Lupi 04 - Night Season

her. He didn’t like either of them, but he had to put up with them. Gan stuck her tongue out at him.
    The meeting started out like she’d expected—talk, talk, talk. The humans wanted the gnomes to get rid of the spy-spells in their rooms. They wanted clothing that suited them—they didn’t like the clothes they’d been given. Humans had no taste at all. They also wanted a copy of the City rules that Gan had mentioned, and a map and more stuff like that. The councilors pretended everything was a big deal, but of course it wasn’t, so they agreed.
    Except about the baths. Humans were weird about clothes and being naked and all, but they couldn’t expect the councilors to make everyone else leave the baths just so no one would see a naked human. That was just silly.
    Finally Ruben Brooks said, “Very well. Let’s proceed to the problem with your medallion. We have several questions.”
    The gnomes all looked at each other. Then they looked at the little door at one end of the room. It opened.
    At first Gan was disappointed all over again. The gnome who came through that door was tiny and wrinkled. She had little round breasts and a little round belly and wore a really dull gown, a purplish gray with only a bit of gold on the sleeves. She had a lot of gems woven into the braids in her hair, but her face was so plain she looked almost human.
    Nice teeth, though. They looked real sharp.
    Then Gan saw her eyes and üthered her density and her hearts fell out of rhythm. “Eldest,” she whispered. And that was all she said. All the questions she longed to ask, the ones she knew and the ones she didn’t have words for, pushed up into her mouth and packed her throat so tightly she could barely breathe.
    The Harazeed Eldest gave her a glance out of gray eyes swimming with secrets. “You are called Gan.”
    Gan nodded, terror and thrill mingling in a jellied mass.
    â€œYou will be quiet, Gan, until I am finished speaking.”
    Gan nodded again. She would. She would do whatever this one wanted.
    The Harazeed Eldest spoke to the humans. “I am called First Councilor. I will tell you of the medallion.”
    She moved slowly, as if her bones hurt, but she settled onto her cushion easily enough. “At the end of the Great War, the realms were in chaos. Much had been destroyed. Much knowledge was lost. Your realm,” she said to the humans, “was entirely sundered, of course, save for its tie to Dis. The others were all but cut off one from another, also. The Great Gates were gone, and few remembered how to erect even the small gates.
    â€œThe Harazeed remembered. And so the medallion was given us, and we came to a realm that wild magic had made impossible to settle before. Our numbers were few. At first we lived here alone, save for the beasts. Even the sidhe did not linger in Edge in those days. Gradually the medallion settled patterns onto the realm. Even in the areas of high magic, day and night had meaning and season. Near the river, order strengthened its hold. We prospered, and others came to Edge.
    â€œThen, as now, Edge was seen as a refuge for the outcast, the criminal, or the lost. In the early years there was much fighting, but Harazeed, like most gnomes, prefer trade and wealth to war. Eventually we settled into alliances that stabilized the distribution of power much as the medallion had stabilized the magic. But envy and covetousness can outshout reason. You will hear from the envious that the medallion does not have to be held by the Harazeed to work. Some who say this are merely ignorant. Others know this for a dangerous partial truth. Theoretically, the medallion imposes order no matter who holds it…but the type of order depends on the holder, and medallion and holder must form a true bond first. Very few are capable of forming such a bond with the medallion. In four thousand years, only Harazeed have been capable of this.”
    The Eldest paused, folding her hands together on the table in front of her. “There have been many attempts to steal the medallion. A few times one or another thief succeeded—but never for long. The medallion does not wish to be parted from its holder. This theft is different. When the power winds blew, the bond between the medallion and its holder was broken. One of the half-halfs who works at the Chancellery saw that this had happened, and seized what she believed was a gift from the gods.