Drawn to the Flame- Book 1 Council of the Light Series

10

Beatrix sat by the window seat in the upmarket Druids' Blessing Tavern. Rosa had a bedroom with her brother. Clarence and Beatrix shared. There had been some trouble with Bobbin and Beatrix being allowed to stay. The Druids' Blessing rarely admitted Humans, so Clarence ended up paying more for the privilege. The rooms had real mattresses stuffed with feathers suspended on ropes that were slung between the bedframes. The window had glass in it, and the candles were beeswax, not tallow. Even the fire was pleasant, and burnt logs, not green wood and dried dung. She looked out over a high white wall into a heavy set of trees which obscured her view of the Druid temple beyond. "In my world-" she paused and looked at Clarence as if expecting him to shut her up, but he didn't. "In my world, there was the Church and the State. In our history the Church had a function like the Druids, offering charity, guidance, administering the law, and the state was like your magical nobility- making the rules, collecting the taxes and forming defence." She paused, and he wondered why she was making the comparison. "Over the time that system ran, a ruling family never was in power for over two hundred years."

"That's your world," Clarence shrugged. "If the life tree doesn't burn green, the Empire has no ruler. The O'Leary family has been on the Leprechaun throne for five thousand years."

"Rosa told me that the Druid Temple has a spa with waters that will cure skin ailments like blisters and once a year the Druids open it up for pilgrims to use?"

"That's right."

"On the midsummer and midwinter's solstice?"

He nodded.

"Apparently the roof of the spa is shrouded in midnight and sparkles like the stars in the heavens and the temple floor is covered in grass and the pools of water are as warm as skin to the touch."

"It's not open and it won't be for months," He observed her. She was skirting a bigger issue.

"I know but-" she winced, "I just want to see something extraordinary. You disappeared at Porlock Weir, right in front of my eyes, and ever since I've wondered what else there is that people can do."

"I can do it again if you wish," he shrugged, and he came to sit with her. Outside was so bleak it looked like it was about to snow. "Light, I wish they would hurry."

It was half an hour at least since the Humanist soldiers had climbed out of Clarence's window, across the branch of the tree that brushed the roof of the Inn and snuck into the Druid's territory.

Beatrix's eyes never left Clarence, "Tell me about the Humanists?" she asked.

"I'd rather not." He patted his pockets to find his tobacco. Beatrix kicked him. He rubbed his shin and gave in.

"They want as their name suggests-"

"And you are one?"

"Yes- I was, I-" He paused, before Earth he would have not hesitated to tell her he was a Humanist through and through. Ready to fight for Humans to have their rights. But seeing what they did to Earth gave him pause for thought. "I still want Human equality."

"Doesn't every human?"

Clarence shrugged and turned his head to look out of the warped, tiny squares of glass. "The Council believes that Humans are a weak species who need protecting. That they are un-evolved."

She picked under her nail and looked out the window again. "So Bobbin pins his hope on you, because nobody who matters would listen to him."

"I won't go back, even if it means going against my principles and turning my back on the Humanists. I can't."

The moment between them hung in the air, heavy with unspoken excuses. A bell started to toll and Beatrix strained to look out the window, "I can't see a thing," she complained as the door banged open and Rosa stood wide-eyed with a dagger in her hand.