Jinx came reluctantly awake the next morning to a insistent knocking at the door. He tried to get up without disturbing Elanor, but since his arms were wrapped around her it didn’t work.

Elanor stirred grumpily. “Go away!” she yelled at the door.

“Elanor! What if it’s important?”

“More important than cuddling me? Don’t be silly.”

The knocking continued, and Jinx got up despite Elanor’s protests and went to answer it. When he opened the door, he was looking at a liveried flunky, a young boy who seemed very nervous and gaped in wonder at him.

“Yes?” said Jinx, more or less politely. “What do you want?”

The flunky swallowed nervously, and began reading from a scroll he was carrying.

“Now hear this: Sir Jinx is required immediately in the Great Hall for..”

“No, you hear this!” snarled Elanor, getting up and stalking toward the boy with her tail lashing. “I don’t care what you’re doing here, but you’re going to go away. You came here and woke my mate up, after he stayed up all night making love to me without freezing me once. He didn’t get any sleep, because you showed up, banging on the door, and woke him up. That’s bad enough, but if you think you’re going to ask him to go anywhere right now, I’m going to see what your throat tastes like!”

“Elanor, no!” pleaded Jinx, getting between her and the terrified flunky, who was on the verge of fleeing. “Elanor, stop it! Calm down!”

She slipped lithely past him, reared up on her hind legs, and rested a paw on each of the boy’s shoulders, digging her claws in gently. “You’re going to go away and let my mate get some sleep, aren’t you? Aren’t you?!?”

“Elanor, freeze!”

She stiffened, still clutching the flunky’s shoulders. Jinx carefully extracted her claws from his clothing, picked her up like he was carrying a statue, and carried her over to the cushions they were using for a bed. He put her on the cushions in what he figured was a reasonably comfortable position, and returned to the flunky, who was still shaking.

“Jinx would like to hear the rest of what you were saying.”

“Oh, uh… Now hear this: Sir Jinx is required immediately in the Great Hall for the Laying to Rest of First Lord Robert and the Promotion of Second Lord Charles.”

Jinx waited for the flunky to explain what he meant.

“Uh… Is that all right, Sir Jinx?” the boy said, in a small voice.

“What does it mean? I’d appreciate an explanation, since I’m not really awake.”

“You need to go to the Great Hall, Sir Jinx. I was sent to notify you.”

“I don’t know where the Great Hall is. For that matter, who are you?”

“Me? I’m the King’s page, Sir Jinx.”

“Don’t you have a name?” asked Jinx. “I don’t feel like calling you ‘King’s-page’ this early in the morning.”

“Oh! My name is Michael, Sir Jinx. And if you don’t know where the Great Hall is yet, then I’d be happy to take you there. It would be very helpful if you’d hurry, Sir. I was knocking for ten minutes before you answered, Sir Jinx.”

“Okay.” replied Jinx, and they set off through the winding caves and tunnels. “I know what’s happening to Charles. King-Thomas must be making him a First Rank Lord. But what’s happening to Robert? The last time I saw him, he was already laying down and resting.”

“Why, he’s dead, Sir Jinx! The Nameless One got him! It must have happened while you were sleeping. Or, well…” said the lad, and blushed.

“Dead?” exclaimed Jinx, dismayed.

“Oh yes, Sir Jinx, his head got bashed in something shocking! They managed to hex it back together enough to have an open coffin, but it was all in bits. I got to see it before they fixed it up, and it was all smashed up like a melon, Sir Jinx!”

“That’s horrible!” said Jinx. “I only met him last night, he was a nice person even though he was extremely drunk…”

“Oh, he was nice, Sir Jinx, but totally mad, you know. He thought he was King, Sir Jinx, can you believe it? Oh, I say, Bill!” cried Michael, as they approached Gerald’s room, and saw another page knocking at the door. “Hasn’t he answered yet?”

“He’s probably ignoring me, Michael.” said Bill. “At least you got yours… Oh! He’s following you? I mean, uh, greetings, Sir Jinx…”

“I’m showing Sir Jinx to the Great Hall.” said Michael proudly. “Can’t stay and chat, we must make haste.”

