering. "I'm no better than him. No one should ever want their own blood kin expelled…that's like hoping someone ends up Bondless. It's horrible. I'm horrible."

Mercury flapped his wings suddenly, a burst of frantic movement. Fayola bit her lip. "Scum, Monty," she whispered. "You're the calmest, gentlest person I know. He's the one who's sick. No one should ever want to hurt their blood kin like that; but he does. He's a bully, but he's a bully who could cause serious damage someday. Better to get rid of him before that happens. Better to get rid of him before all the forest fires of hell break out." Her face hardened. "And if you want him expelled, I'll get him expelled."

Julie shivered at the force of her promise. She knew that Fayola would do everything in her power to keep it.

"Well sworn," Seth murmured, very low in his throat. Julie wondered if anyone had even been meant to hear it.

Monty didn't look completely comforted. "Guess you'd better get going then," he muttered flatly. He awkwardly turned on his side so that his back was to them in an obvious dismissal.

Fayola looked pained. She leaned over Monty, and for just a second Julie thought she was going to kiss him. But she only touched him gently on the shoulder, and then rose, ducking a little at the low ceiling.

"Let's go." Her voice had sharpened again. Julie wondered if she would ever get used to Fayola's swings of personality.

They squeezed back out into the narrow corridor to walk single file, Fayola out in front this time. They descended the winding steps down the main trunk, nodding politely to Medics, both male and female, that passed them. Julie noticed that while the appearances of the Medics were just as diverse as the rest of the Silva, they all had features in common. They were all just slightly older than the average ordinary Silva Julie had seen so far. They all had soft faces with bright eyes and hardly any sharp angles to their features. And they all possessed a kind of calming aura; the same kind that Julie had noticed in many of the village elders and healers back home. These people were perfect for their calling.

They passed back through the main "lobby" of the tree, where Fayola nodded to the girl behind the desk, Valerie. She gave the four of them an odd look, and then returned to the papers before her. Behind her, the young boy named Corty strode back and forth, perpetually marking on the wall chart with his duck bond waddling right at his heels.

Fayola paused right before the threshold of the tree's entrance. The tall boy with the sparrow bond was still guarding, or greeting as the case might have been.

"This is where it gets complicated," Fayola said softly. "The Medics wouldn't protest about you three. But the other Silva…I don't know if you'll be recognized or not. If you are, you're going to need to let me do the talking."

"Will that help?" Luke asked skeptically.

"It'll have to," Fayola told him grimly. "I'll claim you as witnesses. It's the only thing that might protect you. It doesn't matter how much the Silva hate your guts; they'll think twice before they mess with recorded witnesses of the Lanx."

"I feel so much better," was Luke's response. He even managed to keep most of the sarcasm out of the comment.

"Okay then." Fayola blew a breath out and reached up to touch Mercury on her shoulder, as if for luck. "Heads down, no talking. Be inconspicuous."

"It's my middle name," said Seth seriously. Corax tapped the side of the thief's head with his beak.

"Seth's middle name is not 'i-con-stick-u-us.' Seth's middle name is—"

"I didn't mean it like that, fluffhead," Seth shot at his bond. "Remind me that your next speech lesson is going to be human sayings."

Julie shot a quick glance over her shoulder. The Medic Valerie was most definitely looking at them intently now; Julie thought she might have noticed Corax talking.

Fayola saw too. "Time to go."

Walking in single-file, the four of them left the Medics' tree, with Fayola leading them. The Silva healer at the entrance nodded politely to them as they passed.

Wordlessly, Fayola led the way across the clearing and into thicker trees. Julie tried to keep her eyes focused on Luke's heels, as he was walking in front of her. She looked up in surprise when she heard rustling though.

Fayola was climbing into the lower branches of a tree. When she looked back and saw them hesitating, she made an impatient sound. "Honestly! I'll stay to the low cover. Climb, already!"

Awkwardly, Julie eased herself up behind Luke, trying to use the same handholds he did. She hated to admit it, but her upper body strength was woefully useless for this kind of thing. She was a quick runner and a fair fighter, but something told her she'd never be a climber.

