"But only one played the part of guardian; the other was merely a companion," said the elf.

"Exactly."

"I sincerely hope you are not contemplating necromancy," said another witch, visibly shaken. "I cannot even imagine the thing that would arise to watch over the entrance to our realm, nor the cost that would be paid by the witches who partic.i.p.ated in that kind of black magic."

Dardennes frowned, shaking his head. "Of course not; we are suggesting nothing of the kind. Rather, we are putting forth the idea of convincing the guardians' mates to take up the former guardians' mantels of protector to the realms. We believe it's true to say that they have the same skills and powers as the original guardians."

The room went quiet for a little while as everyone thought his words through.

Aidan was the first to speak. "How will you do this? Do you plan to speak to the guardians and their mates? Is this even possible?"

"That has yet to be determined. We do not know exactly how difficult they will be to reach, contact, or even communicate with."

I felt Ben's eyes on me, noticing his head turning in my direction, but I ignored him and spoke. "They're on the other side of the Gray. I talked to The Dark of Blackthorn and saw his mate too when I was there."

Red choked.

Everyone turned to him in alarm, but he waved us off, rubbing his throat and gesturing for us to continue.

"Tell us," said Celine, moving closer to the table and leaning over it a little, her eyes never leaving my face.

I snuck a look at Ben, but he was staring straight ahead again, the only hint that he wasn't happy with me the muscle twitching at his jaw.

"I was at the entrance to the compound with Ben and some others, fighting back some demons there, when I ran into who I thought was Spike. It was Spike, but he'd been possessed. This demon-Spike is wandering around here somewhere in the compound, actually. I left him with Tony a while ago."

Dardennes held up a hand. "Actually, he has been detained until we can set things to rights with our incubus."

I nodded. "Good. I'm glad. So anyway, I got a little distracted with him, but then Ben came and we worked together to get rid of the demons. Or at least, that's what I thought we were doing."

"It worked well enough," he said, his tone grim.

I kicked him under the table, knowing he meant me sending myself away was part of what worked for him. Jerk.

"For some reason, when I sent all the demons back to the Underworld, I also sent Tim the pixie and myself over there, too. So later, in the process of trying to get back through the Gray, I met the dragon and his mate."

"Yeah, not a picnic, people, let me tell you," added Tim.

"How is it that you were caught in your own magic?" asked Celeste.

I shrugged. "I have no idea."

"I know you use visualization to aid in your communication with the elements," said Celine. "What did you picture in your mind when you were sending all the demons back?"

"Well, I pictured all the good guys anch.o.r.ed to the ground and all the bad guys swept away."

I glanced at Ben and saw a wicked-looking smile creep across his mouth.

"Were the anchors tree roots by any chance?" asked the green elf across the room. "That would explain our warriors being rooted to the ground."

"Yeah, as a matter of fact, they were," I answered. "I learned the technique from Maggie."

"Did you include yourself in the rooting?" asked Red.

"Uhhh ... " I had to think about that for a second. "No. I didn't."

"And the pixie?" asked another fae.

"No. Him neither. He wasn't standing on the ground, so I guess I just ... kind of forgot about him."

Tim farted right behind my ear.

I sighed, thinking about how I'd put my rep on the line for this d.i.n.kus; and now he was sharing his b.u.t.t smoke with the council members. Perfect. I resisted the urge to reach back and flick him in the fart box, choosing instead to immediately make plans to get my retribution, when we were once again back in our room. He was so going down.

"Perhaps that explains how you ended up there, then," said Celine, smiling.

It's almost as if she could read my mind. "That's great news. Seriously. I was trying to figure out what the heck I'd done that was so bad that I'd end up there. Glad to know it was just one of my standard screw-ups and not me having a black soul."

Several fae around the table snickered.

Dardennes cleared his throat. "So now that we know that the guardians are reachable, the question is, who is going to make contact with them? And how will we convince them that they should take up their posts at the portals once again - only this time alone - to be responsible for the pa.s.sing of souls going in and out?"

No one spoke for a long time. I scanned the expressions around the table, looking for clues that anyone might have ideas, but no one spoke, appearing more intent on doing what I was doing - looking for someone else to have a flash of brilliance.

