Chapter 8
Primi Capitis
It was fortunate that King Talos had an open court day so soon.
It was not fortunate for me that the line curled around half the compound when the gates opened.
Luck was still on my side because I made the cut.
I shifted on the hard bench as the next person stood to take their turn.
At last, I was next. My ass was numb from the most uncomfortable benches I’d ever had the pleasure of sitting on and I spent the first part of my life sitting on chairs carved from rock.
The open court days were held once a month but the date always changed. It was the one day that anyone could go to the King and talk to them about anything. The court clerk announced the next person. “Human. Andrew Thomson.”
The human wore a decent suit and did a quarter bow. “Your Majesties.” The throne was full, with all three kings in attendance.
Talos looked down at him like he wasn’t even worthy of being lunch. The human cleared his throat. “I am here to petition that more funds be given to the human sector sanitation department.”
Talos tapped the tip of a royal purple boot on the marble floor. “For what reason?” His tone was cool and flat.
“There are several buildings that are not getting cleaned properly, especially the bathroom areas.”
King Kikoi’s head whipped around to face the human from where he had been resting it against King Bayne, a devious smirk gracing the corner of his mouth.
“Where do you work?” Talos questioned, revealing nothing but the utmost boredom.
“I’m a clerk in the city’s transportation office, Your Majesty.” He shifted weight from one foot to the other, giving away his nervousness.
“No. That’s not where you work.” The human started to protest but Talos cut him off. “You work in the human sector sanitation department, specifically as the official toilet cleaner for all buildings. It’s a lifetime appointment. I hear that the work is never-ending.”
“But Your Majesty?” The human tried to protest again. Talos waved a hand and a guard appeared. The guard dragged Andrew off in a flash.
A giggle escaped Kikoi and Talos arched a brow at him. I kept my face neutral as I stood and buttoned my suit jacket.
“Dwarf. Nozzag Bloodarmor.” The court clerk announced.
I bowed in half when I got to the bottom of the stairs going to the dais. Talos’s eyes narrowed.
“Good day to you, Your Majesties.”
“I thought for sure you wouldn’t have the balls to show your face here again after what you did the last time.
” The bored indifference was gone from his tone, replaced with a sliver of anger.
“Did you think I would forget how you tricked my grandson, not to mention how you used me to trick him into being where you wanted him to be?”
I winced. I normally didn’t have to use somewhat dubious tactics to get a mate to meet the other but it would not have happened any other way.
“I do apologize deeply, Your Majesty, for the subterfuge I used to ensure that your grandson was in the right place at the right time to meet his mate.” I bowed as low as I could and stayed there until Talos spoke again.
“Were he not happy, I would have your head.” The finality that dripped from the last word was not lost on me. “What do you want now?”
I clasped my hands behind my back as I straightened. “I came to ask for your help with a serious situation that is happening in the Shadow Dimension.”
“I’m listening but taking any sort of action in the Shadow Dimension would be against the Sydney Peace Accords.” In other words, what I have to say better be damn good.
“I am aware, and I hope that once I finish telling you what is happening, you’ll take this to the Supernatural Council. I would have gone but I wasn’t able to get an audience for another year and the situation cannot wait that long.”
Talos stared at me unblinkingly, so I took that as my cue to continue. “It has been brought to our attention that the so-called private zoos controlled by the Terran Species Preservation Society do not contain animals but rather therianthropes forced to remain in their animal forms.”
Bayne’s eyes went wide and Kikoi gasped. Talos cocked his head slightly as he continued to give me his death stare. “What proof of this do you have?”
“A pygmy hippo therianthrope was able to escape the other day with the help of his mate. We rescued them and are sheltering them at our headquarters. Kaba is recovering from his ordeal, or I would have brought him and his mate with me, but I do have a recorded statement that I can give you.” I pulled out a flexipad from my inside pocket.
A guard appeared and I handed it to him.
He zoomed to the throne and handed it to Talos.
Talos played the recording but I couldn’t hear it from where I was.
The statement was extensive since Kaba went into great detail about his life in captivity.
The kings huddled around the flexipad, watching it, but after a few minutes, Talos handed it to Bayne.
