Silence reigned in the chamber now. Emily panted like someone who had just completed a marathon at a dead sprint. Though the fight had only lasted a few minutes, to her it felt like hours. She took a deep breath, closed her eyes and let it out slowly, allowing the adrenaline to run its course and wear off. Dust swirled all around her, billowing up in great clouds and curling away from her mouth every time she exhaled. She was just raising her forearm to wipe the sweat from her face when the sound of clapping hands made her whirl. "Bravo," cheered a voice.

Two men and a boy emerged from the dust. One of the men was elderly but in insanely good shape with a well-kept silver beard and hair in a flat-topped cut; the other looked maybe thirty years his junior, had hair the color of a toasted marshmallow and carried some type of weapon that looked like it came straight out of a 1950s science-fiction movie. The boy was about Emily's age with black hair that spiked upward to look like the flames of a campfire.

It was he who was applauding. "Very impressive, Stonekeeper. Sheer excellence."

Emily took in the three newcomers. "Who are you?" she asked the boy.

"Perhaps an exchange of names is in order." He gave a strong but kind smile and pressed a hand to his chest, bowing his head slightly. "My name is Max Griffin, junior patrolman of the Cielis Home Defense Corps. I'll be your escort into the city."

Emily nodded in acknowledgment. "Emily Hayes, great-granddaughter of Silas Charnon, if that name means anything to you."

Max grinned. "An honor to meet you, Miss Hayes. And it does, though I never knew him. He was a colleague of my father's."

Sometime during their exchange, the two men had gone elsewhere and Emily was only just noticing their absence. She was just about to ask where they'd gone when Karen's voices called, "Emily!"

She whirled around to see the older man holding her mother and Enzo by their wrists. "Mom!"

Max took the cue and gestured to the man. "Duncan, release them."

The old man, Duncan, did as instructed. "And the elves?"

"Tell your men to release them!" Emily demanded. "They're with me, too!"

Max nodded to the younger man. "You heard the lady, Collin."

Collin's expression looked somewhere between surprise and disbelief. "Sir, you can't be serious!"

Max's face became stern. "This young Stonekeeper may very well be a new member of the Council," he said. "I want you to treat her orders as if they were my own."

Collin hesitated a moment, then finally complied. "Yes, sir." He released Trellis and Luger, but raised his weapon and kept his eyes on the elves.

Max turned to face Luger. "Don't think this is a free pass, old man. Understand that I will be watching you like a hawk." Luger shrank back a bit and nodded once, then Max turned to the fox. "And you must be Leon Redbeard, the soldier."

Leon nodded. "Yes, sir."

Max fished a sheaf of papers from a clipped pouch at his hip and consulted them. "Funny," he contemplated. "Our reports didn't say anything about you being a fox."

Leon gasped. "That must mean you have my birth records. This curse took hold when I was a boy."

Emily nudged her mom. "Told you," she gloated, and Karen made a face.

"Well," Max said to Leon, "the Guardian Council thanks you for bringing Emily here safely. I'll take over from here." He turned to the old man. "Duncan, gather everyone and take them to the ship. We leave in ten."

Duncan nodded. "Right away."

"The elf king knows where this place is. They're probably on their way."

Max looked at her from the corner of his eye. "We know." Then he turned to face her fully and smiled. "They may know where to find the beacon, but we've taken every conceivable measure to ensure that our city's location stays secret. Don't worry about the elves."

Emily didn't think she liked that answer. It sounded good from a purely military standpoint, but something about it just seemed off somehow. Not only that, but she thought she'd caught the glimmer of something in Max's eyes…something not entirely well meant. Don't worry about the elves? That worried her more than anything, especially when she somehow felt that she could completely trust Max's assurance. In spite of this, she followed him outside, where she saw the ship he and his comrades had come in on. It was absolutely gigantic, a mountainous dome of stressed and layered canvaluminum that dwarfed the Luna Moth without even trying. Max identified it as the Guardian Angel.

They saw some of the larger ship's people throwing tow lines over the Moth's side rails and Enzo ran up. "Hey! Be careful. She was never meant to be towed."

Collin gave him a reassuring smile and patted his shoulder. "Calm down. Our people are experts." Enzo humped but didn't say anything more and let them carry on.

Emily started to follow Max up the boarding ramp that led onto his ship, then looked back at the others who were following. Samson, the small autopilot robot that lacked both expression and a voice. Navin, with a pair of welding goggles on his head, now had the countenance and expression of someone much older and who had seen more than they should have. Their mother Karen, bemused and wide-eyed as she looked at the immense ship next to the one that had brought them here. Trellis and Luger trailed at the back, Trellis looking upset like always as he supported Luger, who was hunched over with a look of intimidated exhaustion.

Trellis caught Emily's eye and wariness suffused his ever-present frown; no words were said, but the message was unmistakable. "Be careful. We might not be as safe as these people want us to feel." She nodded in acknowledgment.

The enormous ship rumbled like some beast that defied dimension, then the six engines roared and began to pull the vessel forward. Emily and Leon stood on the aft deck, watching the beacon shrink as they moved away from it. Suddenly it exploded in a ball of the brightest purple, waves of energy and chunks of the island flying in all directions. Then the shockwave hit them, billowing Emily's hair and cape.

"I don't trust these people, Leon," Emily said.

"In time, you will," he assured her. "They'll teach you things that I can't."

"But something about them doesn't add up. I don't know what or why, just that it doesn't. I'm not sure I want them teaching me."

"Emily!" Karen came jogging up with Max close behind her. "Max here has been telling me all about the school. I think it's exciting!"

This bit of information surprised Emily. "School?"

"It's why you're here, isn't it?" Max asked. "Why we're both here. We'll be trained and tested to see who among us will make up the next Guardian Council."

Duncan stepped up. "We'll be entering the jump gate soon," he reported.

"Thank you, Duncan."

Another question came to Emily's attention. "What about the current Council?" she asked. "What will happen to them?"

Max's face saddened slightly. "They're dying, Emily; not even Stonekeepers are immortal, and they're looking for their successors. The best of us will be chosen to govern Alledia. The Council believes that you, like me, have the potential to take a leadership role." They were approaching the jump gate now, which looked to Emily like all the sci-fi impressions of a black hole, but much brighter and more colorful. "Can you imagine what that kind of power must be like?" Their journey through it was just like theoretical travel through a wormhole: Instantaneous point-to-point transit, completely eliminating the time and space between. Max held out an arm toward the city before them. "Welcome to your new home, Emily."

Enzo was on the verge of crying for sheer joy. "Rico, find a camera and capture this moment. We're gonna make some postcards."

Continued in Book 4: The Last Council