I licked my lips, nervous now that I had to lay the facts-such as they were-out before everyone.
You are doing fine, Portia.
Disin frowned at Carol, who stood as frozen as a statue. "You claim this mortal is a virtue? Do you think us so ignorant that we can"t tell the difference between a member of the Court and an innocent mortal?"
"I don"t quite understand how she can appear to be someone else, nor do I know about the mortal business, although I thought someone told me that you had to be a member of the Court to be immortal, and it follows that if she isn"t a virtue anymore, she would no longer be a member, and thus lose her immortal status."
The three mare gaped at me.
"I could be wrong on that, though," I said, squirming slightly under their combined looks of disbelief. "I"m not very current with all the intricacies of Court life."
"You are correct, as it happens," a man"s voice said behind me. We turned en ma.s.se to see Terrin at the door, a rumpled Milo beside him. He bowed to the mare, shoving Milo forward. "Your graces, please forgive me for this disruption, but I found this man sneaking into the Court, and felt it might have some bearing on a recent conversation I had with Theo North."
"You are welcome here, scholar," Irina said, bowing her head graciously. "Bring forward the one who was banned and readmitted into our grace."
"Your grace," Milo said, stammering slightly as he stopped in front of the mare. He shot his wife a look out of the corner of his eye as he bowed to them. "There has been a gross injustice done to my wife. She is, as you can see, mortal, and not in the least bit like the late virtue Hope as Portia claims."
I nibbled on my lower lip. Carol"s appearance was my one weak point. I was too unfamiliar with the denizens of the Court of Divine Blood to know if it was possible for someone to change their appearance.
"But you are a vessel," Theo said slowly. I took his hand, drawing strength from the contact.
"It is true," Milo said, squaring his shoulders as he looked out at the people gathered. "I have the honor of holding the position of vessel. Even a nephilim, however, must be aware that it is not within my powers to change a mortal"s appearance."
"This is so," Disin said, turning to me. "You say that the mortal Carol Lee is really the virtue Hope, but you offer no proof for such a supposition. How do you answer this discrepancy?"
A smug look replaced the one of hatred in Carol"s eyes. I knew I was right about her, I knew without a shred of doubt that she was Hope, but how did she do it? How did she morph into someone else?
"I...uh...that is..." I bit my lip again.
There has to be some way he can change her appearance. Is there a magic spell or something that would fool everyone?
A glamour? It is possible to confuse another mortal with a glamour, but not members of the Court, and certainly not the mare.
"Can you explain it, Portia Harding?"
"Er..."
There has to be some way, something we"ve missed, someone who has the power to change her in a way that would fool even the mare.
Theo"s eyes opened wide at my words.
"It is evident that you cannot." Disin waved her hands toward Milo and Carol. "You may leave, mortal. Portia Harding, I order you taken into custody, to await arraignment on the charge of gross abuse of power-"
What is it?
He smiled. Two Hashmallim suddenly appeared, wafting over to flank me. One person shrieked, while the others backed up a good ten feet. Sarah scooted over until she was near Terrin, who stood on the far side of Milo and Carol. Only Theo stood firm, apparently not at all concerned by the Hashmallim.
I really, really hope it"s good.
Oh, it is.He turned to Milo and asked in a deceptively mild voice, "Is it not true that one of your charges as a vessel is to serve as a conduit between the mortal and immortal worlds?"
"Yes," Milo answered, his eyes confident. "But the ability to go between mortals and the Court of Divine Blood is not sufficient to change the appearance of one of them. All I do is act as a courier, someone who pa.s.ses along communication, and arranges for meetings."
Theo"s smile got even wider.
What is it? What do you know?
Shhh. All in good time, sweetling.
Theo! How would you like a head full of snow?
His laughter echoed in my head. "And what of Abaddon?" he asked, and instantly, I knew what it was I had missed.
Oh, you"re brilliant.
Thank you. You"re not so bad, yourself, you know. I"d never have thought to look at a mortal for Hope.
