CHAPTER 29 #2
The final member of the group was a human who Hallie recognised, both from the photograph she’d seen and from her glimpses of him, as Russet Welliver.
The photograph had shown a defiant man staring back at the camera.
And the witness that she and Girard had spoken to had described him in unflattering terms, making it clear he had seemed dangerous.
He did not look dangerous just now. Standing in the Conclave chamber he seemed small.
He looked deeply uncomfortable and uneasy and Hallie realised that one of the unnamed hochlen had a tight grip on Russet’s arm, forcing him to stay close.
There was a faint trace of magic in the air around the group, which seemed to centre around Russet, making Hallie wonder just what his role in all of this had been.
And who was creating the magic for them.
She hadn’t sensed any magic from Hoel or Findo in the past and nothing she had learned about Russet suggested he had any magic capabilities.
Her eyes narrowed as she looked at the hochlen holding on to Russet.
Trying to focus sent a sharp pain through her skull, but she felt magic from him.
So the magic user had been one of Hoel’s people.
Hallie managed to get to her feet, along with Girard, and realised, with a sinking feeling, that the two of them and Accalon were the only three people with weapons facing Hoel and his group. She did not like those numbers at all.
Accalon was on the next step up from Hallie and Girard and out of the corner of her eye, Hallie could see that the young man had his hand on his weapon but hadn’t drawn it yet.
She hoped he would continue to be sensible and stay still.
She had seen more than enough people die that day and over the past few days to last her a lifetime.
“What do you want, Buchanan?” Lamorat asked, voice cool and holding more than a bit of contempt. Hallie measured the distance between Lamorat and Hoel, and between her and Girard and the other two, and realised she was not going to be able to protect Lamorat from where she was.
“I haven’t changed my mind,” Hoel answered, taking a few more steps into the room. His eyes flicked over the faces of the Conclave members, all turned towards him, and then on to Nanters and Cladas, who were standing, huddled together, a short distance away. “Turned you away, too, did they?”
“Removed us from the Conclave,” Nanters said, outrage in his voice and face.
“And you, too,” Cladas added, with a hint of vicious satisfaction. Hallie thought was distinctly foolish, considering how easily Hoel had killed another one of their group earlier. But perhaps Cladas was too shaken or angry to care about what was wise and what was not.
“It doesn’t matter,” Hoel said carelessly.
Hallie’s eyes narrowed. He meant it. Mostly.
There was something else there, including quite a bit of anger, which grew as he went on.
The knot in her stomach was back, wondering what also Hoel had planned.
“The Conclave is finished. Grown soft and weak. My father and his father would never have stood for it.”
“You are quite wrong, you know,” Lamorat said, still standing at the head of the table, apparently composed and untroubled by the threat of Hoel and his group.
Hallie had to admire his courage. Even though Lamorat was most likely wearing body armour under his robe, it wouldn’t stop Hoel’s sword, and enough bullets would still kill him.
“What do you know of it?” Hoel sneered.
“I sat around this table, and others like it, with your father and grandfather for many years before you were born. Before your father had ever met your mother, in fact,” Lamorat said, in that same calm, cool voice.
“Your grandfather was wise beyond his time. He saw the need for change, the need for reform.”
“He invited me onto the Conclave,” Cotovatre said, her voice as calm as Lamorat’s. “And he wanted a variety of voices here. Not just hochlen. Human, too, and non-human.”
“That is an outrageous slur.” Hoel was almost shaking with anger, face white apart from spots of colour high on his cheeks. “You are lying.”
“No,” Ocvran said, heaving himself to his feet with a weary sigh. “I was there, too.”
“We do not call you young because of your years,” Lamorat added, “but because of how you view the world. As if it should be in the image you expect, and nothing else. Those of us who have lived longer or travelled more understand that there is more than one way of doing things.”
“You are all lying,” Hoel said. He was shaking now, and strode forward, reaching for the automatic weapon. “You will take that back. All of you. You dishonour my father and grandfather’s names and memories.”
As Hoel moved, Findo moved, too. No one but Hallie seemed to notice, all their attention on the hochlen.
So the rest of the room let out a collective gasp of shock when Findo growled, low in his throat.
