Glory Alley and the Star Riders (The Glory Alley Series) (49 page)

“Arise
!
”

They did and the lady addressed them most repectfully.

“Esteemed Emissaries to the
Elboni
,"
she said
with decorum
, the way
Glory
imagined a queen would talk
.
“W
elcome home.”

The three men bowed again
.
She returned a slight nod
.

Neither frowning, nor smiling, she studied
Glory
up and down
.

“Are ye
the
thief who stole
the
Elboni
?”
Lady
Gost
d
idn’t speak like the emissaries. Her diction sounded haughty, perfect almost, even better than the prim and proper language
used by the
teachers at school.

Unable to meet her gaze,
Glory
looked down at h
er
feet
instead
.
Suddenly, Glory realized the lady seemed familiar.
Could this be the woman she had seen and heard in Queen’s Mesa? The one who had yelled
Elboni
? If so, d
id this mean
that
Lady Gost
knew more than she was letting on?
 

“I asked you a question,” Lady Gost said.

“Huh?” Glory had lost track of the conversation.

“
The
Tullahn
who ask
s
so many questions, cannot answer just one
?
”
Lady
Gost
turned to face the three Wybbils bowing before her with hats in their hands.
"
Ye came without the Elboni, yet the thief lives.”

“We couldn’t just…you know.”
said Needle.
“When we realized that the thief was only a child.”

"I'm
fourteen
," said
Glory
, resenting being called a child.

"
Fourteen
hundred?
”
asked
the
lady,
her eyebrows arching.

"No
,
uh,
fourteen
.”
Glory
felt shy
all of a sudden.
“
No more, no less
—
that's me."
She gave a stupid little wave. “Hello.”

“Council!
”
Lady
Gost
suddenly shouted
.
“
Star Riders
!”

Rustles came from behind. Glory peered over her shoulder to see a
dozen or so
Wybbils in green robes
.
All had
wormy
gray beards
and
pink
ish
skin
dotted with
hundreds of
age spots
. T
he
y
walked stiffly, their shoulders hunched, and appeared to be much older than the emissaries she’d came with, which was impressive considering they were a thousand-something years old.
They shuffled
toward Lady
Gost
, gathering around, careful not to step on her silky train. She seemed to be
asking many question, giving orders
as well, but
Glory couldn’t
make out
precise words.

From beneath their robes
,
t
he council
members
produced books
. Rapidly leafing through pages,
excited subdued conversation
ensued
.
Glory
strained to hear, but no luck
.
A little while later
,
the council formed
a
line behind Lady
Gost
who stared at Glory an uncomfortably long time
.
Glory wanted
to melt into the floor—anything to get away from th
ose
penetrating black eyes.

“
On Tullah you are considered a child.
” Lady
Gost
inquired.
“
Is this correct?”

“Um, well,
more like a teenager
.”

“Speak up.”

“
Not a child exactly.”

“Does this mean you’re considered an adult in your world?”

“Uh, no
, legally I’m underage.”

“What be the age of reason for
Tullah
ns?”

Glory had no clue what that mean
t
, so she shrugged
.

Lady
Gost
frowned, then glanced back to look at the council
.
“T
he age of reason for
Tullah
ns
—quickly.
”

The council formed a huddle and a minute later
one of them stepped forward.
“
A
ccording to our sources
the average
Tullah
n can
grasp
basic concepts
of
right and wrong by age
seven or
eight
.
By age
fourteen
reason
has reached a very high level
, but not as fully
as a
mature
member
of the species
.”

Lady
Gost
’s large eyes turned toward the window
, h
er wizened face lost in thoughtful expression
.
After a few second
s
,
she sig
h
ed heavily. “
The
Tullah
n has reached the
a
ge of
r
eason and therefore falls under the penalty of law.
”
S
he turned
to Glory, her dainty features rigid
.
“Co
nfess thy wrongdoing and things will go better for
ye
.”

“B
-b-but
, I didn’t do anything wrong.”

Lady
Gost
tossed her head back, shielding her eyes in the crook of her arm as if h
er
words had stingers
.
“Your
lips speak
lies wrapped in excuses.
”
Then she walked
in a circle around Glory while
the
guards tens
e
ly fingered
the hilt of their swords
.
“
T
h
e
Law per
mits
confession
via extraction from persons of reason and sound mind.”

“The sound mind part is up for question.” Glory
was fighting for survival now and had to come up with something fast.
“
A
lot of people
on Tullah think I’m bonkers, insane, mentally whacked.”

“And why is that?”

“
B
ecause
they didn’t believe me about the
Hoogula
and
the little men sneaking
th
r
ough the
house
at night.”

“
From my perspective your claims are very reasonable. Therefore, your mental stat
e isn’t up for question, which means you are not exempt from
extraction and inevitable death
.”

Talk of death made
Glory’s
knees
weak
.

Lady
Gost
h
eld
the book against her chest,
h
ead bowed in
thoughtful pose
a long while, before she addressed the room again.

“
I am grieved at the thought of putting one so young to death, but what can I do?
”
She seemed to be thinking out loud
.
“What can I do
?
More time, yes, give her more time, but time
is
in short supply for Wybb.
”
Pausing for a moment, lips moving as if she was working something out in her head, Lady
Gost
paced
back and forth talking under her breath barely loud enough for Glory to make out.
“No, I can’t do that
.
Can I
?
But if
my emissaries unwittingly reveal it under obedience…
”
A smile touched her lips, then
it
mutated into a
s
tern proclamation
.