Prince of the Courts

Prince of the Courts - Chapter 17

Alec yawned widely and shook his head to clear it. He knuckled his forehead and rubbed at his eyes tiredly, wishing he had managed to get a few more hours of sleep before coming back to his office this morning. He hadn't even had a chance to say goodbye to Magnus before leaving, his husband too busy examining the Seelie crown in a warded room in the basement. The lure of studying it had been too strong for Magnus, and he had insisted that it was a 'once in an immortal lifetime' chance when he had removed the crown from the Consul's vault in the Gard.  Alec had sighed and made him promise to return it in one piece.

His eyes strayed to the top drawer of his desk where he had locked up Sera's dream diary, and he briefly considered pulling it out to read more of the entries.  He sighed and resolutely snatched the amendment he was working on back toward him. Or was this the amendment to the amendment? He had lost track. All that mattered was that the Council had refused to ratify it without amending the amendments to the amendments. Burning the whole thing would be satisfying, but unproductive, so he set his pen back down to the page and had just started writing again when there was a soft knock on his office door.

"Come in," he called.

One of the young pages from the Council Hall entered timidly and approached his desk.

"Consul? The Council is requesting your presence immediately for an emergency meeting. They said it was urgent." Claudia Blackthorn twisted the end of her dark brown braid and looked down, nervous about speaking directly to the Consul, Alec assumed.

"Emergency meeting? I haven't heard anything about that. Who called it?" He rose from the desk and straightened his collar, smoothing out some of the wrinkles in his shirt and hoping that he didn't look as disheveled as he felt.

Claudia's answer was too quiet to hear the first time she gave it, and Alec had to prompt her again before she whispered, "Everett Whitelock, sir."

A flash of unease shot through Alec. An emergency meeting, indeed.

Alec followed the young girl out of his office, idly wondering if she was 10 or 11 years old now – sometimes it was hard to keep track with the Blackthorn brood.  She left him at the door of the Council Hall, and he gave her a reassuring smile before pushing open the heavy wooden door and walking through.

The first thing he noticed was how full the galleries were, and the second thing was how few of those faces looked friendly. The flicker of unease in the pit of his stomach kindled into a small burn of apprehension. He recognized many of the Shadowhunters gathered foremost in the galleries. Ravenkey. Blackblood. Dragonway. Montfleur. Belletower. Everett's sycophants, and plenty more visible behind them.

Whitelock himself was standing up on the dais dressed in an expensive grey suit, leaning against the railing just a few feet away from Alec's place in the Consul's seat, chatting easily with Inquistor Everdale. Alec steeled himself and forced his face to look relaxed as he climbed the dais comfortably and settled back into the green leather chair to survey the crowd.

Alec cleared his throat and called out to the Shadowhunters who were still whispering behind hands and casting glances up at him, "Please be seated. This emergency session is now called to order, and I would like to open it by asking what your agenda is."

"I think that's what we'd all like to ask you, Consul," Everett pounced on the moment, sweeping his arm out expansively to include the onlookers. "I have discovered a series of events that have caused me great concern over the past few days. I called the Council members to hear my findings, as they may affect us all."

Alec's heart sank, but he couldn't stop him. Any member of the Council could call an emergency meeting if there was due cause, and so long as they notified as many Council members as possible, the session would be considered to have quorum, and its actions would be binding. Everett had the floor now.