She had been gone for hours. The sun had long since dipped beneath the horizon, and I’d scoured the immediate area around the cabin and nearby villages at least a dozen times. I’d been able to follow her footprints down my little mountain to the main path and even a short way after that, but the prints had become muddled by others, and some snow had drifted with the breeze, which made tracking more difficult. I had returned to my cabin only in hopes that she would show up there looking for me.

She hadn’t, and now I had a thick ball of fear in my stomach that nothing seemed to ease.

I paced the floor of my living area repeatedly, my boots stomping against the hewn wood, leaving damp tracks of melted snow. The fire I’d built before our argument was still crackling, and I resented it for its cheerfulness. Nothing should be cheerful right now. Roxanne was missing.

My ears pricked as I heard a noise outside, and my heart leaped into my throat as my front door burst open. Almost instantly, my elation collapsed back into despair again as my gaze fell on Silah. He was slightly out of breath and looked more than a little worried.

“What?” I demanded in A’li-uud, my pulse quickening. “What has happened? Where is she?”

“You have been summoned to Forum,” he replied.

I blinked at him. “What are you talking about? I cannot go to Forum right now; Roxanne is gone!”

“Elder Du’ciact said Roxanne was brought to P’otes-tat Ulti. Lokos was with her,” Silah explained, trying to sound reassuring in the midst of my panic. “He said you are to report immediately.”

A sensation unlike one I’d ever felt before filled me from my littlest toe to the tip of my scalp. Relief, bewilderment, and indignation were the most recognizable of the emotions, but there were others mixed in to create a cocktail of incomprehensibility. I found myself thanking the Grand Circle over and over in my mind for allowing Lokos to be with Roxanne when she was brought to P’otes-tat Ulti, because, in all likelihood, she would be terrified.

“Thank you,” I said to Silah.

He nodded and left, and I followed him out. Before I’d taken more than two steps outside, I turned my face upward and jumped.

* * *

P’otes-tat Ulti was the Elder City located at the single point where every Albaterran kingdom met. It was a sacred place meant exclusively for the Council. Forums, trials, and Elderhood ceremonies were held within its towering walls. It was also the location where the order for the attack on Earth had been given.

I had only been to the Elder City twice: the first time for my father’s coronation into Elderhood, the second for my brother’s. Ceremonies were the only circumstances under which civilians were permitted into P’otes-tat Ulti, with the exception of trials when defendants were brought in for questioning and sentencing. It had always seemed an ominous, foreboding place to me as a young A’li-uud. Even in the midst of the afternoon, it had a darkness to it that I’d never liked. Now, as an adult and an Elder designate, it was no less foreboding but certainly less intimidating, and I approached the massive gate with squared shoulders.

“Elder De’inde—” I began, addressing the guard who stood at the gate’s hinges.

“I know who you are,” he interjected, staring me dead in the eye with a less-than-friendly expression. “And you are no Elder yet.”

The animosity I received from him was so unexpected that I didn’t even have time to respond to him with the scorn I ordinarily would have. Instead, I gaped wordlessly at him as he opened the gate and motioned me inside with a broad sweep of his arm. When I walked past him, he slammed the gate behind me and resumed his post, his chin tilted upward imperiously.

P’otes-tat Ulti had one particular feature famous around Albaterra: its grand entrance doors. They were two of the finest constructs ever to be seen on the planet, and they were, perhaps, the greatest symbol of our race’s unity. Standing well over twice my height, they towered over the path leading to them like imposing faces, leering at any who approached. I was fascinated by those doors, no less so in my highly anxious state as I approached them than I had been during my prior visits. They were made of materials from each Albaterran kingdom, giving them an asymmetrical appearance that added to their magnificence. Swirling, flourished wood from the rainforests was lined with brooches of sparkling aspex.

Hicorn horns from Campestria curved in elegant arcing frames. Beads of shells from Maquaria glittered in uneven increments, offset by the dull, rich tones of serpent bones from Dhal’at. If I hadn’t been under time constraints and desperate to know Roxanne’s status, I would have been happy to stand and admire those doors through the night.

As I reached for one, however, a short, slender A’li-uud appeared from the side of the great stone building. “You are to enter this way, please,” he said in a high-pitched voice. Had it not been for the fringe of facial hair along his chin, I would have thought him to be a child.

I followed his motioning hand, and he led me to a side door I had never seen before. It was a simple, ordinary door, nothing to rival that of the front, and it opened into a room I didn’t know P’otes-tat Ulti contained. The walls were made entirely of stone and seemed to curve in a circular shape, giving the room the illusion of smallness when, in fact, it was actually rather expansive. There were several chairs, all hard-seated with tall backs, and bookshelves that bent with the walls. The ceiling was extremely low—I could have reached up and touched it without effort—but it didn’t add to the cramped feeling of the space.

Opposite the door I’d entered was a second door, this one just as simple and unimpressive. I walked toward it and wrapped my hand around the knob, but it didn’t turn. There were voices speaking A’li-uud on the other side, though, and I held my breath to hear them more clearly.

“…have lost control of everything. Nothing has been…”

“…cannot possibly believe we would consider…”

“…do what we should have done from the beginning…”

“He will never allow it.” I recognized this voice. It was Duke, his deep, coarse timbre cascading throughout the room and pressing through the separation of the door to my ear. “He would die before he would permit her death.”

The hairs on the back of my neck stood up as I realized what they were talking about, and fresh waves of anger rolled through my stomach. I clenched my teeth and cupped my hand around my ear to better hear the conversation.

“…against us, what other choice do we have? If his loyalties are with her, he must face the consequences that come with such a commitment.”

“You are talking about my brother!” Duke’s swell of consternation flooded hot in my ear, and I immediately felt a surge of gratitude toward him. Our fight had clearly done nothing to splinter the bonds of brotherhood between us. “I do not know if his loyalties are with her, but, even if they are, my loyalties are still with him! I will not allow him to be harmed, no matter the reason!”

“You speak out of bias, Du’ciact,” said another. I recognized this voice as well; it belonged to Vi’den, one of the oldest and longest-reigning Elders on the current Council. He was known as a kind A’li-uud and widely respected for his wisdom. “You, yourself, did not fulfill your duties for the love of a human.”

I gripped the knob and tried to turn it again, determined to get into that room and say what needed to be said, but it still wouldn’t give.

“Emily has never compromised my love of the A’li-uud,” Duke retorted. “As I am certain Tabitha has never done of Rex, nor Roxanne of Dane. I know my brother, Vi’den. His priority has always been and always will be the safety of our people. The love of a woman, human or not, could not change that.”

I tried rattling the knob, infuriated by everything I was hearing and incensed by the last part. Never had I said I loved Roxanne, but here they were, the entire Council, holding a Forum in which my supposed love was evidently an important topic.

“We can argue about this all night long, but we have gathered here with a purpose,” Vi’den said sagely. “We are here to address the humans’ request for a peace treaty.” There was a pause. “Please bring in our guests.”

I heard footsteps, and bumps rose on my skin as I recognized the sound of Roxanne’s light gait. She was so near, but I couldn’t get to her. Then, I heard something that made my stomach drop to my knees.

“Council,” Vi’den announced, “we welcome tonight Roxanne Rigby, Ambassador of Alien Relations, and General Rodney P. Morgan.”