They made painfully slow progress across the Silva's domain, and Julie could tell it was driving Fayola nuts. She kept doubling back, bounding from tree to tree with a kind of nervous energy, giving them disgusted looks when she saw how far behind the "groundcrawlers" were. Seth could probably have kept pace with the Silva easily, but to his credit and Julie's immense gratitude, he stayed back with her and Luke instead.

The good thing was that there didn't seem to be many Silva in the trees. Those that did pass gave the strange foursome cursory looks of mild interest, or shouted jeering remarks about their climbing skills, but they didn't seem to recognize them as criminals.

Julie was almost beginning to hope that they'd make it through unnoticed and unchallenged.

No such luck, of course.

"Fayola?" yelled a strident voice suddenly from over their heads. "Who's that with you?" Julie thought she could almost place the voice.

Fayola stopped, her hands tightening on the branch. Julie could see the tension in her shoulders. She paused, and then called, "Witnesses. We're going to the Lanx. Can't stop to talk, Orinda."

Orinda. The girl Silva who had been one of the guards set to watch Luke and Seth after they'd been captured. The one who had carried Luke to the APO on her back.

"Fay…do you realize who they are?" Orinda's voice had abruptly become icy. Julie knew they were caught. Now she had to trust in Fayola.

"They're groundcrawlers," Fayola said dismissively.

"Fay, they're prisoners! I heard Tamal ordered them into the Laburnum Prison, no visitors, no lenience! How did you get them out?"

The branch quaked abruptly. Julie lifted her head to see that Orinda, along with her bluejay bond Cyan, had descended to their level. The brown-haired girl now stood stubbornly in front of Fayola, looking both stricken and furious. "What's wrong with you?" she demanded.

"I need them," said Fayola levelly. "Besides, I believe they're innocent. I'm willing to trust them long enough to go before the Lanx."

"Fay…what on Rathya for?" Orinda looked aghast.

"Against Zephyr," said Fayola grimly. "He's broken the last branch, Orinda. I don't have time to explain." She made as if to move past Orinda, and was firmly blocked.

"Fayola, you'd better explain what you're doing with three top-security prisoners on your way to put Zephyr Silvason before the Lanx," Orinda growled.

Fayola looked angry for a moment, and then grim. "Sorry, Orinda. It's not personal," she said softly, her dark eyes flashing.

With a shrill cry, Mercury launched himself off Fayola's shoulder and shot at Cyan like a bullet. The jay erupted into hoarse, screaming cries, blue wings beating frantically as he tussled with the small hawk in the air. Orinda gave a shout of alarm and fury. Fayola watched impassively as Mercury performed a virtual aerial ballet around the blue jay, beating him down with beak and wings, but not actually striking.

Julie watched with a mixture of horror and awe. It was a classic fight; two birds battling it out in representation of their bonds' wills.

Finally, in a flurry of feathers, Cyan was beaten. He fled to Orinda's shoulder, squawking like mad. She murmured to him soothingly, and then looked up at Fayola. Her eyes were furious, but resigned. Slowly and deliberately, she moved aside so they could pass.

"I hope you know what you're doing, Fay," she said resentfully.

"Monty's with the Medics being treated for a head wound, he no longer has glasses, and every other inch of him is turning black and blue. Trust me, Orinda, I know what I'm doing." And with that, Fayola breezed past the other Silva. Julie, Luke, and Seth hurried in her wake, not daring to look Orinda in the face.

"We have to move," Fayola said sharply, speeding up subtly. There was an urgency to her movements now that the other three picked up on. "She'll go report this, you can be sure of that. I just seriously humiliated her, maybe unforgivably."

Julie knew they could be in real danger now. They were in the midst of a whole forest full of bandits who thought them spies and traitors, and only one person who was in a position to protect them. Those weren't good odds. And now that the alarm would soon be raised…they were working against time itself now.

They forged onwards, and Julie was aware that the foliage was starting to thin. From her limited experience in the forest, that had to mean that a clearing was getting near. Which meant that maybe they were approaching their destination. Julie shoved aside a branch, and stumbled out into the open. She nearly slipped off the branch at what she saw.

