once the layer of topsoil with the leaves and vines was cleared away, toff turned to digging up the clay. briefly, he worried over touching the roots to get them out of the clay, but he had to put that out of his mind and get to work. mother fern would be waiting.

chapter 4

"i know you two have been fretting over this, so i brought you in to hear the decision." the queen had invited both her sons to the inner circle meeting. ry and tory had only gotten to attend a handful of other meetings, none of which dealt with anything as serious as this. the decision on where to send haldis and sark would be revealed to them tonight.

nearly all the uncles were coming, including ry and tory's fathers. only uncle norian, uncle thurlow and kifirin were missing. tory sat beside ry on one of the sofas in the queen's library. the library was spacious, with row upon row of books of all kinds, plus the more modern vids and other forms of storage. rich rugs covered blue-gray marble floors, veined with gold and silver.

artwork was scattered across the library's walls; some by artists long dead and most of it worth fortunes. the library was a good place to spend a rainy afternoon, as long as an inner circle meeting wasn't being held there. uncle drake and uncle drew had come in with their mother, and the two boys followed. drew had an arm around the queen until the others arrived.

"young ones," uncle gavin spared the boys a rare smile as he settled in a chair nearby. uncle rigo walked in right behind gavin and sat in a chair next to him. uncle rigo ran a spy network for the queen. ry and tory weren't supposed to know that, but they did.

uncle aryn taught history at the university in lissia and sometimes ran council meetings with aurelius. uncle winkler gave the boys a wolfish grin as he settled on the opposite side of gavin and rigo. uncle tony sat beside uncle winkler, uncle roff and uncle shadow came in and then uncle reemagar and uncle connegar, the larentii, folded in.

uncle reemagar was short for a larentii-barely eight feet tall. uncle connegar, though, was nine and a half feet tall. his blue skin was a shade lighter than reemagar's, and his hair was a lighter blond, too-almost the color of wheat. the larentii stood for the meeting. uncle karzac arrived and then gardevik and erland, the boys' fathers, arrived last.

"mom's pacing," tory jerked his head toward their mother, who was walking back and forth in front of all of them, her arms held tightly around her.

"she doesn't like this," ry muttered.

"keep your voice down, son," erland scooted ry over so he could sit. garde sat beside tory.

"the council wants to send those boys to evensun," queen lissa didn't preface her statement with any words that might soften the blow.

"i thought you'd have the final say," tory spoke up. garde put an arm around his son.

"honey, this is a capital offense-that means that someone almost died over this. and i'll be honest-that boy would have died if connegar and karzac hadn't gone to tend him right away. his internal injuries were too severe. the council passes judgment in cases like this, not i. the only one who can circumvent this decision is kifirin, and he agrees with them."

"what about their parents?" uncle winkler asked.

"they will give me a decision in the morning," lissa said. she sounded tired to ry. tory was thinking the same thing-he spared a swift glance at his brother.

"how did the vote go?" uncle drake asked.

"ninety-four to send them to harifa edus, two hundred sixteen for evensun. with two abstentions." ry looked over at tory. the council had overridden their mother's suggestion by a very large margin.

"when will they be taken?" ry asked.

"tomorrow afternoon. drake, drew and gavin will drop them off." the queen breathed a troubled sigh. this was likely a death sentence-everyone knew evensun was populated with criminals and unsavory characters. and once you were placed there, you were never allowed to leave. the planet was heavily shielded.

"my love, the child almost died." lissa looked up in surprise at roff's words. his wings rustled after he spoke-he normally didn't involve himself in the politics of le-ath veronis. not to this extent, anyway.

"i know, honey. now two other children are likely to die as a result. yes, i know they did this, but i'm not convinced we have all the ones involved in the crime." tory stole another look at ry. they knew the truth of that statement, but saying anything now would only get them in trouble. ry found himself hoping that nissa's protection jewel would keep toff safe from further attacks.

"son, what did you do?" toff itched all over and blinked in agony at corent's question. he couldn't stop scratching, and a red rash completely covered his face, hands and arms. corent quickly pulled toff's tunic over his head and found the rash spreading to toff's neck and chest.

"father, i scooped the poison weed out of the way before i dug for the clay underneath." toff was still scratching.