“Cheeky!” replied Bill, and went back to knocking on Gerald’s door.

“Anyway, his head got all bashed to bits, Sir Jinx! Lord Sean’s all upset, ’cause everyone else was making bets on when Nameless would get him, you know…”

“All of them?” said Jinx.

“Oh, no, Lord Peter was grand about it. He’s almost as sad as Lord Sean is, and he came right over and gave Lord Sean a hug. He’s a grand chap. But Lord James was dreadfully smug, ’cause he won the bet, you know… I have to stop now, because we’re there, Sir Jinx.”

The page fell back, and Jinx entered a huge room. The place was a visual outrage on a grand scale: it seemed to stretch out and up in every direction as if it were a huge spherical cave like the Nexus, only instead of being empty the air above him was filled with spokes of white fire that radiated from a blazing center hub. There seemed to be endless numbers of people standing on the floor, the walls, the ceiling: then Jinx, looking to the side, saw himself looking back and realized it was all being done with mirrors. There were four corners to the actual room, each with a stream of white fire stretching up to the central point, where the mirrors met, and the people were standing on the floor and milling about: the people on the sides of the vast sphere were only reflections. Jinx wondered how the King had made such big mirrors.

Lord Peter came over to him, and Jinx saw that the man was grieving.

“Ah, Jinx, you’ve come!” said Peter. “I’m so glad you did. Sean has been asking whether you would show up, saying that you and I are the only people who cared anything for Robert and that you should be here.”

“Were people really laying bets on when he’d get killed?”

Lord Peter looked sick. “Where’d you hear that, Jinx?”

“The boy who brought me here said so.”

“It’s true. Hugo, Victor, James, Richard, and quite a few of the pages and knights. The heartless bastards! I’ve had all I can do to handle Sean, he was ready to kill the lot of them when he realized what was happening. I’m terribly glad you’re here, because I’m exhausted from trying to stop him. Frankly, part of me wanted to help him instead of stop him. Evidently they’d asked Gerald to lay a bet as well, before Hugo decided he was the Nameless One, but Gerald thought it was too undignified. They never asked me, of course: they knew me too well. I’ve been listening in on their conversations, and they’re betting on my death now, or about half of them are: I’m rather more popular than Robert was, so there aren’t as many people willing to cheerfully wager a gold piece on when I’ll die. Come this way, Jinx, we’d best get back to Sean quickly.”

They cut through the throng of nobles and knights, toward a corner with a single miserable figure in it, who stood, shunned and alone. It was Lord Sean, and he looked broken somehow, as if Lord Robert’s murder had ripped from him some essential part of his soul. Jinx wondered how Peter could have had any trouble with him, much less need Jinx’s help with him, for Sean just stood and looked at Jinx with desolate, hurting eyes, saying nothing.

Jinx was disturbed at the haunted stare, and said “If you wish, Jinx will kill any of those horrible people. They’re making humans look bad.”

“Thank you, no.” said Sean, and looked away. “Nice of you to offer, though.”

“Now, Sean, I suspect Jinx was serious. Jinx, don’t talk like that, please! You can’t just kill them. I don’t give a damn about them: I agree with you. But the least you’d get is imprisonment, possibly death, if you attack a noble of Rainmoor. Do please be careful!”

“He’s right,” added Sean. “Don’t. There’s few enough decent people in the place anyway. Besides, if anybody’s going to be imprisoned for murdering one of those stinking vermin, I claim that privilege.”

“Not you, either, Sean!” said Lord Peter.

“There’ll still be decent people left in the nobility without me, Peter.” said Sean. “There’s King Thomas, and there’ll still be you.”

“For a while, anyway…” muttered Lord Peter.

“What?” said Sean. “Peter, you’re not planning to get killed, are you?”

“No. Wait and see.”

As Jinx wondered what he meant by that, the floor began forming itself into rows of seats. Jinx hardly noticed that, however, for the room was undergoing dramatic changes: the point where the shafts of white fire met flared into brilliance and began rushing upwards at blinding speed, and as it did the sphere-illusion of the mirrors expanded frighteningly, making Jinx dizzy and sick to his stomach. When it was finished, the nobles stood in rows on a seemingly infinite plane, with shafts of white fire pointing straight up until they were lost to sight.

