CHAPTER 42 #2
In the middle of the tower stood a massive wooden desk, heavy and ornate.
The man behind it was in his early sixties.
He wore a black tabard with a stylized gold sun embroidered upon it.
The symbol of his rank for, like the sun, he was meant to see all and purge the darkness.
His hair, very curly and cropped short, had gone almost completely white.
His face was long, made longer by a short graying beard in stark contrast to his deep brown skin.
His cheekbones were prominent, his nose broad and flared.
His eyes under sparse eyebrows were smart and watchful.
Colart Jenicor, the Sun Margrave.
“Here she is,” he said. “You can stop haunting me now.”
Someone moved on the balcony. A man in black and green stood up from a chair.
Everard.
Damn it.
“Lady Demarr, I presume,” the Sun Margrave said. “The Lord of Selva tells me you have something vital for me. Something so important that he showed up at my office with the first rays of the sun and refused to leave. I’m eager to hear what it is.”
What was it he had said to me when we were trying to figure out what to do with the Yolentas’ salt? I have a friend who works for the Justice Chamber . . .
I set my chest on the floor, took out the first scroll case, and offered it to him. Colart Jenicor pried the case open, extracted the scroll, and unrolled it.
His face changed. He looked at me, his expression unreadable. The magic pulsing over the signature line was obvious even from this distance.
I plucked out the second scroll and handed it over. He put the first one down as if it were a snake, took the second scroll, glanced at it, and put that one atop the first.
I reached into the chest and began stacking the scroll cases on his desk.
He watched me without a word. I placed the sixteen remaining scroll cases into a neat little pile and passed him a piece of paper with a list on it.
Eighteen names, everyone who was bound to Hreban by a life chain and still alive.
Two clerks in the Chamber of Ceremonies, a woman very high up in the Treasury, a knight of the Silver Eagles, one Defender, two Redeemers, a royal cook, two royal guards, a City Guard Knight Captain, a sprinkling of officials, and a prosecutor from the Justice Chamber.
That last one had to hurt. He worked directly under the Sun Margrave.
I plucked a stack of papers from the chest and put it in front of him.
Detailed background on the eighteen with as much information as the Shears could find: their origins, their careers, their sins.
Most of them had sold themselves for basic, human reasons.
Some had nowhere to turn, others were just greedy.
The Sun Margrave flipped through the papers, scanning them with surprising speed, and looked back at me.
I handed the Butcher’s scroll to him. He stared at it, shocked.
If there was anything a liberal arts education taught you how to do, it was to read a bunch of different sources and vomit all the information in an organized and structured manner. I had wrapped this case in shiny paper and slapped a beautiful bow on top of it.
The Sun Margrave met my gaze.
“I know the kind of man you are. I know you will do the right thing. But if something stops you from saving the kingdom, I’ve kept enough evidence, and I will use what I have.”
I turned and walked out.
REDBERRY 24
I walked on the Sun Margrave’s left, through a long hallway. Ahead, a knight with a torch led the way. Behind us, two more knights brought up the rear.
In my head the word dungeon always conjured up either a dimly lit maze or something that came out of a LitRPG, but the dungeon of the Eagle Roost was nothing like that.
It looked like the rest of the Eagle Roost, ancient, foreboding, impenetrable, a wide hallway lit by lanterns, its floor swept clean and its thick stone walls free of grime.
On our left, rows of cells ran the length of the hallway, guarded by solid iron bars, cages to contain human evil.
On our right, narrow windows let the inmates glimpse a bit of the sky. A little hope was a terrible thing.
“Remember his power. Do not allow yourself to be hurt,” Jenicor said.
“I will not.”
The day of the audience with the Sun Margrave, I had made it all the way home, and fifteen minutes after I walked through the door, a carriage bearing the Sun Margrave’s standard arrived with the Sun Margrave’s second-in-command.
Colart Jenicor had formally asked for my help.
I’d climbed into the carriage and had yet to get home.
Ulmar Hreban was arrested the following day on an emergency warrant signed by Sauven himself.
The opening of the High Court’s session had to go forward.
It was a massive public event, a celebration that had happened for twenty-five years, ever since Jenicor announced the case against Ralinbor’s widow and the High Court unanimously sentenced her to death.
Tomorrow the Sun Margrave had to ascend the steps of the Eagle Roost escorted by three squires.