"Abaddon?" Milo"s confidence faded. "I suppose that technically it is possible, but not very likely-"
"Is it not, then, within the scope of your powers to arrange for a meeting between a mortal and a demon lord? Someone who, I need not add, has the ability to change the appearance of a minion such as a demon, or imp...or mortal servant."
The gasps of surprise from the crowd were loud, as was the resulting torrent of conversation.
"Silence!" Disin shouted, jumping to her feet. "There will be silence here!"
Irina smiled slightly, leaning back in her chair. I had the feeling we had just won her over, and smiled back.
"Such a thing is against the laws of the Court," Milo protested, his face pale. A light bead of sweat broke out on his forehead, and I knew we had him.
"Far be it from me to cast stones from the sanct.i.ty of my gla.s.s house, but you haven"t been horribly concerned about following the laws of the Court in the past, have you?"
The look he gave me could have stripped cement.
"My past situation with the Court has nothing to do with this." His lips tightened. "To imply that just because it"s theoretically possible for me to contact a demon lord for the purpose of changing the appearance of a mortal, I have done so, is not only ridiculous, it"s d.a.m.ned near obscene. I am a member of the Court of Divine Blood! It would be impossible for me to conduct any act in such opposition to the tenets of the Court."
Is there any way to tell if he"s been in contact with a demon lord?
Theo rubbed his chin.Not here. A Guardian might be able to, but I doubt if it would be possible to tell if Milo has been near a demon lord lately.
"Your graces, I beg of you, please allow my lady wife to leave. She has suffered much trauma by the abduction and resulting indignities, and I fear for her well-being if she should be made to stand here while this person throws her smoke screens and misdirection." Milo"s head bent solicitously over that of his wife, the very picture of husbandly concern.
"Oh, for reason"s sweet sake...smoke screens and misdirection. Like I"m the one trying to pull something on the Court." I didn"t even try to temper the disgust in my voice.
"Everyone here knows the true reason you summoned and destroyed the virtue Hope," Milo said, his voice ringing clear and loud as he turned to confront me. He gestured toward Theo, whose fingers tightened around mine in warning or anger, I didn"t know which. "You are the only one here who has an ulterior motive, not me."
"Hey now," I protested.
He continued before I could say anything more. "It is an established fact that Theo North has for centuries sought someone who would present the Court with an order of exculpation, thankfully to no avail. Until you agreed to help him by granting him the exculpation the moment you were made a member, his cause was lost."
"I did not agree to anyth-"
"Do you deny that you intend to ask for a pardon?" Milo shouted, the entire ballroom silent but for the echoes, just as if everyone was holding his or her breath.
Theo"s eyes were a light slate grey. His muscles were tight, as if he was poised to spring. I cleared my throat nervously, and looked at the mare. "I do not deny that I intend to speak to the Court about Theo"s situation, but that was not my plan when I came to England, nor did I ever agree to take on the duties of a virtue. I didn"t even know why Hope showed up when she did! I thought she was a hallucination at first!"
How distant those days a week ago seemed.
"You lie," Milo drawled, his face hard. "You knew exactly what you were doing when you spoke the spells of summoning. Why else would you so conveniently have the spells upon you when you breached the sacred ground?"
"I told you that faery ring was real," Sarah said in a whisper, nudging the back of my shoulder.
I was about to refute Milo"s ridiculous accusations when something occurred to me. "How did you know that Hope was summoned by a spell?" I asked, wondering if at last a glint of luck was turning our way. "The only people to whom I explained what happened are my friend Sarah, and Theo, and I"m sure neither of them have spoken about it to anyone here."
Both of them shook their heads.
"I heard of it from Terrin the scholar," Milo said, crossing his arms over his chest as he nodded toward Terrin. "We had a discussion regarding your trials, and he told me the far-fetched tale you"d spun him."
"I don"t believe the method of summoning the virtue was ever broached," Terrin said thoughtfully. "All Portia said was that she had inadvertently summoned a virtue, and received the Gift without understanding the importance of the act."
"How is it you have such insight into the method of summoning Hope if you did not hear the details from the woman herself?" Theo asked, his voice as smooth and rich as milk chocolate.