Jinx was grateful he hadn’t had any breakfast, for he would have lost it: the infinite plane wasn’t so bad, and neither was the sphere, but the way one changed into the other was too much for him. Because of the shafts of white fire pointing to the center, and the rapid, smooth expansion of the sphere, the room had conveyed an accurate impression of its size even as it grew too vast to comprehend. It made Jinx want to crawl in a hole and hide.

All heads turned towards the entrance, as if cued by the change, and Jinx looked and saw that King Thomas was walking into the room. As he approached the opposite end from the door, a throne trimmed with white fire grew up out of the floor, which he sat in. Strangely, he didn’t reflect in the mirrors, though everybody else did. Jinx figured that was intentional, to emphasize his uniqueness: either that or he was a vampire, which seemed unlikely. Jinx started to sit down as well, then noticed that nobody else was, and stood again hastily.

The King noticed this, and his lip curled in a half-smile. “You may sit.” he stated, and everybody did. He began to speak into the echoing silence.

“I have called you here today, in full assembly of the Lords and Nobles of Rainmoor, for a ceremony granting honor to the living and the dead.”

“First, let us honor the mortal remains of Robert, First Lord of Rainmoor!”

A coffin rose out of the floor, and in it was Robert. Jinx, looking at him, was glad he’d had the chance to meet him while he was alive. The dead man plainly showed on his face the inner decency Peter had spoken of. Jinx looked to see if any parts of his head were missing, but it looked perfectly normal, although Jinx thought his nose wasn’t as red as it had been when Robert was alive.

“Robert was my successor, and I will always remember him as the joyous, honest, brave man I knew when I was a First Lord beside him. I could trust Lord Robert to stand by me, staunch as a rock, facing hideous danger and laughing at it. I am grieved that I lost favor with Robert, somewhere over the years, yet I know of one here among us who knew Robert’s loyalty and love to the very end, and I would also honor that one.”

“For Robert had weakened and grown sick, living in dreams and fantasies, and those who turned away from him at the end saw only the dreamer and not the decency he retained. Yet the one man who served Robert unto his last day did not prove only that Lord Robert could still inspire faith in others: he proved beyond the shadow of a doubt that Lord Robert had still faith to give.”

“And we may prove one thing more, this day. Because of the example of this faithful man, I am proposing to lay Robert to rest in the heart of Rainmoor…”

There was an astonished murmur from the assembled nobility.

“…a honor given only to the good and pure of heart. If there should be evil in him, the magic of Rainmoor will be disturbed, and you will all see it reflected in the appearance of this Hall. If he be greatly evil, all we have may be lost. If there be no evil in this man, Rainmoor will accept him without a ripple, and he will become a part of the magic of Rainmoor, himself.”

“I do not decide this myself, for I myself have failed him, and lost faith in him: and I will not listen to those who mocked and reviled the man I once knew and loved. I will ask the one man who served Lord Robert to the end whether I should proceed, for he and he alone is entitled to judge. Lord Sean, shall I do this?”

The murmur had grown louder and more alarmed, but King Thomas ignored it. Sean rose, and all could see he had been weeping as King Thomas spoke. He faced the King proudly, looking him straight in the eye, and simply said “Do it.”

The hall fell silent as King Thomas raised his hand over the coffin. He muttered gibberish for a few seconds, then spoke one word Jinx didn’t recognize in a clear, strong voice, and the coffin began to sink back into the floor. As it did, the crowd of nobles began looking hectically off into the distance, peering fearfully to the horizon in every direction.

“What are they trying to see?” Jinx asked Sean, who had sat down and was paying no attention.

“Nothing,” said Lord Sean with a laugh or a sob, “nothing at all.”

When the coffin had disappeared, King Thomas looked up again, and his eyes were slightly moist: not very, but enough to show that he had believed in Robert a little bit, too.