He and Kikoi sat back as they continued to watch it.
“What would you have me do about them? Take the issue to the Global Authorities. That’s what they are there for. Are they not?”
“Yes, but we have reason to believe that they are fully aware of the situation but do not care. The ruling class in the Shadow Dimension considers the therianthropes as pets. You know they do not respect them and have clashed even with the Supernatural Council over the therianthrope members who have seats on it.” I kept my voice even and tried not to let their plight make me emotional.
Talos would not be receptive to me in that state.
“So, let’s say I take this to the council and they vote to mount a rescue mission. We’d have to hit all the zoos at once. Do you even know how many they have?”
“Yes. There are 1,245 facilities across the dimension holding what we estimate to be approximately 100,000 beings.”
Kikoi gasped again and put a hand over his mouth.
“Why can’t you rescue them?” Talos asked a very valid question.
“We’re a small organization. We simply don’t have even a fraction of the numbers it would take to rescue them all.” Despite Talos’s unyielding nature, I held onto the hope that he’d recognize the merit in saving them.
“Once they are rescued, where will they go? From the little I’ve seen there,” he gestured to the flexipad that Bayne and Kikoi were still watching, “they will need extensive rehabilitation. They’ve lived as animals all their lives.
They have no education, no skills, no resources.
Nothing.” Talos uncrossed his legs and stood.
He purposefully strutted down the stairs until he was in front of me. I was careful not to move back, but my instincts were telling me to run. He stopped an arm’s width away and had he not been wearing such high heels on his boots, we would have been of equal height if not stature.
Despite his petite, delicate-looking frame, I was acutely aware that he could end my life in the blink of an eye if he desired.
I faced him head-on. My heart raced loudly in my ears, a sound I knew he could detect, yet I was powerless to control my body’s instinctual response to a predator such as him.
“They would be a drain on the society. Some of them may not even be capable of being reintegrated into society. They’ll be feral and no better than an animal.
For all I know, they’re all better off if we just put them down.
” A chill ran through me from the ice-filled words he lobbed at me.
I tried to swallow around the lump that formed in my throat.
“Why did you come here, Nozzag Bloodarmor?” Talos put his hands in the pockets of his black suit pants. The jacket with embroidered purple flowers that matched his boots opened, showing more of the darker purple button-down he had on underneath. “Why didn’t you go to the Elvish Council on Magnus?”
The throne room remained crowded with petitioners, yet a profound silence enveloped the space, as if everyone was collectively holding their breath in anticipation of how Talos would kill me.
But they all fell away for me as I took him in, weighing my words carefully.
“The Elvish council is willing to offer aid and to help give some of the therianthropes new homes, but they are not willing to help with the actual rescue.”
“I see, so they’re unwilling to stain their hands with the blood of the captors or the innocents possibly killed during the operation, but they’re willing, eager even, to ensure the well-being of those who have known nothing beyond their tiny shielded domes.
They will care for them but just not enough to free them.
” Talos quirked a brow. “I ask you again, Nozzag Bloodarmor, agent to your Creator, why did you come here?”
My mouth was suddenly drier than the Sanguine Desert in the Shadow Dimension, famous for its blood-red sands and mythic home of the vampyri.
I gathered all the saliva I could and swallowed.
“I knew that if you deemed them worthy of your attention, you would without a doubt do what was necessary to free them and get justice for them by ensuring that every single member of the society paid for the century-long captivity of intelligent beings with their lives.” I let all my disgust and conviction in the matter bleed into my words and I met Talos’s gaze with my hardened one.
Talos stared into my eyes unblinkingly for what seemed like an eternity before he gave a sharp nod and turned on his toes to go back to his mates. “I will take the matter to the Supernatural Council.”
I waited until he was seated again. Bayne’s hand went to his shoulder. I bowed low. “Thank you, Your Majesties.”
I straightened and turned to leave, but Kikoi’s voice stopped me. “Oh, Nozzag?” I twisted around. “Do stop in for a visit to Amalesh before you go. I think you have some words to say to him.” The flatness to which he gave the order revealed the predator behind the sweet smile and pretty clothing.
Resisting the urge to shiver, I inclined my head and continued my way out of the throne room.