Julie, look! Icarus shrilled in her mind.

As if she could do anything but look.

The tree before them rivaled the size of the APO, and that was saying something. It reared hundreds of feet into the sky, its branches spreading upward and outward like wings. Where the huge Silva oak had stuck its limbs out sturdily sideways, this tree seemed to be trying to connect to the sky. Ironically enough, though, it was its root system that was most massive. It bulged out over the ground in a lumpy tangle, making the base of the trunk look swollen. Then it thinned abruptly as it swept up into the upper limbs. The leaves grew on it in swathes, so there were stretches of bare branch broken by scarves of bright green here and there. Julie had never seen a tree like it.

"It's amazing," said Seth, who was craning his head back to inspect the highest branches.

"The Lanx Cypress," said Fayola grimly. Apparently the tree did not hold a sense of wonder for her.

Luke was also watching the top of the tree, but with a very different expression from Seth. He looked slightly nervous. "Please don't tell me the Lanx are all the way up there," he muttered, looking sidelong at Fayola.

She snorted. "Don't worry, groundcrawler. I won't make you go up in the scary trees. No, the Lanx are right in front of us." She pointed to the massive root structure and the thick base of the trunk.

Julie squinted, and realized that there were two human figures guarding a yawning black hole into the roots. She swallowed.

"Now or never," said Fayola resolutely. Mercury whistled softly. The lean Silva hopped down the last ten feet from her branch and started picking her way across the clearing, her back straight.

"Follow her lead," Seth hissed softly. "Don't show fear. I've got no good feelings about this." He pressed gently past Julie and sprang down, as lightly as the first time he'd landed in Luke and Julie's camp over a week ago. Then he fell in behind Fayola.

Seth being nervous was not good for Julie's own nerves. Shivering slightly, she ran two fingers across Icarus's back as she scrambled awkwardly to the forest floor. A moment later, a heavy thump behind her told her Luke was following.

As they approached the cypress, Julie got a better look at the guards. One male, one female. But they were a far cry from the young man who stood outside the Medics' tree. Both were heavily muscled, and they wore two thin strips of metal crisscrossing their tunic shirts. Each of them had a weapon clearly in evidence; the girl palmed a wicked looking knife almost as long as Seth's dirk, and the boy held a crude but deadly-looking spear upright beside him. Even their bird bonds told her what kind of people these were. One was a Great-Horned Owl with its eyes hooded so that it appeared to be perpetually glaring, and the other a huge dark brown bird that Julie thought was called a steppe eagle. Both had wicked talons and dark looks in their eyes. Their human bonds mirrored their stiff glares.

As Fayola got close, both shifted slightly to let her know that she would not pass them unchallenged. Fayola slowed her pace, keeping her expression carefully neutral. She stopped a few steps from the guards and Julie, Luke, and Seth stopped even further away. Julie absolutely did not want to provoke these two. They looked like the epitome of fierce bandits.

Fayola spoke, her voice sounding unnaturally loud in the silence. "I am Fayola R. Silvadaughter, bonded partner of the merlin Mercury. I come before the Lanx to submit a case against Zephyr S. Silvason, bonded partner of the golden eagle Saturn, for violent conduct against various Silva, the foremost being Montague T. Silvason, bonded partner of the mockingbird Emil." She stepped stiffly aside so Julie, Luke, and Seth were in full view, and added just as formally, "I bring also three witnesses in support of my case; Julie Naya, bonded partner of the gyrfalcon Icarus, Luke Beroli, bonded partner of the eagle owl Athena, and Seth, bonded partner of the raven Corax."

The guards didn't move, even though Julie thought Fayola's recitation sounded like the politest and most formal way possible of summarizing the situation. The eyes of the male guard focused on Julie, and she tried not to shudder. She could almost feel Icarus looking stonily back from her shoulder, and that gave her some courage.

"They are not Silva." The boy's voice was rough and unyielding; there was no friendliness in it whatsoever.

Fayola lifted her chin. "There is no law that forbids outsiders from standing as witnesses."

