They carried it down to the throneroom and set it down. The big rotunda was full of ghels by this time; hundreds of them.



"What the hell is this?" George Seeling said, and his voice sounded thick to him. "If you're going to start trouble—I'll kill the first ghel that lays a hand on me or the coffin."

He waited for an answer. There was not a sound among the dark multitude of ghels. They watched him, sorrowfully.

"Well?" Seeling bellowed.

The ghel who had talked with him before said, "We are gathered here for a telling. Will you crouch there and hear us?"

"I don't know what you're talking about!"

"Please hear us."