in fine clothing, waited.
Captain Hessel gave his soldiers an order to halt and they stopped before the doors. He went over to the finely dressed man and gave a slight bow. "Greetings, Lord Genela. I have brought Dominic and his charge, as instructed."
"My thanks, Captain." Genela replied airily, sounding as if he didn't mean it. He looked over at the group and frowned. "I do not see Brother Jonas. Didn't your instructions say to require his presence as well?"
Before Hessel could answer, Dominic spoke up. "Enough, Genela; Captain Hessel did his duty. As you well know, as Chief Cleric, Jonas does not have to come at the beck and call of the king. However, I'm sure he'll arrive as soon as he finishes his business. Now, let's get this over with before I do something you'll regret." His hard blue eyes seemed to bore into Genela's, who recoiled slightly.
"Of course, Dominic." Genela gave a sarcastic little bow. "It is, as always, such a pleasure to see you." He turned back to Captain Hessel. "You may leave us, Captain." Captain Hessel gave another bow to Genela, saluted Dominic, and led his men back down the hall.
Genela made a sharp gesture to the guards, who stepped back and opened the doors. Jake could see a large and wide hall, brightly lit, beyond the doors. Genela walked into the hall, with Dominic a step behind. Jake caught up with Dominic and walked by his side. A wide red carpet ran from the door across the room to a raised dais against the far wall. The dais was made up of three large semi-circular steps, the widest at the bottom, the smallest at the top. On the top of the dais, two large gilded chairs stood, side by side. The chairs were made the same, tall backed, with wide arms covered in leather, thick cushions on the seats. Above the chairs, hanging on the back wall, a large banner loomed. It was white, with a green and gold twisted edge. Centered in the banner was a golden crown over a golden eagle. The chairs were empty.
Once inside, Jake was surprised to see at least fifty to sixty people standing around the hall, most dressed in fine clothes like Genela. Jake could feel the eyes of everyone turn towards him and Dominic; he was conscious of his torn and dirty clothes under the cloak in this sea of finery. The faint murmur of voices that filled the hall died for a moment as they stopped to look, then restarted, a little louder than before.
Jake glanced at Dominic, whose face was neutral, though his eyes were still angry; he was apparently unconcerned as he strode forward towards the chairs. As some of the people moved away from the dais, Jake could see that there was a smaller chair set at the base of the stairs, slightly to the right of the dais chairs.
Genela stopped a few feet from the base of the dais, turned to face Dominic and said. "Wait here. The king shall be arriving shortly." With a smirk, he moved off into the crowd.
Jake leaned over and whispered to Dominic. "Where I come from, there is no king. I don't know what I'm supposed to do."
"Just copy what I do, boy. You'll be fine." Dominic replied, eyes facing forward.
Jake glanced around nervously. He saw the open stares and whispers as the crowd watched him, increasing his anxiety. He noticed that there were several other doors around the hall, smaller than the main doors, each one guarded. There was one set of double-doors set into the wall off to the right side of the dais. Two guards were posted there.
As he was looking at those doors, one opened and a tall, thin dark-haired man carrying a short staff and dressed in green and gold silk stepped into the room. He took two steps forward and stopped. When he banged his staff on the floor three times, the sound echoing through the hall, the murmuring faded to silence.
"King Kristin the First, Sovereign Lord of Sanduas and Protector of the Realm, comes." He said loudly, a surprisingly deep voice coming out of that thin frame. He banged his staff three more times. "He comes."
The guards opened both doors and Jake saw a man in his fifties, average height, slightly paunchy, with pale skin and a halo of gray hair surrounding the bald top of his head. He was dressed in a fine green silk doublet and pants,