The two guards exchanged narrow-eyed glances, as if each wanted the other to speak up and contradict Fayola. Neither did. Finally, they each took a step back, relaxing their positions just enough to let Julie know they had passed. Somehow, it didn't make her feel much better. The darkness of the cypress's roots loomed before them.

"Know that if you do harm within the seat of the Lanx, you will be shown no mercy," intoned the female guard in a flat voice.

Fayola just nodded curtly and beckoned with a curl of her fingers for the three of them to follow her. Julie swallowed and followed the Silva girl between the guards and into the tangled root system that housed the justice-givers of the Silva.

"What exactly do we do now?" whispered Seth ahead of her, as the shadows of the roots advanced on them. Julie felt like she was being swallowed by some huge monster. Even Seth's whisper echoed eerily into the dark, becoming almost a hiss.

"I present myself to the council of the Lanx," Fayola whispered back in a clipped tone. "I ask them to grant me a hearing. They tell me when to come back, and who to bring. That's it…for now." Her voice made it clear that she didn't want them to ask any more questions, or even speak at all. That was fine with Julie. She just hoped nothing happened that would give Seth or Luke cause to run their mouths; from everything she'd heard, she'd been building the Lanx up to a group of people beyond even Tamal. These were the people the Silva came to when even their leaders couldn't solve their problems. She wondered whether they were chosen, or elected, or just took the positions, the same way Tamal "became" the leader according to Monty. And if they were chosen…what were the qualifications? Great wisdom? A sense of fairness? Or maybe ruthlessness? Julie shivered. There had to be a dark side to these powerful judges, or they wouldn't be spoken of with such a mixture of reverence and fear.

The tunnel through the roots narrowed, the ceiling lowering until Julie was nearly scraping her head on the damp clods of earth. The air smelled thick and musty. The roots wove in and out of the walls like fat brown snakes, adding to the eeriness. Corax croaked, his raspy call rolling off the dirt. Seth murmured something under his breath to his bond.

"Remember," breathed Fayola. "Don't speak, unless they speak to you. And you'd better hope they don't."

Julie felt a sudden urge to grab for Luke, who had following her the whole way. She needed a rock right now, even if that rock was just as terrified as she was.

Better not, Icarus said gently in her mind. Think how it will look to these people if you walk in clutching onto some boy's arm like a silly maiden. Walk for yourself. I am here. His mind voice softened. I know you fear. But we will protect you.

Julie nodded slightly to let him know she understood. She felt a hand brush the nape of her neck for just a second before lifting away. A surge of gratitude rocked her. Luke knew how she felt. Icarus was right. As long as Luke and Athena were here, no Silva judge, however frightening, was going to hurt her.

And then they walked into the hall of the Lanx.

It startled Julie. She'd been expecting some big ornate door, or a threshold they'd have to cross, maybe even more guards. But in the end, they simply emerged into the hall.

The walls curved up to make a vaguely circular chamber, and the ceiling was where the trunk of the tree began. The wall seemed to be alive with roots, writhing so thickly in the walls they looked like netting. Several large ones hung in tendrils from the ceiling. Hundreds of Silva lanterns lined shelves dug into the walls, lighting the entire hall almost as bright as day, but with a cloudier light. One massive root, like a huge artery, ran straight through the chamber, from side to side, forming a kind of natural bench. On the front of the root was carved an immense depiction of a bald eagle spreading its wings. Above it was a phrase in the old language; That again! Julie thought. Tamal's passion for this strange dialect seemed to be everywhere. The words read: Operor non reputo, sentio.

And then, Luke's strangled sound of shock tore her attention completely from their surroundings. It surprised her that she'd been so fixated on the room, to the point where she hadn't even been looking for the people they'd come to see. But it wasn't hard to overlook them, at first glance.

The Lanx sat on the huge natural bench made from the root, just as Julie had seen the village elders sit when they passed judgment back in the village. There were twelve of them, as Fayola had said; six female and six male. They sat cross-legged, and they wore robes rather than the bark-colored tunics of the other Silva. The robes were still brown, but they were more of a creamy color. But their clothing was the least interesting thing about them.

Because the Lanx…were children.

