Chapter 41 Kasira #2
The Malik had drawn their swords and were edging closer, alongside the Kalish palace guards. Queen Sarren’s sentries were closing in from the other side. Even the Jacari guards had slipped on their makhet gloves, the living metal forming spikes along the knuckles.
“I had to do what was best for my people.” Ambric’s hoarse voice barely rose above the panicking crowd.
His face had paled, but he stared resolutely back at his brother.
“You would not treat with Kalthos, you would not even listen! And it is Miraval that paid the price. Spenshire. My family, Allaster!”
“I am your family!” Allaster roared.
Ambric sprang to his feet. “You are the Librarian of Amorlin! You gave up your right to family when you took this position. You were given everything, Allaster, everything! Do not blame me because you decided to throw it all away.”
Slowly, the darkness receded, slinking back into Allaster’s shadow like a wounded animal. The room ceased its shaking, the air clearing of the growing pressure. The Library settled, leaving behind a man who looked more ancient than the catacombs below his feet.
“For you,” he said quietly, and Ambric reared back. “I threw it away for you.”
In that moment, Kasira saw their story laid bare between them.
The older brother who had lived in his younger brother’s shadow, who had spent his life pursuing him to the ends of the continent, had ascended to the greatest Miravi heights as High Mage, and had still never felt like enough.
And the lonely, five-year-old boy who had been stripped from his family, had watched them die one by one across the decades, who had wanted nothing more than his brother at his side.
She had done this. She had broken all of this.
“Take him,” came Vera’s order, and her Malik seized Allaster by each arm. “I want him locked away until we’re prepared to transport him to Kalthos.”
She swept from the room, and Kasira snapped her fingers, teleporting herself to Allaster’s office. Her office. She was Librarian now, at least for as long as it took Vera to phase her out and take control of the Library. Then everything would change.
She leaned back against the desk to await Vera, forcing each breath out more slowly than the last. She had to keep control of herself.
The Ambassador glided into the room with her Malik.
She barely spared her surroundings a glance, lifting a folded envelope.
“One royal pardon, as agreed.” She tossed it onto a haphazard pile of books that teetered with the movement.
“You’ve been absolved of all the crimes you were sentenced to Belvar for, your sentence considered served. ”
Kasira waved her hand, and the envelope appeared in her palm. She tore it open, reading each word of the document, seeking the signature at the bottom that made it legitimate. It was real. It was done.
She was free.
“There is one problem, of course.” Vera studied her nails as she spoke. “Free or not, I need you here, under my command, until my control of the Library is complete. As we agreed.”
“And if I refuse?” Kasira tilted her head.
The Ambassador’s lips thinned in a smile as the Malik gripped their hilts. “You have worked so hard to protect this wretched place. Would you abandon it now?”
When Kasira only stared at her, something shifted in Vera’s expression. The barest hint of a crack that only widened when she demanded, “Do you understand me, criminal?”
“Perfectly,” Kasira replied evenly. In fact, she understood better than Vera likely did herself.
The Ambassador saw herself a pious woman, her blasphemy delegated to lesser souls with the self-assurance that the sins they committed were for the good of the church.
That was how she justified things like Spenshire, like hiring a con artist to lie on her orders.
It was why Kasira had trusted her to keep her word, even as the Ambassador compromised herself again and again, and why she knew that at the end, Vera would have a way around their bargain. One final trick.
“This was always going to end here,” Kasira said. “From the moment you offered Thane my life.”
Vera’s eyes narrowed. “And yet you performed your side of the bargain anyway?”
“I didn’t have a choice. I needed to stall you.”
At that, the crack became a rift, revealing Vera’s uncertainty. “Stall me?”
“Until I had the means of protecting the Library. You could have taken what I had given you already and gone to the Conclave without me, but you don’t like to lose, do you, Ambassador?” Kasira sat back on the desk. “You see, you made a crucial mistake: You fucked with the people I care about.”
In the beginning, she had truly wanted what Vera offered her: absolution and a chance to start anew.
But with each day she spent in the Library, Kasira had come to realize that, for the first time in her life, she felt as though she was exactly where she was supposed to be.
She wanted to stay up into the twilight hours reading beside the fire with Iylis, to have lunch with May and Gievra in the Eyrie, and go on missions to far-off places.
She wanted to learn everything there was to know about magic and artifacts, to ask Allaster why he so rarely smiled.
For once, she wanted to stay.
“And yet you saw the Conclave through.” Vera was beginning to betray her unease now. “You had Allaster removed.”
“I made a bargain with the one person more powerful than you.” Kasira waved a hand at the tapestry in the corner.
It lifted off its rod, crumpling to the floor to reveal May standing in the very hall Kasira had once fled down.
The Library had opened it again at her request, the magic rising to aid her like a long-lost friend.
Vera’s confusion lasted for as long as it took the contingent of Kalish guards to flare out around her, followed by King Carthur.
The King appraised Vera’s growing apprehension. “I have to give you credit, cousin. It was a cunning move. Control of the Library is about the only thing that could have garnered you enough support to take my throne.”
Vera retreated a step, her Malik guards edging forward. “I meant to take the Library in your name, as a gift to celebrate the Prince’s union.”
“The union you’ve publicly rejected and spat upon?” Carthur scoffed. “Come now, Vera. You’re better than that. Try again.”
