WE CALLED THE place Steeples because it had one. John and I rarely went to Steeples anymore. Before my grandfather suffered his Event, and our mother and father went to the Care, our family would go to Steeples every seventh light and listen to Ezekiel the Sermonizer, always resplendent in his blindingly white tunic. It was not mandatory for Wugmorts to attend Steeples, but most went. Maybe it was simply to see the beauty of Steeples and listen to Ezekiel’s voice, which sounded like wind rushing between stands of trees, with the occasional thunder-thrust when he wanted to make a point as fiercely as a mallet introducing itself to a nail.
When we arrived outside Steeples, Thansius’s carriage was there. We hurried past it and inside. I had never seen Steeples so crowded with warm bodies. As we took our seats near the back, I looked around. The ceiling was high and laced with beams of blackened, gnarled wood. The windows were fully thirty feet tall and located on both sides of the structure. I counted at least twenty colors in each of them, more than I had to choose from at Stacks. There were Wug figures embedded in them, looking properly pious. And there were beasts represented here too, I guess to show the evil of what was around us. I shivered as I saw a jabbit that took up nearly the entire length of one window. As I stared at it, I could only think that it was far more horrible for real than it was re-created in glass and color and placed in a wall.
There was a high altar at the front of Steeples with a carved wooden lectern in the center of it. Behind the lectern, against the wall, was a face chiseled into the stone of the wall. This was Alvis Alcumus, who was said to have founded Wormwood. Yet if he founded the place, that meant he had come from some other place. I mentioned this once at Learning, and I thought the Preceptor was going to have me committed to the Care.
I could see Thansius and Morrigone seated next to the lectern. As I continued to look around, it seemed to me that all of Wormwood was here, even Delph and Duf near the back on the right. And even those sentenced to Valhall were here, with their hands bound with thick leather cords and with the short-statured Nida standing next to them, fortunately without the great shuck.
The Sermonizer stepped out from behind a screen of embroidered fabric that I had actually had a hand in making at Stacks.
Ezekiel was neither tall nor short. He was not broad-shouldered like Thansius. He did not have large arms or a chest like the Dactyls, and there was no reason he should. I was sure he was quite muscular of brain and sinewy of spirit.
Ezekiel paused to bow deeply to Thansius and then Morrigone before taking his place at the lectern. His tunic was the whitest white I had ever seen. It was like looking at a cloud. It was whiter even than Morrigone’s robe.
He raised his hands to the ceiling and we all settled down. John snuggled next to me and I put my arm protectively around his shoulders. His body was hot and I could tell there was considerable fear in his small chest. I could hear his heart hammering.
Ezekiel cleared his throat impressively.
“I thank all my fellow Wugmorts for coming this light,” he began. “Now let us incant.”
Which of course meant let him incant while we sat silently and listened to his practiced eloquence. Listening to a sermonizer who above all loves to hear himself sermonize is about as much fun as having your toes sheared off by an amaroc. All bowed their heads, except me. I didn’t like looking down. That gave someone the opportunity to get the drop on me. And Cletus Loon was sitting perilously close by and had already glanced sideways at me twice, each time with a nasty grin.
Ezekiel stared upward at the ceiling, but I supposed far beyond that, to somewhere perhaps only he could see.
He closed his eyes and incanted long streams of words that sounded erudite and polished. I imagined him standing in front of a looking glass, practicing. I smiled at this thought. It gave Ezekiel a feeble dimension that I knew he would neither care for nor appreciate. When he was done, everyone lifted their heads and opened their eyes. Was it just me or did Thansius seem a trifle annoyed that Ezekiel had gone on so long?
Ezekiel looked down upon us and said, “We gather this light for an important Council announcement.”
I craned my neck a bit and saw the other Council members resplendent in their black tunics, sitting in a row in front of the altar and facing us. Jurik Krone was prominent among them. As I looked at him, he suddenly stared back at me. I quickly glanced away.
Ezekiel continued. “Our fellow Wugmort Quentin Herms has gone missing. It has been the subject of much idle talk and fruitless speculation.”
Thansius cleared his throat loudly enough for me to hear it in the back.
“And now the Chief of Council, Thansius, will address you all,” Ezekiel added hastily.
Thansius walked to the lectern while Ezekiel took his seat near Morrigone. The two did not look at each other, and my instinct told me one didn’t really care for the other.
Thansius’s voice, in comparison to Ezekiel’s, was soothing and less ponderous but commanded attention.
“We have items of knowledge to convey to you this light,” he began briskly.
I wrapped my arm tighter around John’s shoulders and listened.
“It is now believed that Quentin Herms has been forcibly taken,” Thansius continued.
There were instant murmurings. Herman Helvet rose and said, “Beggin’ your pardon, Thansius, sir, but couldn’t he-a suffered an Event?”
“No, Mr. Helvet,” said Thansius. “It is well known that with an Event, there is nothing left of one.” His gaze found me in the crowd and it seemed that Thansius was speaking directly to me. “There was something left of Herms. We have found clothing that he wore last, a lock of his hair and this.” He held up something in his hand that I could not see clearly. But the Wugs in the front rows gasped and turned away. A female covered the face of one of her youngs.
I rose to get a better look. It was an eyeball.
I felt sick to my stomach and then I felt something else that erased the queasiness. Suspicion. Quentin had had both his eyes when I saw him running into the Quag. And I doubted very seriously that any Wug would have gone into the Quag to find these remnants. What was going on?
“And it was not a beast either,” added Thansius quickly. He had apparently seen several Wugs start to stand and had deduced they would voice this next logical question.
“He was taken by something else that lurks in the Quag.”
“Oi! What be the somethin’ else, then?” asked a Wug in the second row. He had a large family, at least five little Wugs next to him and his female.
Thansius stared down at him with a sort of ferocious kindness. “I can tell you that it walks on two legs as we do.”
A gasp went up among the crowd.
“How do we know that?” demanded another Wug. He pulled on a long stick bowl clenched between his teeth. The Wug’s face was red and creased with worry. He looked like he wanted to hit someone.
“Evidence,” answered Thansius calmly. “Evidence that we have discovered during our investigation of Herms’s disappearance.”
Another Wug stood with his hat in his hands. He said, “Beggin’ pardon, but why offer a reward if something took him, see? We’d thought he’d broken laws, what we were told. See?” He looked at other Wugs near him and they nodded back. Several called out with hearty “Hars!”
This, I had to admit, was getting interesting. I settled back farther in my seat and stroked Destin under my cloak. It seemed to be made of ice.
Thansius again raised his hands for calm. “Fresh facts, that is the answer,” he said directly to the standing Wug. The weight of Thansius’s gaze seemed heavy enough to buckle the Wug’s knees and he abruptly sat, though still looking rather pleased for having stood in the first place.