“This is more than tiresome.” The veondken, on the stair above Hoel, reached forward, took hold of the hilt of the sword Hoel was carrying on his back, drew the weapon and swung it all in one, smooth move.
Hoel’s head parted ways from his body and dropped onto the stair, rolling down the remaining steps to the floor, a shocked expression forever locked in place even as his body swayed then crumpled to the ground.
More screams sounded around the room, and the Conclave members closest to Hoel’s head scrambled to move away from it as if it might explode. Hallie didn’t blame them. They had endured a lot of shocks that day. She didn’t have time for them, though, turning her attention back to Findo Trask.
The veondken was standing, blood-drenched sword still in hand, looking around with a faint, mocking smile on his face.
It was only then that Hallie realised the two hochlen who had flanked Hoel had not moved, had not done anything to protect him, or to seek revenge for his swift and brutal death, not even the one who possessed magic.
The two blond men looked down at the headless body with barely a change in expression, then turned their gazes to Findo.
“Your orders, sir?” one of them asked.
Hallie knew she was not the only one who gasped. She had never heard of any hochlen deferring to a veondken and had never thought it possible.
“Stand by,” Findo told the two armed men in a careless aside over his shoulder, then turned back to the Conclave. “What, you thought Hoel was in charge?” Findo grinned, showing a lot of bright white teeth. “A useful tool, nothing more.”
“Findo Trask, I presume,” Lamorat said. He was still standing at the head of the table, Cotovatre nearby.
“You presume right,” Findo answered, still grinning. He looked around the table, then back at Lamorat. “And you would be Lamorat Lucas. And Cotovatre. I’ve heard a lot about both of you.”
“I cannot imagine that you went to all this trouble just to meet us,” Lamorat said, “so perhaps you will tell us what you do want?” Hallie had to admire his outward calm even as the even tone of his voice rang false to her truth sense.
“Straight to the point. I like that,” Findo said, white teeth still showing. “What do I want? Well, mostly what he wanted,” Findo said, using the sword to indicate Hoel’s head. “Getting rid of you lot to start with. You’ve interfered with me quite enough over the years.”
He wasn’t being truthful. Or, at least, he was mixing truth and lies.
Hallie frowned. She had guessed wrong. She would not have believed that Findo Trask would be so brazen as to confront the Conclave.
He would understand perfectly well that there would be consequences.
Even if the Conclave agreed to dissolve, Findo had killed a hochlen.
Even if no one in this room took action, there would be plenty of elite out for his blood, wanting to hunt him down.
He would never be absolutely safe again in his life.
It seemed that Lamorat and Cotovatre shared at least some of her concerns as the pair exchanged a glance, then Cotovatre spoke, voice chilly. “Even if we agree to disband the Conclave, what does that change? Hochlen still rule, and they will pursue you.”
“Oh, no, my lady, you are mistaken. You’re not going to disband. Welliver here has rigged the whole building to go. You’re all going to die, and no one is going to know I was here or to look for me,” Findo said. The glint in his eye was nothing short of evil.
“That is not what we planned,” Nanters said, getting to his feet, colour high again.
Hallie wondered if he had ever encountered Findo before, or had any idea of just how dangerous the veondken really was.
Or if Nanters had simply fallen into the trap which a lot of hochlen did, believing that everyone would obey them.
As if that was the natural order of things.
“Your plans don’t interest me,” Findo said, sparing a glance full of contempt for Nanters and Cladas, who was still sitting on the bench, hunched in over himself. “Your petty ambitions were helpful diversions, nothing more.”
“You will not get away with this,” Cotovatre said, her voice quiet and firm. “Even if you do manage to kill all of us, somehow, there will be questions. Investigations.”
“Is that so? Well, it seems you have a higher opinion of your fellow elite than I do. Let me tell you what I think will happen. I think that, with the Conclave gone, and a few well-placed bits of gossip and information spread about, your whole world order will crumble. Hoel’s people have been itching to go to war for quite some time.
He stirred them up quite a bit, to be sure, but there are a lot of young men in his lands who want someone to fight.
All those angry young men with guns who your people are still chasing around the building are just a small portion of those who would take up arms.” There was a tight smile on Findo’s face as he spoke.