By the distinguished grey in their hair and the grim set of their faces, I guessed they must have been middle-aged or older. Two men in military uniforms with a line of gold stars down their shoulders looked perennially bored. Everyone else, including several women, wore the same homogeneous, dark, expensive suits.
Around the rectangle, everyone held their pens poised over white papers. They fidgeted in place, waiting. It felt to me like we were waiting for a board meeting to begin. I turned my head and struggled against more dizziness. Matt moved to stand at one end of the table. He tugged at his tie as if it would strangle him. Behind him, a long, oval table was built on a level above the rectangular one. Other people sat behind the table with microphones and looked down at us, like judges observing a trial. Beyond the higher table, through an opening in the circle, raised, red-fabric stadium seats were set up in a spectator section.
I eyed the impossibly high ceiling. At the very top of the room, unlit private boxes with glass fronts offered eagle-eye views to the proceedings below. It reminded me of being in the gladiator pit on the mermaid island. Instead of swords, though, I imagined the battles waged here relied on words. However, I didn’t see any shapes or movement inside the private boxes and most of the stadium seats were also empty. I gathered this was a secret meeting.
A man seated to the Queen’s right leaned close to her, whispering, “Are you sure about this?”
The Queen gave a small sigh. “We have been waiting for this since I told you about the cause of the tsunamis. You would not be here if you did not agree, Prime Minister.”
The man nodded reluctantly. A mustached man at the other end of the table cleared his throat.
He intoned, “The emergency session of the Security Council will now come to order.”
The United Nations Security Council, I realized. The table quieted.
“Let the minutes show, the participants on this day are as follows…” Mustache-Man started making introductions.
I tuned out as another wave of dizziness hit, making me clutch the rails on the wheelchair tightly. The names of several countries were announced. I only caught the words “the President of the United States” and instinctively turned to look at her. She sat removed from my field of vision so I had to crane my neck to see her. That little bit of exertion rebounded on me, and I had to combat a wave of nausea by staring dejectedly at the boring beige of the carpeted floor.
I must have dozed off for a little bit because when I looked up, the table no longer held bored attendants. The world leaders were talking with Matt, Grey, and Colin. Colin was in his beast form. His forehead protruded like a Cro-Magnon and the elongated incisors peeked out from his lips. Tension screamed from the tight set of his shoulders. Yet, the others around the table seemed unconcerned that a gargoyle roamed in their midst.
One of the men in the military uniforms stood up. “We understand that this Vane person has become a threat, but surely, with your power, you can restrain him.”
Matt colored. “He has taken my power.”
“This is grave. How are we supposed to defend ourselves from a being that is capable of so much wanton destruction? If they were to learn that the tsunamis were being caused by supernatural wizards... that you even exist, the ensuing chaos would be unimaginable,” the US President said.
“I’m more concerned about what’s happening now,” a man in a grey suit beside the President said. “You said Merlin had critical intelligence about the global blackout.”
The President added, “Indeed, I can tell you, it’s been pure hell trying to keep the people calm. If we can give them answers, is it Vane—”
“No.” The Queen replied, “Vane didn’t cause the blackout. What happens in the next month will be much worse than a few days of no power and satellites going offline. Merlin will explain the details.”
The Queen nodded at Matt. He recapped the events in Greece—the discovery of Poseidon’s trident and the mermaids—and I tried to wrap my head around their words. They knew about gargoyles and wizards. They knew about Merlin. And Vane.
Matt took a small, velvet box out of his pocket. “It was after I read about Alexander’s quest for the water of life that we were led to uncover this.”
He pulled on gloves and opened the