"no," corent whispered before shouting for redbird.

tiearan and rain had come, bringing mother rose, the fae's best healer, with them. toff had been soaked head to heels in an oatmeal bath, even as mother rose used power to neutralize the poison from the roots of the plant. toff was beginning to feel halfway normal when he overheard a conversation between tiearan and corent outside the bathing room.

"i eradicated the poison weed myself-there shouldn't be any of it inside the perimeter," tiearan insisted.

"he can't go outside the perimeter-not without one of us with him," corent replied angrily. "someone holding power placed that plant, unless your power is fading!"

"my power is not fading and i used crystal to assist in the eradication," tiearan shot back. "there shouldn't be any of it inside our boundary. we will go and see this for ourselves. bring crystal and come."

"lie back and let the oatmeal do its work," mother rose pushed toff gently back in the tub. toff settled in with a sigh.

"here are the plants." corent used power to lift some of the withered, poisonous leaves toff had dug up that afternoon. it was still light outside, but the natural wobble of the planet had it tilted slightly away, giving off a dimmer light than the morning sun.

"there is so much of it," tiearan breathed. "how did this happen?"

"you're the one in charge; i expect you to find answers to this," corent grumbled. "if mother rose hadn't come, we would have faced a more serious problem. i don't think the queen would be happy to see this so soon after the attack."

"then i am thankful this was a problem we could deal with ourselves," tiearan sighed and focused his power on the crystal globe he held. it took nearly half an hour to get rid of the poison weed, roots and all. corent and tiearan then went to visit mother fern and used even more power to eliminate any signs of the plant from the shovel and the clay toff had brought to her.

"you'll stay home for two days and then mother rose will check on your rash before allowing you to go back to school or to mother fern's," redbird set breakfast in front of toff. corent was already eating.

"son, we've always gotten rid of the poison weed wherever we were, so i never thought to teach you everything about it. all of it is poison, not just the leaves and vines. it is dangerous to burn it, too, so never try that. it can make you extremely ill if you breathe any of the smoke."

"i'll remember." toff would certainly remember. after he'd dropped the clay off with mother fern, the itching had become unbearable until he was nearly crazy with it by the time he'd gotten home the day before. he'd barely had time to slip the jeweled necklace off and shove it in his trouser pocket before his foster-father found him in the washroom, scratching and trying to scrub his skin. corent recognized the rash and called for help immediately. toff had been saved from a terrible and worsening rash due to corent's swift action.

he hadn't forgotten tiearan's and corent's words from the evening before, either. someone had deliberately placed that plant inside the boundary. more than likely, they'd put it right where toff would come in contact with it. it made toff angry, but there wasn't anything he could do about it.

toff had gotten his necklace out of his trousers, too and slipped it under his pillow. he didn't want redbird finding it when she washed his clothing. toff wouldn't be able to wear it again until mother rose was done checking on him. the rash had spread to his chest area and she looked at that along with his hands, arms and face. he was glad he didn't have to go out of the house until the necklace was safely around his neck again.

toff's thoughts often wandered to the girl who'd given it to him. none of the others his age or close to his age, even, had shown any concern for his welfare. ever. but three strangers had shown up from nowhere, listened to him and then offered what protection they could. toff sighed at the complexities of his life.

"your mother didn't want you to see this, but your fathers thought you should come." drake and drew weren't having ry and tory practice with them, today. they were going to witness the final judgment against the two in the dungeon. ry and tory were never invited inside the council chamber, which was large enough to house the three hundred ten members of the council plus assistants and others necessary to conduct meetings. it could hold six hundred easily, and if you walked into it while it was empty, it echoed.

ry and tory followed drake and drew, who were dressed in full battle gear-black leathers and two blades crossed over each back. they caught up with gavin and tony, who were clothed in the formal palace uniforms of black with silver trim. their uncles were representing the queen's palace guards and the queen's army at the proceedings.

"sit here," uncle drake led them to seats in the gallery in the back. the seats were raised so anyone sitting there could see the entire council. a set of steps led up to the balcony. ry turned in his seat to watch the vid crew setting up in a similar gallery on the opposite wall. all the council meetings were recorded and some were broadcast live, not just to le-ath veronis but to other alliance worlds as well.