Arc 5: Chapter 16: Fang and Phalanx
We stepped into the hall of Count Laertes. The foyer was spacious and lavish, with white statues set on plinths around the mouths of side halls and the bottom of a spiral stair at the far end. Chandeliers crafted into interlocking circles hung from the ceiling, and tall windows let the muted yellow light of the dusky woods in.
The floor was checkered. Most everything else was white or brown wood, but brass was dominant. It gilded the railings of the balcony and stairs, crowned the marble statues, and framed the ornate clock set on one wall.
And it fashioned the enormous pipe organ. It had been constructed within the curved inner line of the stairway, its pipes forming a zig-zagging pattern over the wall to erupt like a broken sunburst above the balcony.
The room was large enough to hold a ball in. I stepped over the white-and-black squares of the floor, my boots clicking in arhythmic tones with the steps of my companions.
The door swung closed at our backs. Hendry jumped, moving for his sword. Even Emma bared her teeth and tensed.
I held out a hand to stall them, having expected these kinds of theatrics. “Hold,” I said. “Follow my lead.”
Catrin wasn’t any more impressed than me. “This guy is really playing to the classics, isn’t he?”
I moved ahead to stand in the center of the cavernous foyer, searching the room. Without using magic this time, I called out. “I submit my group as guests in your hall, o’ lord. We bring no harm to you that isn’t invited, and shall stay no longer than we are welcome, or wish to remain.”
Best to play to tradition. I didn’t want to get us trapped here for a century to indulge some faerie noble’s sense of whimsy. Neither did I want to put an aggressive face forward. I was here in an official capacity.
The shadows clung tight where the faint light didn’t touch. The shuffling steps and nervous breaths of my group seemed overloud in the silence.
It lingered long, like a slow building pressure in the air. A wire of steel stretching. Then…