Julie's brain sped into overdrive as she mentally calculated their ages. It was hard to be precise, but not one of them looked over eleven. Julie would swear on Icarus that the smallest, a chubby blond girl, was only six. Each of them had an eagle bond; there were several different species represented, but Julie could tell from the size that all of them were eagles.

For one insane moment, Julie thought Fayola had played a joke on them. She had brought them to some kind of daycare center, or a school for the Silva's younger members. The judges, the feared Lanx who passed judgment when even Tamal couldn't come up with a solution…they couldn't possibly be little kids.

But Fayola stomped her left foot lightly on the earth floor, and then bowed from the waist. Julie, Luke, and Seth were too stunned to follow suit.

Ic, what's going on? Julie demanded shakily.

I do not know, Julie. This is strange. Watch Fayola; she must know something we don't. The time for questions is later.

On the root bench, one of the boys swiveled his head in their direction. He was the oldest as far as Julie could tell, maybe ten years old. He had fair hair and a face that was just barely starting to lose its childish padding. His bond perched erect on his shoulder; a juvenile bald eagle whose white head feathers hadn't grown in yet. The boy's face wore a carefully neutral expression, just as the other eleven did.

"Who are you? And why have you come?"

It sounded…absurd…to hear a young, not-yet-broken voice pronounce those formal words. It was like a child trying to playact, trying to be serious. And yet Julie got the ominous feeling that none of them were playing. Fayola's response was even more chilling and jarring.

"My name is Fayola R. Silvadaughter, bonded partner of the merlin Mercury, Lanxman. I humbly come to beg a hearing to bring one of my fellows to justice."

That was when Julie realized that the boy wasn't looking at Fayola. He was gazing in her general direction, but his eyes were actually fixed on a point slightly above her head. And that was when she saw the telltale blue-gray gleam, even from where she stood.

The boy was blind.

With a chill, Julie's eyes flickered to the other members of the Lanx. And she saw what she had feared. Every single one of the twelve had blank, unseeing eyes. They were all blind.

Julie resisted the overwhelming urge to run from the room. This was somehow more terrifying than everything she'd been building up in her mind. Because it was so…wrong. Twelve blind children who sat in judgment over people two or three times their age, people who treated them with the utter reverence Fayola was showing. Why?

"You may state the tenets of your case," the boy said calmly. The heads of the other Lanx had turned now too, all of them regarding the four people who had entered their hall.

Julie's blood was roaring in her ears. Children like this should be playing, daring each other to climb trees or acting out stories from Rathya's past. Not acting like this, not talking like this. She longed to speak with Seth or Luke, but all her attention was riveted on the proceedings.

"I wish to bring Zephyr S. Silvason to trial for committing violent acts against his fellow Silva Offendo," Fayola said calmly. "I have three witnesses willing to stand with me, as well as a direct victim who is healing from wounds inflicted by Zephyr as we speak."

"These are the three you've brought with you?" said a girl with silky brown hair who looked no older than eight and had a young golden eagle bond on her shoulder. Her voice was still warm and youthful, and Julie, who still expected one of the Lanx to ask them if they wanted to play a game any moment, was startled yet again by the formal delivery of the words.

"Yes, lawgiver," Fayola said, turning to face the girl who'd spoken, although Julie had no idea if the blind girl even knew Fayola had changed direction.

"Very well. Have them make themselves known to us. Their bonds as well." The girl seemed utterly uninterested in the proceedings, as though this was a boring routine. Maybe it was.

Fayola edged slightly towards Julie, who was closest to her. "Just say your name," she breathed. "Say your name, and then have Icarus call once. It's how they memorize people; their names and the cries of their bonds."

Julie swallowed. It didn't even make an audible sound, but as if they'd heard it, the twelve Lanx shifted their attention from Fayola onto her. It was terrifying. Twenty-four blind eyes staring dispassionately at her, as though she were no more than a beetle that had found its way into the chamber.

"J-J-Julie Naya," she managed, her voice trembling. "And Icarus," she added. Obediently taking his cue, Icarus gave a single penetrating shriek that echoed sluggishly off the earth walls.

