“Ewedith isn’t here,” said Sean rising from his seat, as the five of them walked into yet another plain gathering room, though this one was many miles to the south in Willowsbrook. Baxter and Wergen were sitting on two of the other benches.

  “So, no meeting?” asked Dade.

  “I believe the meeting is still on. Senator Ewedith just won’t be attending.”

  “How did you know?” asked Dade, turning to Nolan.

  “Know what?” replied Nolan with mock innocence.

  “You told Kedra it wouldn’t matter if she spruced us up. I thought you meant it wouldn’t matter because Ewedith would hate us anyway, but I realize now you meant that it wouldn’t matter because Ewedith won’t see us. So, I ask again, how did you know?”

  “I’m sure I don’t know at all what you are referring to,” said Nolan straightening his sleeves with a tug. Then turning to Sean he asked, “Who will be leading this meeting then?”

  “Senators Ulbricht and Fainsworth.”

  “I know who Ulbricht is,” said Rori. “She’s the nice one who was at the last meeting you had. Who is Fainsworth?”

  “Ewedith’s usual toady. He was there last time as well,” said Nolan. “I suspect without Ewedith there to continually fawn over, Fainsworth won’t know what to do with himself and will mostly stay quiet.”

  “Where are Ian and Honoria?” asked Dade.

  “We were worried that there might be a fuss if you were not on time for the meeting. They went to explain why you might be late. They didn’t actually leave that long ago. If we hurry maybe we won’t be late after all.”

  “Okay, then let’s go,” said Dade.

  As Rori and the others stood waiting for Dade to figure out what room their meeting was in, he couldn’t help but notice how familiar this felt to the last time he was here. It was only ten months ago that he had stood in this same lobby.

  The columned foyer looked exactly the same. The two sets of stairs following the side walls up to the second floor and the central stairway leading down all looked unaged and unchanged. The Lorenthian flag and the Willowsbrook flag that flanked the doorways, the small crowd of people hustling from one place to another and even the half circle of eight busts that opened towards the stairways all looked as if no time had passed.

  Of course there were some marked differences. Last time it had only been Kedra and him waiting on Dade. This time, having caught up with Ian and Honoria, there were quite a few more. Also, last time he had had no idea that the marble heads on the pedestals were likenesses of the major human gods.

  He looked over to the bust of Meredith that sat near the middle of the half circle and smiled. Even though it was just a stone representation, looking at it still gave him that inner feeling of peace he had whenever he spoke with her.

  His eyes drifted around to the rest of the heads, moving first to the ones on Meredith’s left. He guessed that the next one might be Mera, the goddess of time and the one after that was probably Cyril, the god of agriculture. He had no guess as to the last figure on that side.

  His eyes moved back to Meredith, and he began looking at the figures to her right, though he got no further than the one beside her.

  “But that’s him,” he said aloud.

  “That’s who?” asked Sean.

  “He was at the police station.”

  “That fat man with the papers?” said Baxter in confusion.

  “What? No, the bust next to Meri’s,” said Rori pointing across to foyer. “It was Malthus that said he was impressed with me.”

  “Malthus came and tried to get you to join him!? That’s rich,” said Sean, but then seeing the earnestness in Rori’s face he fell silent.

  “I don’t know which is worse,” said Nolan moving over to the group and pushing down Rori’s still pointing finger. “That Rori failed to recognize another god, that he just shouted it out to everyone in this room, or that you are all now standing around talking about it. Perhaps this is something better left discussed elsewhere?”

  You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

  “What should be discussed elsewhere?” said Dade moving back to the group.

  “Seems Malthus is trying to steal Rori away from Meredith,” said Nolan in a quiet voice.

  “Okay,” said Dade after a pause to collect his thoughts, “turns out the meeting has been delayed, and we are actually still early. I was wondering what we could do to pass the time, but I guess you’ve already decided that for me. Let’s find and empty room and talk about this.”

  “Why didn’t you tell us about this?” asked Dade pacing beside the large table everyone else was sitting at.

  “I did! I told you some general came in and told me he’d heard good things about me and offered me a job.”

  “Yes, you said, ‘some general’. Not ‘THE General’,” sighed Dade.

  “Well, I clearly didn’t recognize him. How can I tell you the name of someone I openly said I didn’t know?” answered Rori with obvious frustration in his voice.

  “How do you not recognize a god?” asked Ian. “I’ve heard that the force of their presence washes over you the instant they show up.”

  “I said he seemed impressive,” said Rori. “But he wasn’t overpoweringly ‘god-like’. He was tall, but he didn’t give off any feelings of godhood or whatever.”