He remained silent for a few seconds, but then continued, perhaps knowing he wasn’t going to get many of the nobles to be silent for Robert. Before their rude whispers could get out of hand, he arrested everyone’s attention with his next words.

“And now we honor the living, for on this day I shall promote a faithful Second Lord to First Lord of Rainmoor, with all the duties and privileges of that rank.”

“I have had a suggestion from Lord Peter as to a suitable choice…”

Jinx spotted Lord Charles among the nobles, and the man was trying hard to keep from grinning.

“Yet I have my own ideas regarding suitable Second Lords, and I will try one last time to persuade the one I am thinking of, who has shown his quality before us today. Lord Sean!”

Sean rose slowly, reluctantly. Jinx noticed Lord Charles staring at Sean with a shocking hatred and rage in his eyes, but as Jinx watched, the man controlled himself somehow.

“Lord Sean, I ask you once more. Will you accept the honor?”

“No, my liege.”

“Are you quite sure, sir?”

“Yes, my liege. I cannot accept this honor. I hold myself responsible for Lord Robert’s death, my liege. I cannot accept being promoted to his rank when I have failed him so. I must decline, my liege.”

“Very well, Lord Sean. I may say that you have proven, yet again, your nobility… I have said that I had another choice,” said King Thomas to everyone, “and I would not have this person thought of as a second choice. It was my personal decision to offer this honor to Lord Sean, although I did not expect him to accept it: because he would not accept it I could only offer the honor publicly, and I would have you all remember that. The man I expect to make First Rank today is no less honorable, and has earned the honor through long and faithful service to his Lord and to me. Lord Charles!”

Lord Charles stood eagerly. “My liege!” he said, in a joyful voice.

“Lord Charles, do you accept this honor?”

“Yes, my liege.”

“Kneel before me, Lord Charles.”

The man did so, giving the King his sword so it could be held over his head, and King Thomas intoned, “Do you, Lord Charles, swear to uphold the honor of the First Rank, to behave with respect for your lessers, with honor for your betters, and to pledge your life to the defense of the true King of Rainmoor?”

“I do, my liege.”

“I hereby declare to all that Lord Charles is now Lord of the First Rank, after Lord Ivan.”

Jinx was startled to note that the horizon of the infinite plane wobbled unsteadily for a moment. He hoped the room wasn’t going to collapse. He looked around, but nobody else seemed to notice. Jinx supposed that their eyes were less sharp than his.

Lord Peter stood.

“My liege?” he said politely.

“Yes, Peter?” said the King, startled by the interruption.

“My liege, I would like to be the first to congratulate Lord Charles on his new rank, and also I regret that I must resign my Lordship at this point.” There was general consternation at that statement.

“Good lord, Peter, why? You can’t do this, the whole point of promoting Charles was to have at least four First Lords. If Robert had lived, we’d have five again. If you resign, there’ll be only three!”

“I must, though I am deeply sorry for the trouble I am causing in doing so.”

“But why?”

“Need I explain, sir?” said Lord Peter. “It is not that I fear for my life, although all know I am in danger. I swore the same oath that Lord Charles has just sworn, years ago. One part of that oath states that I am to show respect to my lessers. King Thomas, I have learned today that some who are my lessers had wagered money on the date of Robert’s death, and now that he is dead they are wagering money on the date of my own…”

Lord Peter passed a withering, disgusted glance over them as they sat, pretending not to understand.

“Forgive me for failing my oath, but I cannot respect such people. I ask that I be permitted to resign.”

“Lord Peter, I deplore your timing. Couldn’t you have mentioned this before?”

“No, my liege. I learned of this only today, and it was the last straw. I cannot remain a Lord in such conditions, sir.”

“Damn it, Peter!” cried the King, losing his composure. “How dare you do this? You know there must be more than three First Lords during this dangerous time. It’s bad enough that Robert was killed: how dare you step down at this point? There’s no one to replace you! I defy you to suggest any other suitable noble for promotion. We both know that this death-gambling is utterly despicable. Am I to promote a man who won money on Robert’s death? Or should I pick one of those who lost!? You can’t think Sean’s going to change his mind. Peter, there is no one left to choose!”

