Weldon's Arc

Chapter 8 of 9

The next morning the Queen took the orb to a small room behind her study. Weldon was called at noon. The room held a stone-ringed fire pit with purple flames flickering low. Sailor Pluto stood beside it, staff at her shoulder. Luna Starcrest sat on a bench against the wall, hands folded, eyes red. The Queen placed the dark orb on the rim of the pit. "It will not speak for me," she said. "It may speak for Pluto. Time leaves a scent on a thing like this. She can follow it." Pluto knelt and turned the orb in her glove. "I need a witness who has touched it and lived," she said. She looked at Weldon. "You stood in the room when it woke. The trail will know you." Weldon stepped to the pit. The purple flame did not warm his face. Pluto set the orb between them and laid her staff across the stones. "Hold the form," she said. "Do not transform. Just hold what you are." He held. Pluto closed her eyes. The flames stretched thin and went white. Images moved in the smoke — a hand in a gray sleeve, a corridor he did not know, a seal pressed into wax. Then a face he had seen once in court, a minor advisor who had voted against his audience. The face held for three breaths. Pluto opened her eyes and named the man, quietly, to the Queen. The Queen nodded once. "Take him before sundown," she said to Luna. Luna stood and left without a word. The flames sank back to purple. Weldon let the form drop. His knees did not shake this time. Pluto stayed kneeling by the pit. "You held longer than I asked," she said. "That is the weight you can keep." She reached into her sleeve and took out a small object wrapped in dark cloth. She set it on the stones between them and folded the cloth back. It was a statue no taller than her hand — a green globe held in a gold crescent, the symbol of her planet, polished bright. "The debt between us," she said. "I am closing it." Weldon started to speak. She raised one finger. "I have been alone a long time. I learned what a friend is by not having one. You came back from your father's hall and did not pretend the trip cost you nothing. That is enough." She pressed the statue into his palm. "Keep this where you can see it. When you need me, I will come." Weldon closed his hand around the gold. The Queen watched them both and did not interrupt. "One hand is named," she said at last. "There will be others above him. We are not done." She lifted the dark orb from the rim and slid it back into her sleeve. "But tonight you eat with my Guardians. Sit beside Pluto." Weldon bowed. He kept the statue in his fist all the way to the door.