Tim's was the first voice I heard.

"You need to get the gray elves in on this conversation. They have all the records going back to the beginning of our time. If anyone knows how to woo the heart of a dragon, it's them. And possibly the dragon slayers too, Shayla and Garrett."

No one registered having heard him, including Celine who I sometimes suspected of being able to, so I cleared my throat and acted as the pixie amplifier.

"Tim says you should talk to the gray elves and the dragon slayers. He says if anyone would know what to do with dragons, it's them."

Heads began nodding around the table and my heart swelled a little with pride at the fact that it was my roommate who'd made it happen. It wasn't the answer they were looking for, but at least it was pointing us in a direction.

"I a.s.sume since we have no other suggestions, that everyone agrees on this course of action?"

The heads bobbed again.

"Excellent." Dardennes looked at me. "Jayne, would you be so kind as to contact Tony and ask him to come to our meeting post haste with Gregale?"

I frowned. "You mean, like, now?"

"Yes."

I stood to go.

"What are you doing, Jayne?" he asked.

"I'm going to get Tony, like you asked."

Dardennes smiled patiently. "Use your connection - the one that is not physical."

My mouth kind of hung open for a little while until my brain put together what he was saying. "Ohhhh, you want me to try and vibe him?"

"Yes."

"Okaaaaay ..." I sat back down and looked nervously at the faces staring back at me. "I've never done this in front of anyone before."

"As I understand it, you summoned your friend from the Underworld. Surely summoning him from the other side of the compound is not beyond your capabilities."

Several fae around the table twittered, and the embarra.s.sment I felt made my face turn red. I didn't respond, not trusting myself to say the right things. Instead, I closed my eyes and yelled as loud as I could in my head. Tony! Get your sweet a.s.s over to the council meeting, like ASAP! And bring Gregale with you! On the double! We need you over here! Run! I tried to feel desperate and needy. Hopefully, he'd pick up on something and at least come to investigate.

I opened my eyes and shrugged my shoulders. "Done. No guarantees that anyone will show up, though."

Ben looked down at the table, but I could still see the self-satisfied smile on his face. I kicked him again, but he ignored me. I knew then that he and I were going to have to have a serious talk when this meeting was over. Maybe he was okay with things all messed up between us, but I refused to live with him constantly mocking me, and me always wanting to send him to h.e.l.l.

"Moving on, then," said Dardennes. "a.s.suming we can find a way to contact the dragons and do what we must to convince them to stand guard once more, we need a team to work on reversing the seals that were placed on the portals over a thousand years ago. Red, I hope we can count on you to head that group?"

The old man-witch nodded. "Of course."

All of the other witches around the table also a.s.sented.

"What are we going to do about Leck and Malena?" I asked, without any preamble.

All I received was confused expressions in response.

"Well, F-Y-I, Leck is in the Gray right now and he has a troll for a friend, so I a.s.sume Malena is messing around in there, too. Maybe we should plan some sort of rescue or arrest mission."

"Explain yourself, changeling," said Niles. For some reason he didn't sound quite as cranky this time, though. And even Ben turned to see what I had to say, his expression noticeably less annoyed.

"As I was leaving the Gray, I was grabbed from behind by a troll. Leck was with him. That's about all I can tell you. I recognized his voice very clearly."

"He didn't say anything else to you? Are you sure?" asked Celine, her voice very sweet. Her kind eyes made me feel a lot less inept in the midst of all these much more confident fae.

"He might have said something. Ummm ... I think he wanted to show me something. Maybe."

"What?" asked Niles.

"I have no idea. I whacked his friend over the head with my weapon and my friends pulled me out."

"You hit a troll? And made it out of the Gray?" asked Jared, sounding like he didn't believe me.

"Yeah. It helped that I had Blackie, my dragon fang. I don't think I could have done it without him. The Green is pretty gross over there. I couldn't use it like I can here."

"I thought the dragon-born weapons lacked power in the Gray," said the green elf.

"Normally, yeah," I said. "That's what I found out. But when that troll grabbed me, part of me was outside the Gray and part was in, so maybe that's why it suddenly started working again. I know it didn't before that. And in the Underworld it didn't work either."

