"Anthony, let us save this discussion for later," Gavin said.
* * *
"Child, we will be entertaining a guest this evening, at the palace," Flavio informed Roff. "Please dress appropriately."
Roff set his book down. He hadn't read much before, but now he found he had a fascination with it. Flavio's library was extensive and Roff's interests were wide and varied. He was currently reading a rather large book on the Ancient Greeks. Flavio smiled at Roff's choice and wondered if it might not hurt to have Roff point his inevitable questions in Wlodek's direction.
"I will wear my gray pinstripe," Roff smiled at his vampire sire.
"That will be fine," Flavio agreed. Flavio was worried, however. How were they going to explain to the Alliance representative that Lissa was missing? The media was already making their usual conjectures, since no interviews had been granted and there'd been no sightings.
The Council meetings, which had been televised at first for informational purposes on Le-Ath Veronis, were now fed to all Alliance worlds and there was quite a fan base. Many across the Alliance tuned in to see if Lissa caught any criminals. Many hoped to see her fangs and wrote reams of fan mail to that effect. Since Aurelius and Gardevik had been handling the meetings, the usual rumors spread.
The thing that Flavio appreciated the most, however, was the renewed friendship with Aurelius and the increasing friendship with Gardevik, the High Demon Prime Minister. Flavio had come to respect him greatly. Some of the Council's vampires might have gotten their way by applying pressure in the past, but that didn't work with Gardevik. In fact, all he had to do was sit there, staring them down and allowing a bit of smoke to curl from his nostrils. That generally restored order. Aurelius, too, was used to that sort of thing, but employed a different tactic; pointing out any flaw a plan might have with gentle thoroughness. Few of them knew what a sleeping giant Aurelius truly was. Flavio was one of the few still alive who'd seen Aurelius fight.
* * *
"I thought perhaps the Queen might come and greet me," Thurlow smiled at Erland's discomfiture. Erland had been elected to go to the space station and meet the representative for the Alliance. Thurlow was well aware that the Queen seemed to be on yet another of her sabbaticals.
"I am sorry to disappoint," Erland sounded gracious, even if he truly wasn't. "Our Queen could not be here at the moment. Nevertheless, your welcome is most assured. Come, I will take you to the palace and show you to your suite. I'm sure you are weary of traveling. You are also invited to a formal dinner later, with members of the Council from Lissia."
Thurlow followed Erland while two vampires lifted his bags easily and came behind.
* * *
The mess tent was the meeting location of choice, and the sides of the tent had been lowered for privacy. I followed the General as he strode angrily toward the tent. The HC and his seven murderous minions were already there. All six of the General's Captains were also there, sitting apart from the HC and his guards. I'd been sent to deliver messages to this one or that, and to gather messages while the General and the Captains had one of their usual, secret meetings after the HC's message had come. When I got back, it was already over. I had no desire to hear any of it, to be honest. I should have been more curious.
"Sit here, Liss," the General sighed, pointing to a seat, front and center. That shocked me. The HC grinned at my surprise. Well, Looking sounded like a good thing to do right about then, and what I found had me pissed. In the past, I might have been frightened, or a little shaky, at least. Not this time. If these things masquerading as religious representatives thought they might have the advantage in this situation, then they needed to think again.
"We are here to levy charges," the HC intoned as he unrolled a heavy, parchment scroll. "We charge that Liss, bodyguard for General Hardin Wolf, is in actuality a demon in disguise. We intend to prove this over the course of the evening, with tried and true methods developed by our most holy brothers in Ialus." Well, that sounded like torture to me. "What say you to the charges, demon?" The HC folded the scroll up and gave me a hard stare.
"I'm not a demon," I shrugged.
"We intend to prove it," he snapped coldly.
"You can try to prove it for the rest of your life, but it'll still be untrue," I said. "I'm not a demon, and anyone who has actually seen a demon would agree."
Solis was trying to get my attention by making minute gestures with his hand, but he could save the effort. I was done with these guys.
"Are you saying that you have seen demons?" The HC was nearly chortling. I was falling right into his trap.
"Oh, yeah," I nodded. "I can think of one in particular who'd have your head twisted right off your body if he were here. Would you like for me to invite him in?"
"You cannot summon a demon," the HC scoffed.
"Well, you can't have it both ways, then. Either I'm a demon and can summon other demons, or I'm not a demon at all. Which is it?" I had arms crossed over my chest, now, glaring right back at my would-be torturers.
"You are a demon; our holy writ proclaims that any creature with hair of flame, moving faster than the eye can see is a demon."
"Are you kidding me? My hair is more a strawberry-blonde. Not really a true red." I lifted a stray lock and studied it briefly.
"But none of us saw your movement when you removed Mardis' head." The HC was getting grumpy, now.
"Still not a demon," I denied his allegation.
"Then go ahead. Summon another demon for us. We wish to see this." The HC thought he was calling my bluff.
Connegar, honey, I sent, can you bring Garde if he isn't busy?
Connegar didn't bother to reply, he, Reemagar and Garde were there in about a blink. You should have seen the scattering of people when two blue giants and an apparent humanoid appeared inside the tent. It wasn't tall enough for Connegar to stand up straight, so he raised it with Power. Swords came out when that happened.
"The blue ones aren't the demons," I said. Even Solis was backed up against the canvas of the tent, staring. The HC's voice was wobbly when he asked his next question.
"Where is the demon, then?"
"Lissa, why didn't you call me sooner?" Garde came to stand next to me.
"I didn't need a Demon until now," I answered dryly. "I'm fine, by the way, but that schmuck over there is trying to tell everybody here that I'm a demon. I tried to tell him I'm not. He wants to level charges and then torture a confession out of me. I called you because he may need to see a real demon."