Chapter 84: The Vote
Carlisle:
"The child is an unknown quantity," Caius evaluated, too eager to be called anything but bloodthirsty. "There is no reason to allow such a risk to exist. It must be destroyed, along with all who protect it."
Esme ground her teeth together and snarled under her breath. Behind us, there was a quiet hiss from the Denali sisters and Amazonians. Where was Kachiri? Were Zafrina and Senna to be denied their last goodbye? Only the council's decision would tell.
"I see no immediate danger," Marcus decided. "The child is safe for now. We can always re-evaluate later. Let us leave in peace."
"I must make the deciding vote, it seems," Aro murmured. His eyes slowly scanned our ranks, some of the wolves shifting anxiously under his gaze, until sudden Edward broke his concentration.
"Yes!" Edward hissed sharply. Esme frowned and glanced at me, and then reached for her son, confused and concerned.
"Aro?" Edward called, unmistakably overjoyed. Aro frowned at him and hesitated before responding.
"Yes Edward? You have something further..?"
"Perhaps," Edward replied, just barely containing a shout of victory. It was at such strong odds with the heaviness of my own feelings that it made my gut twist. I glanced at Esme, who had lowered her arm. She glanced back, fearful of the mad glee that had apparently overtaken Edward.
"First, if I could clarify one point?" Edward asked.
"Certainly," Aro said, more than a little surprised.
"This danger you foresee from my daughter - this stems entirely from our inability to guess how she will develop? This is the crux of the matter?"
"Yes, friend Edward," Aro assured him. "If we could but be positive...be sure that, as she grows, she will be able to stay concealed from the human world - not endanger the safety of our obscurity..." he trailed off and shrugged, still curiously watching Edward. I watched too: bizarre emotional reaction aside, it was unusual for Edward to talk about matters of such gravitas with such a straightforward approach. He was a very poetic person, verging on the melodramatic – and at times diving headlong into it. If I didn't know better, I might suggest that he had been possessed by his little sister.
"So if we could only know for sure exactly what she will become...then there would be no need for a council at all?"
Edward, what are you planning? It was not unusual for him to know things that we did not know. Perhaps someone had seen a loophole I had not. I had to trust in him – but that mad glimmer in his eye, the way he talked so freely about his daughter as she stood on the threshold of a bloody and violent death, made me wonder if perhaps, just perhaps, Edward might not have cracked under the pressure. I had known several vampires that had led far quieter lives than Edward had, whose mere years had been the death of them. Contrary to popular belief, a lot of people do not deal well with immortality.
"If there was a way to be absolutely sure, then yes, there would be no question to debate."
"And we would part in peace, good friends once again?"
"Of course my young friend. Nothing would please me more."
"Then I do have something more to offer."
"She is absolutely unique," Aro pointed out. "Her future can only be guessed at."
"Not absolutely unique," Edward clarified. "Rare, certainly, but not one of a kind."
A tiny candle of hope lit itself in my chest - could it really be that we could be safe after all? That in all those pages and pages of stories there had been something worthwhile?
"Aro, would you ask Jane to stop attacking my wife?" Edward asked civilly. "We are still discussing evidence."
Aro raised one hand.
"Peace, dear ones," he instructed, "let us hear him out."
Edward waited a moment, trying to hold back the grin that was trying to break onto his face. Esme squeezed my hand anxiously, her eyes watching intently. It seemed like hours before he finally spoke again.
"Why don't you join us, Alice?"
.o.o.o.
Esme:
"Alice," I gasped - could it be true?
"Alice!" Carlisle whispered.
"Alice?"
"Alice!"
A murmur passed through the crowd as we looked and listened for Alice - and, I hoped, Jasper. They were easy to hear, crashing through the forest with no worry about concealment; only speed. There were five sets of footsteps. I glanced up at Carlisle. His head was turned, staring at the fringe of the forest, where the new arrivals soon appeared.
Alice was first, of course, and I felt my heart lift. When Jasper appeared a few feet behind her it nearly leapt out of my chest. But still the surprises did not stop. Kachiri - the third member of the Amazonian threesome – was on Jasper's heels, and being followed by two strangers. The first of these was a slight-built, olive-skinned female. She had a long, thick black braid which bobbed as she ran and swung side to side as she looked over the scene before her. The second - notably slower and less graceful than those he followed - was a young man with dark coffee-brown skin. He had a black braid of hair too, but it was not as long as that of his female companion. I found myself all the more curious when, once the crunching and crashing had stopped, a second thrumming heartbeat could be heard beside Renesmee's.
Jasper, Kachiri and the two strangers followed Alice until she stopped at Edward's side. Bella reached over and touched her arm; so did Edward, Carlisle and I. I wished I could have said something, but there was too much, especially with the guillotine dangling above us all as it did.
After those first few seconds of awe, though, time seemed to grind back into motion. Across the field, the guard looked to each other as they watched our allies pass through Bella's shield. They were beginning to realise that they would be able to pass through with the same ease, that we were still unprotected against a physical attack. And now Alice, Jasper, Kachiri and these two strangers who had agreed to help us...they were all in danger too. I shut my eyes for a moment and squeezed Carlisle's hand, hoping against hope that the strangers would be the keys to our survival.
