"Who are you supposed to be?" he said.
Keller shook him off and stood with her hair swirling around her. "We're the people who're bringing you the Wild Power," she said. She spotted Nissa just coming in the door and beckoned to her. "And we're also the ones who killed the dragon."
The big room fell so silent that you could have heard a paper clip drop.
"Well, actually, she killed the dragon," Keller said, pointing to Diana.
Aradia said in a hushed voice, "The Witch Child. She's come to us."
Iliana walked slowly up onto the stage and stood straight. "I didn't kill it alone," she said. "Everybody helped, and especially Keller and Galen."
Galen's father's golden eyebrows went up, and Galen's mother gripped her husband's arm. Keller glanced sideways at Galen and saw that he was blushing.
"They fought it and fought it until they were both almost dead. But then, when I used the blue fire, they got better again."
She said it so simply, speaking to Mother Cybele alone, or so it seemed. She didn't look in the least self-conscious, or in the least arrogant.
I suppose she's used to having everybody looking at her, Keller thought.
Mother Cybele actually clasped her little soft hands together and shut her eyes. When she opened them again, they were shining with tears.
But all she said was, "Welcome, my child. Grandma Harman's last words were for you. She hoped you would find your power."
"She did," Keller said. "Winnie helped her."
I didn't help her do that," Winnie said candidly. "What she did back there and what she said. I just tried to show her how to use the orange fire. But when she started talking-" She shook her curly head. "I don't know where she got all that stuff about Hecate."
'It just came to me," Iliana said. "I don't know. It was as if somebody was saying it to me, and I was just repeating it."
But who could have said it? Keller thought. Who else but somebody who was there the first time, when the dragons were put to sleep? Who else but Hecate Witch-Queen herself?
Even though she'd been dead thirty thousand years.
It's time for everything that's sleeping to wake back up again.
Keller realized that she was hearing a noise from the crowd. At first, she thought that they were muttering in disbelief again, or maybe in annoyance at these people who were standing on the stage and chattering.
Then it got louder and louder, and she realized it was applause.
People were clapping and cheering and whistling. It was echoing off the ceiling and walls. And just when Keller thought it couldn't possibly get any louder, a new wave would come and prove her wrong.
It took a long time for Mother Cybele to get them all quieted down. Then she turned to Keller and said formally, "So you've completed your mission?"
Keller realized that it was a cue. And in the midst of the dizzy happiness she'd been feeling, something twisted in her heart.
She kept it from showing on her face. She kept herself standing erect.
"Yes," she said to Mother Cybele. "I've brought the Witch Child." She swallowed hard.
"And here is the son of the First House of the shapeshifters," Galen's father said. He stepped over to Galen and took his hand. His face was stern but glowing with pride.
Galen's face was pale but set. He looked at Keller-for just one moment. And then he looked straight out at the audience with unseeing eyes.
Mother Cybele looked toward Iliana. To take her hand, Keller supposed, and join it with Galen's. But Iliana was holding some whispered conversation with Aradia.
When she finally turned around, Iliana said, '1 want Keller to do it. She's the one responsible for all this."
Keller blinked. Her throat was so swollen, it was impossible to swallow again. But she wouldn't have thought it of Iliana. Really, it seemed so pointlessly cruel to make her do it.
But maybe she doesn't understand. That's it, she doesn't realize, Keller thought. She let out a careful, shaky breath and said, "Okay."
She reached for Diana's hand-
And felt a stab in her palm.
She looked down, astonished. Iliana had a knife in that hand, a perfectly serviceable little knife. She had cut Keller with it, and Keller was bleeding. In fact, Iliana seemed to be bleeding, too.
"Sorry," Iliana hissed. "Ick, I hate blood."
Then, grabbing Keller's hand again, she faced the audience and raised it up high.
"There!" she said. "Now we're blood sisters. And she's already been like a sister to me, because she saved my life over and over. And if that's not good enough for an alliance between the witches and the shapeshifters, I don't know what is."
The entire audience gaped at her. Mother Cybele blinked rapidly.
"Are you saying..." Galen's father looked incredulous. "Are you saying that you won't marry my son?"
"I'm saying that she ought to marry your son- or promise to him, or whatever they want. She's the one he's in love with. And I don't see why you should make him miserable for his whole life just because you want the shapeshifters tied to the witches. Keller and I are tied together, and we always will be. And Galen, too. Why can't that be enough?"
A sound was starting from the crowd again. Keller's heart seemed to soar on it. But she was still staring at Iliana, afraid to believe.
"But... what if the witches don't agree to it?" Galen's father said feebly.
Iliana stamped her foot She actually did.
Tm the Witch Child. They'd better listen to me. I didn't go through all of this for nothing."
Then the crowd was thundering applause even louder than before, and the wave seemed to sweep Keller right into Galen's arms.