Seth stepped up before the echoes had finished dying away. Maybe just to get it over with, maybe to take the attention away from Julie. Whatever his motive, she was grateful. "Seth. Just Seth, thanks. And Corax." Corax gave three sharp caws, and then fell silent. The Silva leader, the boy, looked sharply in Seth's direction. "You must have a surname under the records," he said stonily.

Seth looked peeved. "Very well," he said, mimicking the stern, formal tone of the Lanx. "Seth Shadowsire." 'Shadowsire' was the standard placeholder surname on Rathya, for those who had never known their last name. It indicated that the father's line, which traditionally passed on the name, was unknown. Seth didn't look pleased about it, and Julie thought she could imagine why. Even orphaned at a young age, Julie had still been told her surname by Mother Acko. Having a placeholder surname was like parading that you were unclaimed, illegitimate, or just without any family that cared.

The Lanx leader nodded indifferently and moved on to Luke.

Luke too managed his words without stuttering. "Luke Beroli, and Athena." Athena's deep whoo sent a familiar shiver through Julie's bones as always.

The female Lanx who had spoken turned this way and that, looking along the root bench at her fellows. "Gyrfalcon, raven, eagle owl," she said flatly, and the other eleven nodded in assent. Julie couldn't help being amazed that they could identify birds just by their cries. The girl continued, "But they are not Silva."

Julie felt a chill. Were they going to be captured again? Would they be rejected by the Lanx? How could they know just by sound that they were outsiders?

Fayola looked nervous, but she responded quickly, "You are correct, Lanxwoman. But if I'm not mistaken, it is possible for anyone to stand as a witness in a Silva's case. Please rest assured, they did indeed see the incident happen, and they will swear to it."

The girl turned back to them coolly. "Do you agree to stand with Fayola Silvadaughter in her case?" she asked. Her golden eagle bonded fixed them with a beady amber eye.

"Yes," Julie said, pleased that she could say that one word without stuttering. Seth and Luke also answered "yes."

"Very well," said the ten-year-old boy who had spoken first, shifting slightly for the first time. His bald eagle adjusted herself on his shoulder. "Fayola R. Silvadaughter, you will return here tomorrow at the highest point of the sun. You will bring Zephyr Silvason, Montague Silvason, and your three witnesses, no one else. Arrive prepared, and do not waste our time." Fayola bowed stiffly again, and Julie stood amazed, hearing that voice, like that of a spoiled and imperious kid.

"Thank you, lawgivers, for your valued time. I will return at the appointed hour. Until then." Fayola turned, jerking her head at Julie, Luke, and Seth to follow her. When she saw their stunned faces, she mouthed the word, "Outside."

"One last thing," called the boy's voice from behind them. Fayola stopped in her tracks. "What punishment do you intend to demand for the accused?"

Julie saw Fayola's shoulders rise and fall slowly, as though she was steeling herself. Then she said in a clear, blank voice, "Expulsion."

There was a long silence from the Lanx chamber. Then the voice said, "So noted. You may go."

None of them spoke on the way back through the root system to the forest outside. Julie was speechless. Her mind was flooded with questions, but she couldn't seem to even form the words in her throat. She'd just had all her expectations hurled out the window. She hardly understood one bit of what had just happened to them.

The second a shaft of fading sunlight from outside hit them, Seth sped up his pace until he was level with Fayola. He had a dark look on his face. He reached out, grabbed her shoulder, and pulled her around roughly to face him. Julie's eyebrows went up; she expected Seth to get smacked for such a move. But Fayola looked almost ashamed as she lifted her head to meet Seth's burning gaze defiantly.

"I want to know," said Seth in a low, fierce voice, "what in Picas's name just happened. We want to know."

"Got that right," said Luke shakily. Julie could only nod.

Fayola fiddled with her twig necklace. "Okay," she said finally. "I guess I do owe you an explanation. But it's a long story."

Seth promptly sat down on the ground with a thump, crossing his legs and looking at Fayola with a piercing expression. He folded his arms and looked up at the Silva girl pointedly.

"Well? I, for one, am ready to hear it."