Chapter 65: Court
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The smooth wood of the court room bench chilled Dakota all the way through his wet jeans and he shivered. The handcuffs, which now replaced the duck tape, certainly did not help things. The icy metal cut into his skin. The Council had ordered that all his power be taken away, but Xander had gone above and beyond. Had he taken much more and they would not had to have a trial.
Dakota glanced around the room. To his right, three wooden benches, much like the one on which he sat, overflowed with elders and in a corner, a cell guard leaned against the wall reading a magazine. The judge and Alex still remained absent. Dakota felt the walls inch closer and closer to him with every passing moment. Behind him twenty people sat whispering to each other as more slid in.
A long list of rules hung on the opposite wall. The yellow, wrinkled paper dated back to the first Council of elders, and the lettering could now hardly be read. He focused on the top rule.
It stated : For purposes of safety, none of the superior race will be allowed to tell a normal human of our power. Penalty for offense: life sentence and death of the human.
His eyes wandered to the next rule. It stated: For the purposes of safety none of the superior race will be allowed to court or marry one from the normal human race. Penalty for offense: death of both the offender and the human.
Dakota looked down at his callused hands. "I knowingly endangered Julia..." He cracked his knuckled and bit his lip angrily. "Why did I even think I could hide it from the elders?"
"To err is human."
He turned to the quiet voice. David stood bent down near his ear. "To forgive divine," Dakota finished. "But that part has nothing to do with this situation. What are you doing here David?"
"To watch you be unjustly judged and sentenced to death," David raised his eyebrows.
"Come now Dakota, do you actually think we'd let you suffer this fate?"
"We?"
David nodded to the back row. Dakota turned slightly, his neck ached. Riley, Danny, Kristopher, and Bip sat watching the crowd intently. Kristopher and Riley spoke quietly to one another. Kristopher dropped a large black book into her hands, stood and walked over to the elders to take his place.
"What's Bip doing here?"
David grinned and shook his head. "I don't have time to explain, let's just say he's our secret weapon."
"Bip? What are you going to do? What can you do?" He studied David's face. The lines of worry had deepened but his black eyes glittered with an excitement Dakota had not yet seen in them before.
"Just watch." David straightened and glanced over at the Council . Ariel looked up and their eyes met for a moment. Her brows dropped together to form a V and her eyes widened. Thunder murmured and the tables shook slightly. The sound of creaking doors made them turn.
Jagger came in half dragging Alex. When they caught sight of David the two stopped, looked at each other with unreadable eyes, then laughed uncontrollably, and in vain tried to suppress it. Once they caught hold of them selves again they joined Dakota on the hard bench.
"What in the world was that?" Dakota asked.
"I knew they'd come, I knew it, you thought he wouldn't come to take his place and he did, now he's gonna kick Ariel's-"
"All rise!" Instantly, like robots, the entire court room hopped to their feet. Paul, dressed in a long black robe that dragged along the ground, mounted the steps to his seat behind the stand. He sat, as did the rest of the courtroom, except for two people: David and Riley.
Silent, David raised his finger and pointed at Paul. A look of utter fear mastered Paul's face but he then caught himself.
"David Austin, you cannot challenge me in this courtroom," Paul began. "You are going against-"
"No, actually Paul," Riley said opening the black book. "You are going against the rules. Section 5.B subsection 6 states that if a person's fifty years as one of the Council leaders is up (that would be right now, for it is 12:00 o'clock a.m.), he...or she, must not hold any meetings, make any decisions, or hold trials until their position has been either confirmed or denied by exactly midnight of the next day. During this time their decisions may be made by a Council member just below them unless their fifty years is up, blah, blah, blah. All that means is that Kristopher will make your decisions for the time being. Therefore, my father and I, or any other challengers, have every right to call off this trial, and challenge you right now."
Paul narrowed his eyes and stood, his lips stretched into a thin line. "Very well, this court is adjourned until further notice," he stated. "Challenges will begin in the Central Room in five minuets."
Dakota looked up at David. "I heard somewhere you didn't want to be a Council member," he commented as he attempted to stand up.
David grabbed his arm and helped him gain his balance. "Well, under the circumstances, the Council needs a change, and I'm willing to bring it."
"Excuse me David, but I have to take the prisoner to his cell," Xander grabbed Dakota by the arm and jerked him away.
David's eyes flashed bright white, and it seemed to Dakota and Xander that he had grown taller. He stood before them untouchable, holding the power to cast down those that would oppose him.
"Xander, I believe that I am your authority, and have the right to request his, and Alex's, presence when I challenge Paul. Therefore, he will be there, is that clear?"
Xander licked his lips. He seemed to have shrunk and though he tried to conceal it, his eyes widened and his lips parted slightly. "Of course, um...he'll be there," Xander stuttered in his moment of shear terror.
The shadow passed and David returned to himself. "Very good, so let's not waste time, we need to be out there."