“Oh?” said Lord Peter, and astonishingly, he was grinning, looking the King straight in the eye.

King Thomas met his gaze, and unexpectedly his anger began to melt away, to be replaced by a vast amusement. “Peter, you clever bastard.” he said admiringly.

“My liege, do you accept my resignation?”

“Quite. I hope you’ll continue to be clever on my behalf?”

“Of course, my liege.”

“Good. I hereby announce,” proclaimed the King to the stunned nobles, “the resignation of Lord Peter, and state that he lays down his rank with honor, at his own request. So be it!”

This time the horizon wobbled so much that everybody noticed, and it kept wobbling unsteadily, small ripples running through the image of the infinite plane. The nobles clearly found this disconcerting, but King Thomas seemed unperturbed, as if he’d expected it.

“Why is the room doing that?” Jinx whispered to Sean.

“Because Peter just resigned, Jinx.” replied Sean. “I’m not surprised the magic found his resignation upsetting. Peter’s a good man.”

“And now I shall promote another noble to Lord of the First Rank!” said the King, and paused for effect, watching the reactions of the various nobles. They were hardly able to hold still: terribly confused, repeatedly insulted, yet each still hoping, somehow, to be chosen for the honor…

“Sir Jinx!”

Jinx jumped to his feet, startled, as his name was called, and suddenly everybody was looking at him, a sea of shocked, appalled faces staring at him in horror and outrage.

“Yes, King-Thomas?” he said, quite forgetting the ‘my-liege’ bit in his confusion.

“Sir Jinx, do you accept this honor?”

Jinx didn’t know what to think, and then he heard Sean whisper in his ear, “Do it, mate. It’ll cheer me up, and Robert would be delighted…”

“Yes, King-Thomas.” replied Jinx. Peter was trying to keep from laughing at the reactions of the nobles, and was nearly falling over with the effort.

“Come stand before me, Sir Jinx.”

Jinx did so, and allowed King Thomas to take his sword and hold it over his head. He knew from past experience that King-Thomas wasn’t going to attack him, and he remained calm though terribly confused.

“Do you, Sir Jinx, swear to uphold the honor of the First Rank, to behave with respect for your lessers, with honor for your betters, and to pledge your life to the defense of the true King of Rainmoor?”

“I object, my liege!” sputtered Lord Hugo. “How can you pretend this creature understands what you’re saying?”

King Thomas froze, and the look he directed at Lord Hugo was not friendly.

“Sir Jinx, would you care to restate the oath you’re being asked to swear? You may use simple language, since this is for the benefit of Lord Hugo, who has just proved he cannot behave with respect towards his lessers.”

“Jinx is being asked to be polite to people, no matter who they are, and to keep King-Thomas from getting killed, no matter what.”

“There you are, sir: Sir Jinx understands the oath of the First Rank. If any of you would like to argue with me that ‘respect’ and ‘honor’ mean maligning a Knight of Rainmoor and gambling on the highest ranking First Lord’s death, I must, respectfully, decline…”

He turned to Jinx again, laying the sword on Jinx’s head gently.

“He must kneel,” said Lord Victor. “It’s customary.”

“He can’t, you fool.” said the King, exasperated. “His legs don’t bend that way. If anyone else interrupts, I shall call for their resignation without honor.”

There was silence, and King Thomas continued. “Do you, Sir Jinx, swear to uphold the honor of the First Rank, to behave with respect for your lessers, with honor for your betters, and to pledge your life to the defense of the true King of Rainmoor?”

“Yes, King-Thomas.”

“I hereby declare to all that Sir Jinx is now Lord of the First Rank, after Lord Charles.”

Suddenly, the horizon stopped rippling, and settled down, solid as a rock. Jinx accepted his sword back, and returned to his seat. He didn’t feel any different. He wasn’t sure how he felt about the way the room had stopped wobbling. Apparently the magic of Rainmoor liked him, which was nice, but he didn’t like thinking that he mattered to it. It was magic, and Jinx didn’t want to have anything to do with it.