Niles and Jared were both nodding their heads. I saw them exchange a look, but I had no idea what it meant. I made a mental note to ask Jared after dinner.

Dardennes spoke next. "Has anyone here had contact with either Leck or Malena since the last time we saw them at a council meeting?"

Everyone but Ben was shaking their heads no. He was just staring at the table top, lost in thought or something. I nudged him and leaned over close, whispering, "Well? Talk to your friends recently?"

I meant it as a joke, but he apparently didn't take it that way. He whipped his head around and scowled at me. "What are you trying to insinuate, Jayne?"

I backed up, a little shocked at the venom. "Nothing. Geez, ease up on the juice, man."

He turned his attention back to the group.

I narrowed my eyes at the side of his head, the only thing I could see now that he was back to ignoring me. Guilty conscience, anyone? I was going to have a serious heart-to-heart with Ben. Tonight. No more messing around. He was going to tell me what the deal was with his att.i.tude, his plans for the future, and his intentions with me.

I started having mini-plays in my head, acting out our future conversation, trying to figure out what he might say to certain questions and then what responses I'd have for him. As usual, I was seriously awesome at the conversation when it was all in my head. It was when it happened in reality that I tended to kind of screw things up and say the first thing that popped into my head.

I was distracted from my play-acting at being awesome with one-liners when the door opened and Tony and Gregale came bursting in.

"Jayne!" yelled Tony, as soon he was past the threshold. "What's wrong?!" He was sweaty and holding out his axe menacingly in front of him. Gregale was right behind him, also sweaty, and carrying a miniature sword. He didn't look scary at all - more like silly than anything, but at least he was trying.

"Nice weapon, Gregale," I said. "I'm impressed."

He cleared his throat, lowering the blade to his side and delivering a quick bow to the group. "Forgive our intrusion. There appears to have been some form of miscommunication."

I knew in my heart that Gregale wanted to scowl at me, but he was too professional of a gray elf to do it. I'd have to be sure to meet up with him later so he could give me a good scolding. I wouldn't want him running around this place with his undies in a bunch over me making him look like a fool.

"Jayne, you called me and told us to come, right?" asked Tony, looking from me to Dardennes, an apology in his eyes, too.

"Yes, I did. Please come in."

"Quite right," said Dardennes. "Actually, you were summoned by the council. We asked Jayne to manage the technicalities." He looked over at me. "Perhaps next time a little less urgency might be called for."

I shrugged. "Sure. No problem."

Tony sent me the look that told me he was going to give me a hard time later, so I stuck my tongue out at him and then winked. I saw his anger dissipate into the air around him when he smiled back. Poor kid couldn't be mad at me for more than thirty seconds, tops.

"You have us here now. What is it that we can do for you, honored council members?" asked Gregale.

My feathers couldn't help but fluff themselves up a little at the b.u.t.t-kissing, and I could see I wasn't alone. Everyone sat up a little straighter and several frowns disappeared.

"We wish to ask you about the portals and their guardians."

"Surely you have a more narrow subject to ask me about. Both of these topics have quite the extensive history, as you well know." He smiled encouragingly at us. He was in his element now. I could almost see the smoke coming out of his ears, he was so holding down the accelerator and the brakes in his brain at the same time.

"Quite. Specifically, we need to know how one would approach Biad of Blackthorn and Heryon of Hawthorne, and ask them to become the new guardians. We also need to know who might be the most likely candidate to do the convincing, knowing that they would need to travel to the Otherworlds and so on."

Gregale lifted his finger and tapped it on his lips as he considered Dardennes' questions, showing no sign of shock or surprise at the strange request. He leaned in near Tony's ear, and they had a whispered conversation, both of them frowning and scratching their heads a lot. When they were done debating between themselves, Gregale spoke up.

"We must ask that you allow us to bring your query to the gray elves. Not only will we consult their collective memories and do a group a.n.a.lysis, but we will also search the tomes to determine if there might be any information within that I have forgotten - although, it is unlikely." He smiled, obviously proud of his superior intellect.

Because I knew it wasn't false vanity, I smiled for him. I was totally down with having a super-brain for a friend. Two of them, actually.