  “Maybe he can suppress it,” offered Ian.

  “I agree,” said Honoria. “It makes sense a god would be able to blend in. It would be inconvenient in a battle if everyone knew where you stood.”

  “I suspect everyone would know where he was based on the massive amounts of death and destruction he was dealing,” said Baxter. “Plus, an overwhelming force of godness causing your enemies to cower seems like a plus to me.”

  “True for enemies nearby, but unless it extends to cover an archer with a long bow, it would seem to make you an easier to find target to me,” said Ian.

  “Actually, I’ve read that Malthus doesn’t like to give himself an unfair advantage in battle,” said Brand.

  “I’ve read that too,” said Sean.

  “If you are all done,” said Dade in a raised voice calling the room to silence. “While this discussion of Malthus’ battle habits is interesting, perhaps we should focus on the issue at hand.”

  “What exactly did he offer you?” asked Nolan. “Don’t try to tell the gist of it. Try to remember the exact words.”

  After taking a moment to gather his thoughts Rori said, “He said he was always on the lookout for new talent and that he had positions to fill. I asked what he meant by that, and he said that he needed people to fight the battles that needed fighting. He talked to some of the people that came with him, and he offered to pay me. Then he said that he wasn’t there to recruit me that day, but that he just wanted me to know he had his eye on me. I think that was about it.”

  “Did he ever say anything about his war council or anything like that?” asked Brand.

  “No. I don’t think so. What’s his war council?”

  “It’s his top warriors. Fifteen or so people he uses to lead different portions of his armies,” said Brand.

  “I heard it was twenty,” said Ian.

  “I heard only twelve,” said Sean.

  “Does it matter,” said Dade? “It doesn’t sound like he was recruiting Rori for that anyway.”

  “He did say that if I was as good as he had heard he was sure I would be promoted up the ranks quickly.”

  “Well, there you go,” said Dade in a frustrated voice. He fell into one of the empty chairs surrounding the table that dominated the center of the room they were gathered in.

  “What did I do wrong?” asked Rori.

  “Nothing,” said Nolan. “Dade’s just a little sore is all. He’s been in the military his entire life, has had what most would call at the worst an ‘impressive career’ and has never been offered anything by Malthus. You’re an outsider and have been offered an inside track to the War Council. Give him a moment and he’ll get over it.”

  Dade gave Nolan a glower.

  “Why would you want it?” asked Rori. “Seems like your life is pretty fulfilled right here. Would you want to leave this for that?”

  “The boy speaks the truth,” said Kedra speaking up for the first time. “But of course, it’s possible I might have said something along those lines in the past.”

  Dade shifted his glower to Rori, turning away from Kedra so that she wouldn’t see.

  “Ha!” laughed Nolan.

  “What am I missing?” asked Rori.

  “All of the people on Malthus’ War Council are at the least minor deities,” said Brand.

  “They are all gods?” said Rori in disbelief.

  “Minor ones, but yes, gods.”

  Another few moments passed until finally Sean broke the silence by saying, “You all realize that the three people Rori described standing by the door were probably people on the council, right?”

  “Who was it?” asked Baxter.

  “The palindri and the elf were likely T’leri and Taslit,” said Brand.

  “Wow,” said Ian.

  “Hmm,” murmured Honoria.

  “What did I do now?” asked Rori.

  “Ian’s been dying to meet Taslit since he was a tot playing with an imaginary bow pretending to shoot bad guys. I suspect the story isn’t much different for Honoria or any other serious archer,” said Sean.

  “I never had an imaginary bow,” said Honoria. “What would be the point?”

  “Me either,” added Ian. “I’ve been shooting a real bow since I was strong enough to draw it.”

  “What about the human with a spear?” asked Wergen.

  “Maybe Korr?” said Brand.

  “Why Korr?” asked Baxter.

  “Human with a spear.”

  “Nogrim wields a spear,” said Sean.

  “Nogrim’s a dwarf,” said Brand.

  There was another long moment of silence after which Sean said, “I don’t know which is worse, that Rori failed to realize he was in a room full of deities or that he’s seen more gods and demigods in his life than the rest of us combined.”

  “So, what do we do about it?” asked Baxter.

  “Do?” said Sean. “What is there that we can do? Malthus is watching Rori. How are you going to stop that?”

  “We don’t. It’s not up to us anyway. Ultimately, it’s up to Rori,” said Dade. “If he wants to join Malthus’ army then that is his decision. In the meantime, we have other issues to worry about. If people are ready, let’s head to our appointment.”