King Thomas looked out at the resentful nobles, nodded once curtly, and strode out without another word. As he left, the throne sank back into the ground, the seats began to sink too, and the infinite plane curved up more and more at the horizon until it formed the tremendous sphere-shape again.

The nobles filed out of the room, shunning Jinx, Sean and Peter.

“That was jolly good fun,” said Peter, “but he shouldn’t have done it…”

“What, promoting Jinx?” asked Sean. “That was the best thing he did! And wasn’t it your idea, anyway?”

“No, no! I meant, humiliating the nobles. Certainly he had to promote Jinx, but when people started objecting he cut them down to size. I admit it was lovely to watch, but he can’t afford to do that right now… I’d better go talk to him.”

Peter hurried off after King Thomas, leaving Jinx and Sean standing there feeling unsophisticated.

“Hate to admit it, Jinx, but he’s right.” said Sean. “He needs those bastards…”

Bill, the page, came running up to them. “Lord Sean! Sir Jinx! Is the King here?”

“No, Bill, he’s gone home.” replied Sean. “And it’s Lord Jinx now, lad.”

“Oh! Sorry…” replied the page, and ran off in the direction Peter had gone.

“What on earth is the matter with that boy?” said Sean wonderingly. “I’d have thought meeting a new First Lord would hold him for at least five minutes.”

“I don’t care. Have you had breakfast, Sean?”

“No, Jinx, I haven’t. Can you blame me? I’ve been too upset. And you were right about my head this morning, I’ve got a splitting headache. I’m glad I came, though, for I saw Robert vindicated.”

Lord James was passing by at that moment, and said, “Got to hand it to you, Lord Sean. You’ve got guts. I wouldn’t have had the nerve to let Robert be laid in Rainmoor.”

Sean glared savagely at the man. “You’ve got enough bloody nerve as it is, toady.”

Lord James flushed. “I beg your pardon, Lord Sean. I was attempting to be complimentary. You must admit that Robert didn’t seem like the sort of man Rainmoor would accept.”

“That’s Lord Robert, you bastard, and he was a good man. Something you’ll never understand.”

Lord James was at a loss for words. Finally, he sputtered “Good? I’ll tell you what he was good for.” and patted a small sack of gold he carried. “He was good for this.”

Sean hurled himself at the man in a blind rage, and Jinx knew then why Peter had gotten exhausted trying to control him. Jinx seized Sean by the upper arms, idly noting that he was quite strong, stronger than Jinx would have believed possible. It didn’t matter: Jinx’s grip was unyielding and Sean struggled uselessly.

Lord James had jumped back, but hadn’t fled. In fact, Sean’s remarks had angered him so much that he was sticking around, enjoying Sean’s struggles. Jinx stared at him, finding this behavior unacceptable: not only was it extremely obnoxious and cruel, but Sean would not stop struggling while the man was watching and Jinx was afraid he would break his own bones with the effort.

“Get out of my sight, Lord-Toady. If you don’t leave, I’ll kill you myself. Go away!”

Lord James looked in Jinx’s eyes, and what he saw there must have frightened him, for he did leave then, glancing back over his shoulder huntedly as he did so. Jinx did not take his eyes off him until he was out of sight.

By then, all the other nobles were gone as well: some had stopped to watch the little drama being played out, but when Jinx glared at them they made themselves scarce. Jinx decided to ask Vernon why that was. Surely they didn’t think he was serious? He was sure that Peter had mentioned something about getting imprisoned for killing people, and he’d had no intention of actually killing anybody. Just frightening them, and they’d richly deserved that.

“Are you okay, Sean?” he asked.

“What a stupid bloody question.” said Sean, no longer struggling.

“Does that mean I can let go of you now?”

“If you don’t, my arms will drop off in a few seconds.”

Jinx hastily released him, and Sean began massaging his biceps, trying to get the blood back to his arms. He had trouble, because his hands wouldn’t work at first.

“I’m sorry.” said Jinx. “Did I hurt you?”

“That’s all right, mate. I’d only have been imprisoned or executed for what I was about to do. Robert wouldn’t have wanted that. I’m starting to feel my fingers again now.”

“Come over to my place. I’ll find you some breakfast to make up for it.”