We have him.
Possibly.
"I...it"s only common sense," Milo sputtered. "Virtues can only be summoned by spell, thus it was safe to a.s.sume that Portia Harding used such a method." "That"s not true!" Sarah startled me by bouncing forward, apparently ready to battle Milo on our behalf.
"Sarah-"
"Who is this mortal?" Disin asked, giving Sarah a narrow-eyed once-over.
"My name is Sarah Wilson," she answered, making an incredibly graceful curtsey. "I am Portia"s oldest friend. I also happen to be an author, and am the one who gave Portia the spells. I thought they had a slight chance of working, but Portia was absolutely skeptical, disbelieving there even was such a thing as a faery ring."
"This is all very interesting, but hardly has relevance-"
Sarah shook her head and interrupted Disin before she could continue. "It does have relevance. Once we discovered that Portia had inadvertently become a virtue, I did some online research into the history of virtues. One of the things I discovered was that, although virtues are rarely summoned, it can be done, most commonly by means of an invocation."
There were a few snorts of disbelief, but out of the corner of my eye I saw several people nodding.
"What Portia used was a general summoning spell, not an invocation pleading for a virtue. According to my research, the spell could have summoned anyone in the Court."
I gaped at my friend. "Why on earth didn"t you mention that to me?"
She shrugged. "It didn"t seem important at the time."
"It didn"t seem...good gravy, woman!"
The mare leaned their heads together.
Theo took advantage of their inattention to drive home the relevant point. "All of which brings us back to the point whereby you knew that Portia had used a general summoning spell, rather than the more common invocation. How do you explain that?"
"We are curious as to that point as well," Disin said as the mare sat back in their respective chairs. She pinned Milo back with a look I was thankful wasn"t, for once, turned upon me.
"Yeah!" I said.
Disin"s gimlet glance descended upon me.
"Sorry," I murmured, folding my hands and going for a contrite look.
"You will now explain how you knew in detail what method Portia Harding used to summon the virtue Hope."
Milo looked decidedly nervous. I sent Theo a private smirk, and watched as Milo squirmed under the combined attention of the mare.
"I...that is, we...I..."
Carol leaned into him, whispering furiously. Milo"s gaze was shifty, but he nodded a couple of times before straightening up and puffing out his chest. "By virtue of my role as vessel, and as a member in good standing in the Court of Divine Blood, I demand a renascence!"
There was a collective stunned gasp behind us, then utter silence.
He can"t do that, can he? Overthrow the hierarchy like that? I think he just did.
The mare got to their respective feet, all three standing in a tableau that reminded me, for some inane reason, of the three furies.
"On what grounds do you demand the renascence?" Disin asked, her voice deceptively soft.
Milo pointed at me. "The Court has been compromised. A non-member mortal holds the t.i.tle of virtue, which is against the laws to which the hierarchy of the Court is bound."
"Portia is not yet a virtue," Theo argued, his arm sliding around my waist. I leaned into him, more than a little sick that everything had spiraled so far out of control. That I could be used as an excuse for the overthrow of the Court was unthinkable...wasn"t it?
"She will not claim that t.i.tle until she completes the seventh trial."
"Which I am certainly not going to do now," I added.
Milo smiled. It wasn"t a nice smile.
Uh-oh. What"s he smiling about?
I have a bad feeling it"s about something Terrin was about to tell me when you showed up with Carol in tow.
"You are unfamiliar with our laws, nephilim. When a renascence is called, all scheduled business is completed before the Court is disbanded and remade."
My stomach tightened into a small wad of unhappiness.
"The seventh and final trial of the mortal Portia Harding is scheduled for today, if I am not mistaken," Milo continued. "Once she has completed it, the grounds for renascence will be satisfied, and by the laws that govern the Court, it must be destroyed before reformation."
"Well then, I simply won"t do the seventh trial," I told him, relief filling me at this easy way out of the situation.
"You cannot stop the trial from commencing," Milo said. "As it is scheduled, it must be enacted."