A flush erupted through Vera’s pale skin, and it only darkened when Kasira summoned a piece of paper and said, “This is a confession written in your hand. I’ll need time to forge the signature and seal from the pardon you gave me, but it will be hard for you to refute this, coupled with the witness of the King and his guards. ”
Satisfaction bloomed across the King’s face. “Arrest her.”
The palace guards descended on Vera, whose Malik moved to defend her. They were drastically overwhelmed by the number of palace guards, and with so little room to maneuver, the King’s people made quick work of them. The Captain had soon secured Vera, her hands bound behind her back.
“Take her back to the palace,” King Carthur instructed. “I’ll handle her later.”
Vera’s distress settled into a cold calm. “I will make you both regret this. Do not think it’s over.”
Kasira only looked to May. “Will you escort them?”
She hadn’t been sure May would show. Hadn’t been sure she would even read the letter Kasira had materialized on her seat before the verdict was read, let alone abide by it. But there was no one else she trusted to collect the King and bring him up the secret passage.
For a moment, May only surveyed her, a quiet chill to her expression that made Kasira’s heart ache. But in the end, she walked to the head of the group once the soldiers had rounded up the wounded Malik and led them from the room.
Swallowing down her emotions, Kasira faced the King. “It’s your turn to hold up your side of our bargain, Your Majesty. Rescind Kalthos’s claims against Allaster and call off the Conclave.”
King Carthur regarded her shrewdly. “Clever. I told you that you could only have one, and you chose the Library, but you got your pardon from my cousin nonetheless.”
“Something Vera and I have in common,” Kasira replied. “I don’t like to lose.”
The King smiled, his remaining guards closing ranks around him.
“How unfortunate. I have no intention of calling off the Conclave. Allaster St. Archer is highly unpopular among my supporters, and it would be rather beneficial for me to take credit for Vera’s work here.
I can find someone else to forge a confession. ”
But Kasira only studied her nails. “Not even if it means forfeiting the marriage between your son and Lady Nyelle’s daughter? Lady Nyelle won’t stand for Allaster’s removal.”
The King snorted. “By the time Lady Nyelle can do anything about this, the Librarian will be under guard on Kalish soil, and the Prince wed.”
“Is that so?” Nyelle stepped in from the hall Vera had just been escorted down, several house guards of her own in tow.
Although the woman had responded to Kasira’s letter with confirmation that she would arrive as requested, the relief Kasira felt at seeing her was immeasurable.
She was the only person capable of pressuring the King into compliance, and his bewildered expression betrayed it.
“Lady Nyelle,” he ground out.
“Your Majesty.” Nyelle curtsied with a poise even Kasira couldn’t emulate. “Shall we continue with this farce, or would you like to skip to the part where you keep your word?”
“I can assure you, Your Majesty,” Kasira added quietly, “I make a far more formidable ally than enemy. Just ask your cousin.”
The King’s hands folded into white-knuckled fists, and she could practically see him digging in his heels, refusing to be bested. Perhaps she had underestimated his pride, and he truly would risk his son’s union to be victorious here today.
Nyelle must have seen it as well, for she withdrew a folded note from her pocket. “You should know, Your Majesty, that I’ve been informed of the cause of our vylor shortage.”
“What?” The King looked toward Kasira, clearly expecting a trick, but even she didn’t know what Nyelle was up to. “How?”
“It was a topic of research by the First Mage.” Nyelle held the paper up between two fingers, the King’s eyes tracking it. “She discovered the cycle of the ore’s development and what’s disrupted it, and she shared that information with me.”
Information that would make the Yadoras even more powerful, more wealthy, while the King’s influence waned—unless he cooperated.
It was brilliant. May was brilliant, and Kasira only wished that she were there to see the understanding unfold across the King’s face.
The resignation as he turned to Kasira and said, “Very well, Assistant. Do you intend to drag the entire Conclave back here for this matter?”
“They haven’t left,” Kasira replied. And with all the magic she could muster, she snapped her fingers, transporting herself, King Carthur, Nyelle, and both contingents of soldiers back to the Glass Room.
A few gasps of surprise greeted them. Many of the dignitaries were gathered by the far door, currently barred by Fen, Carlia, and Talthari.
From the look of the guards, things had been growing heated, but the mages had held their line.
First May, then Nyelle, now the others—they had all helped Kasira, trusted her, despite what she had done.
“What is the meaning of this?” Arch Minister Cernos demanded, advancing toward her.
“There’s been a change in plans.” Kasira looked to the King.
With a sigh, King Carthur addressed the crowd. “Kalthos withdraws its vote in favor of expelling Allaster St. Archer from the position of Librarian. We also rescind all of our accusations, including that of Thane Ryarch’s murder.”
The gathering exchanged befuddled looks, muttering among themselves.
“I want nothing more than for Allaster to maintain his position.” Arraidia’s voice rose above the rest. “But the Conclave is over. You would have to submit for a new trial.”
With a wave of her hand, Kasira produced a sheet of paper.
“Actually, by Library law, the Conclave is not over until every nation has cast its vote. That law was amended when Avaria retreated into seclusion: The ice kingdom’s vote is forfeit, if there hasn’t been contact from it in the current year. ”
She held up the paper for everyone to see.
It bore a simple message of greeting to Allaster, a request to reestablish connections and, in the bottom-right corner, the Avari royal seal of a dragon’s head, which Kasira had taken and altered slightly from the dragon whistle in the artifact room.
She handed the letter to the Arch Minister.
“Feel free to verify its legitimacy yourself,” she continued, knowing they had no hope of doing so. “Until then, kindly get the fuck out of my Library.”