Chapter Sixteen, Part I

                                    

                                              
All through breakfast, Tesa's thoughts alternated between worry about standing before the mage council and worry about the dragons. She wanted to ask Malía if Gira had shown any signs of sickness, but she was busy consulting with each member of their party prior to the meeting. When she had pushed the matter with Orrie, he had once again assured her it was nothing, and wouldn't tell her if Gira had mentioned any illness.
                          
The group ate quietly, not saying much besides briefing with Malía what they would say. The room was dim in the gray light of morning. Footsteps echoed in the courtyard outside the breakfast room, and the door opened. A Yennar-Leian attendant beckoned them to follow.
                          
He led them on a winding path through the temple. Tesa recognized some of the halls they passed through from her previous trips through the temple, but they soon passed the parts of the temple that she recognized and entered another large garden courtyard. This one had a long, wide path paved with marble leading up to a long building. Its rose-colored stone stood in contrast to the blue of the sea behind it. Columns framed open arched entries all along the front. In walls set back from the arches, tall wooden doors stood open. Mages in simply-cut, lightweight robes stood to either side of the doors. Next to each mage stood a pedestal with a smoothly polished, perfectly round stone perched atop it. Each sphere appeared to have been carved of a different type of stone.

                          
Tesa eyed the stones as they passed them but resisted the urge to slip into magesight to investigate them. One glance at the guards reminded her that she could not use magic here. Not yet. She stole a glance at Renna, who must be aching under the same restriction. He, too, stared at the spheres, eyebrows raised slightly in alarm. So Tesa wasn't the only one who was reminded of the Karume's traps. The Karume had achieved a spell big enough to trap the dragons by collecting many small stones together and storing energy in them. Tesa had a feeling these large, unbroken gems were more powerful than the collection of small stones. If only she could use magesight to look.
                          
Thinking of the Karume and their trap, Tesa shivered as she passed between the spheres on their pedestals. She reminded herself that the mages of Yennar Lei were not the Karume. Their bound magic was not the same. Could it be worse?
                          
They passed into a large, open room dim despite the bright light outside its doors. Doors on the opposite wall mirrored the doors they'd just passed through and provided an ample view of the beach and the crashing waves on the shore. A few figures paced the beach near the water, and Tesa wished she could be one of them. The smell and sound of the sea almost dissipated the dark mood she'd begun to sink into as they approached their meeting. Almost.
                          
Their guide led them to the right, so that they walked the length of the room toward a wide, low platform at one end of it. The platform was empty, but at the back of it were more open doors. Their guide led them through.
                          
The council of mages was seated behind a curved table, which, like the stage in the chamber before them, was raised above the level of their audience. Guards closed the doors behind them, and Tesa managed to hold herself still instead of jumping at the sound. She hadn't missed the stone spheres standing outside these doors as well.
                          
Seven mages glared down from the table above them. Emric sat to the right of the center mage. She must be the High Mage—the ruler of all the mages in the temple, and all of Yennar Lei.
                          
Tesa took her place between Renna and Neela. She hoped that the Mages of Yennar Lei would agree to help them rescue the dragons. They  might decide not to help at all. The Spires were a sacred space for them, Emric had said. The ancestral home of the dragons that used to live in Yennar Lei. 
                          
Now it was the place that the Arethian dragons would die. Tesa bit her lip and tried to bury her gloomy thoughts.
                          
"State your name and rank," said one of the guards who stood to either side of the table. Malía began first and the rest followed. Then the council of mages did the same. The High Mage introduced herself as Scimir.