"Alice has been searching for her own witnesses these past few weeks, and she does not come back empty handed," Edward explained to the ancients. "Alice, why don't you introduce the witnesses you've brought?"
"The time for witnesses is past!" Caius snarled. "Cast your vote, Aro!"
Aro raised a finger to silence his companion. His eyes were fixed on Alice's face with a mad look about them; it set me on edge. Alice, seemingly unfazed, took a dainty step forward and announced her witnesses:
"This is Huilen and her nephew, Nahuel."
Caius hissed, and the guard shifted and murmured. Everyone was unsettled. I even felt Carlisle fidget anxiously.
"Speak, Huilen," Aro commanded. "Give us the witness you were brought to bear."
The stranger woman glanced nervously at Alice, who nodded her encouragement. Kachiri put her long, slender fingers on the stranger's shoulder; another gesture of support. After a moment of hesitation, Huilen spoke in clear but bizarrely accented English - I couldn't pick an origin.
"I am Huilen," she began. "A century and a half ago, I lived with my people, the Mapuche. My sister was Pire. Our parents named her after the snow on the mountains because of her fair skin." Her grammar was a little disjointed but it was obvious she had been practicing, preparing herself to tell the story under pressure. Huilen went on to tell how Pire had been visited by a dark angel, and that she carried his child. Pire did not listen to Huilen's warnings, and by the time the child - Nahuel - was born, it was too late to save his mother. Nahuel bit Huilen, and she thought she was going to die. Instead, she changed, and when she woke up, she and Nahuel became family.
"We have never come so far from our homes," Huilen admitted sheepishly. "But Nahuel wished to see the child here." She glanced briefly at Nessie before stepping back so that she was partially hidden by Kachiri's fierce frame.
Carlisle and Edward had a brief, silent conversation. Alice and Jasper smiled at each other. Kate and Tanya gave each other surprised looks. Zafrina and Senna appeared to be contemplating approaching their sister. I kept my eyes trained on Aro, whose lips were pursed as he studied Nahuel.
"Nahuel, you are one hundred and fifty years old?" he asked.
"Give or take a decade. We don't keep track." Nahuel's reply was calm and confident, his accent barely noticeable.
"And you reached maturity at what age?"
"About seven years after my birth, more or less, I was full grown."
"You have not changed since then?"
"Not that I've noticed." Nahuel shrugged, seemingly unaffected by the numerous pairs of anxious eyes that tracked his every movement; ears that hung on his every word.
"And your diet?"
"Mostly blood, but some human food too. I can survive on either."
Carlisle's thumb drew tiny circles on my hand; I don't know whether he was expressing his own anxiety or trying to calm mine, but the suspense - teetering between joy and despair - was clear on his face. I'm sure mine was the same.
"You were able to create an immortal?" Aro's voice was suddenly sharp.
"Yes, but none of the rest can."
"The rest?" Tanya breathed, leaning over slightly and prodding Carlisle's shoulder with two fingers. He frowned, confused, and a timid but curious murmur ran through our ranks. Even the wolves growled a little, under their breaths. Our confusion was matched by the other side, apparently, as even the robotic black cloaks couldn't keep from shifting.
"The rest?" Aro inquired, raising his eyebrows.
"My sisters," Nahuel shrugged. Aro was silent, his expression somewhere between fury and amazement. I took a tiny step towards Carlisle, and the snow crunching under my feet was painstakingly loud. I kept my eyes trained on Aro as he carefully configured his expression.
"Perhaps you would tell us the rest of your story," he invited, "for there seems to be more."
Nahuel frowned. Carlisle leaned forward, pulling his hand further out of mine. As Nahuel spoke of his father, the slightest whimper escaped Alice's throat; apparently, she had not counted on the conversation getting this far.
"Your daughter, is she venomous?" Caius snapped at Bella.
"No," she responded, surprisingly calm.
Aro stared at Carlisle, his lips pursed. Then Edward. Then Bella. He certainly was taking his sweet time about this. Damn this god-forsaken waiting! I took a deep breath and tried to calm myself. It didn't work.
"We take care of the aberration here, and then follow it south," Caius suggested, his tone verging on hysteria. Aro mulled over this for a painstakingly long time, watching Bella intently.
All eyes were on Aro; the one who would cast the deciding vote. I tried to swallow the panic I could feel rising in my throat, but my mouth was bone dry. At the same time I felt like shouting with joy, because we finally knew something about Nessie - she was going to stop aging once she was fully grown! She was not going to die young after all! That is, if she survived this ordeal. I ground my teeth together, feeling like a caged tiger. Until at last, Aro spoke.
"Brother," he said softly, "there appears to be no danger. This is an unusual development, but I see no threat. These half-vampire children are much like us, it appears."
"Is that your vote?" Caius hissed, eyes narrowed; clearly unhappy with the outcome.
"It is."