Though David no longer stood tall and terrifying, Dakota noticed a slight change in his countenance. The lines of worry he normally bore now left his face almost entirely and he held his back straighter. Even now, after that slight unveiling of his power, Dakota felt that David had dropped some heavy chain and was no longer necessarily safe.
"Dakota, did you see that?" Alex whispered in his ear as they walked down the hallway towards the Central Room. Their footsteps echoed on the marble floor. Everything smelled extremely clean.
"You mean when David ceased to be the David we knew before, heck yeah," Dakota said.
They entered a large, round room. The Council members had already lined up around the outer circle of the room. The only lights in the room were torches that stuck out from the brick walls and did not cast much light at all. A long time ago an artist of impeccable talent spent hours in this room creating a beautiful mosaic in the center circle on the floor. It rivaled anything one might see in their history text book or a museum.
The first Council members starred up at the ceiling from the floor and into the faces of the challengers. They gave off a foreboding feeling that either terrified the challengers off the floor, or gave them a new confidence to defeat their adversary.
Dakota took a deep breath and collapsed against the wall. David grabbed his arm to keep him from falling to the floor, then helped him to slowly slide to the ground.
"Don't worry kid, someone bigger than me's got this one, we won't loose." David said, then straightening up, he held his head high and turned around.
Alex slid down beside Dakota and leaned over. "What's gonna happen?"
"I'm not exactly sure."
Jagger squatted down. "Paul will ask for any challenges, then David will challenge him. After that's over, Ariel will ask for any challengers, and Riley will challenge her. Then, Riley and Ariel will fight, whoever looses...well, dies, and who.."
"Dies?" Dakota's head jerked forward.
"Well it's not a rule, but neither is gonna give up, so one will have to die, I hope anyway," Jagger explained. "As I was saying, then, David and Paul will fight. And that will be it, unless there are any other challengers."
Alex breathed out sharply. "God have mercy."
"Attention," Paul hit his large, wooden staff on the ground. "The time of challenges is beginning." He walked out into the middle of the ring. "Do I have any challengers?"
For a moment silence filled the room, along with it came a thick tension. Finally, David stepped forward and pointed at Paul as he had done in the courtroom.
"Paul Rundér, you have abused your power as Head Council or, and I challenge you to a battle of powers."
At this point even Paul's skin crawled and his face went white. David's countenance commanded so much respect that no one could stand up to him without his knees knocking. But Paul set his jaw and hardened his eyes.
"Very well, so be it. Next Council or challenge."
Ariel stepped forward as Paul backed down into his seat at the head of the room. "Do I have any challengers." Thunder shook the room yet again.
Riley now stood and pointed at Ariel as her father did. "Ariel Riviera, you are unworthy of you position and I challenge you to a battle of powers."
Dakota had to look at her twice. Her normally serene blue eyes flashed a blue light that he had never seen before. Light seemed not to shine on her face but to project from it. All who looked upon her found her both beautiful and terrifying. The small scared child that stood there before disappeared entirely.
Ariel laughed quietly. "Take your best shot sweet heart."
The faced each other at either end of the mosaic. Their eyes connected and they stood unmoving, fists clenched, brows sloped down. They studied each other, and tried to break into the other's thoughts. Riley barricaded her mind and reached forward into Ariel's. She started slow, as if picking through a haystack to find a hair pin. Then her small, pink lips stretched into a smile and her eyebrows relaxed. Ariel squinted her's more and laughed bitterly inside.
She thinks she's got me, she mused. Hardly.
Dakota held his breath and Alex leaned forward at every passing second looking from one to the other. The room filled with a blinding light and everyone covered their eyes. When they opened them, Ariel laid on the floor, still as a corpse.
A unanimous gasp swept through the room.
Riley collapsed to the ground. David and Kris helped her up and both gave her a hug.
Paul felt a quiver go through his heart as David's black eyes pinned him where he sat. Kris helped Riley to the seat next to him, where Ariel had sat.
"What, what happened, is Ariel dead?" Alex asked.
"Uh- I have no idea, I've never seen anything like that before," Jagger said.
Even his eyes did not leave the still body. He stood and walked slowly over to her, then bent down. His pointer and middle finger touched her neck. The heart beat fluttered against them.
"She's alive, but defeated none the less." He stood and stated louder, "The law clearly states that like in the rules of a boxing match, laugh if you will, if one person is down for more that ten seconds, they automatically lose. Riley is a new Council member."
Silence again filled the room. Ariel, the second most powerful being on the face of the earth, had been defeated.
Jagger grinned and turned to Paul. "Well, you've seen what his daughter can do, now it's your turn."
Paul raised out of his chair and walked to the middle of the circle as Jagger dragged Ariel out of the way to the metrics that stood by.
"Riley, what would you have us do with her?" One of the medics asked.
"See if you can help her," Riley said weakly. "If you can put her in the dungeon when she's healed."
The medics carried her out. David shut his eyes for a moment and knelt down. "God, give me your strength, may this victory be for-" another blinding beam of light filled the room.
When it passed, David lay on the floor.
"No," Dakota whispered under his breath.