Surrounding him with an escort of armored knights would send all sorts of wrong signals about the stability of Sauven’s reign.
Worse, I didn’t find a contract with Cai’s name on it. That meant that Hreban had hired his replacement assassin via ordinary means. If Cai failed tomorrow, he would face no magical repercussions. He would survive that failure.
Cai of Sunder always made his kill. If tomorrow didn’t work out, he would bide his time and kill Jenicor later. We couldn’t take that chance.
The Justice Chamber had interrogated Hreban for two days, trying to squeeze the location of the assassin out of him, but he revealed nothing. I was their last chance. It was a very long shot.
Ahead the knight stopped and raised her torch.
“Take care with your heart,” the Sun Margrave said.
“I will.”
I walked to the cell. The Sun Margrave and his escort retreated to one end of the hallway, out of earshot.
The knight who escorted me thrust the torch into a holder on the wall, between the lanterns, and walked to the other end of the hallway.
There was twenty yards of open space on both sides of me.
In the cell, Ulmar Hreban sat on the stone floor, stripped of his finery, wearing a plain tunic and pants with simple sandals on his feet. But the expression on his face was still the same. Pouty, arrogant, the man who expected his due.
I sat on the floor by the bars well out of his reach. We looked at each other.
“You’re wondering how you ended up here,” I told him. “It was me.”
“I do not know you.” His voice was deep and even.
“But I know you. I was there when your grandfather let you hide under his desk as he destroyed the merchant guild of Barder. I saw your father kill your uncle. I witnessed you assaulting a maid because you wanted her and your lust turned to violence, and then I watched as your parents had you whipped because you had dishonored your house. I know your thoughts. I was in your head. Look into my heart and see if I am lying.”
He stared at me, and for the first time ever I saw his expression change slightly. A new emotion shivered in his eyes. Fear.
“Who are you?”
“Someone who came into this world to stop you.”
He frowned. “Why would you want to stop me? The world needs order. It needs a strong hand. My hand.”
“You’re right. The world needs order, but that’s not what you offer. You offer tyranny.”
“What is the difference?”
“Order is imposed to allow the majority of people in a society to survive and prosper. It curbs violence and provides protection by enforcing laws and limitations. Tyranny concentrates power in the hands of the few and benefits only them. The rest suffer.”
“The rest aren’t fit to govern. I see into your heart now and it’s filled with contempt for me, but I am what people made me.
You don’t know the nature of human hearts.
They are woven of false promises and full of deceit and hatred.
The world is filled with the weak, the stupid, the easily deceived and easily led. ”
“You cherry-pick your truth. You saw other things in people’s hearts, like love and kindness. Compassion. Valor. Empathy. But you chose to discard them.”
“They are illusions,” he said. “Lies people tell themselves to aggrandize their petty ambitions. In the end, only the self-interest matters, and they will sacrifice everything they profess to love just to survive. I am the only one who isn’t blind to it.”
I shook my head. “You think your life is the most valuable life out there, but it’s just one of many.
We are all unique, yet in the eyes of the law we must be equal.
Only then can we survive and thrive. You’re just like everyone else, Ulmar.
You bleed like any other human, and soon the kingdom will take your head. ”
“No. I’m Ulmar Hreban,” he told me. “They will not kill me.”
“Oh, they will. You’ve planned to murder the Sun Margrave, a cornerstone of Sauven’s reign. The king will never let it pass. However, the Sun Margrave is prepared to spare your life if you tell me how to find Cai of Sunder.”
“So, this is why you’re here.”
“Does it not bother you that you will be dead while Silveren is free?”
This was a gamble. In all of his papers, I had found no mention of Silveren. No hint, not even a whisper.
Hreban gave me a smug smile. “You do not know.”
“Why don’t you enlighten me?”
“When all is said and done, I will walk out of here and you will be brought to me in chains.”
“Are you imagining me in contemplation right now? Perhaps with a proper sign suspended from my neck?”
He drew back.
“You’re counting on Silveren to free you, but if human hearts are as treacherous as you claim, why would he?
Does he truly need you? What do you offer besides money?
If Cai succeeds, your head will be the first to roll, and nobody can implicate Silveren in the killing. How neat and tidy that would be.”
A hint of doubt appeared in his eyes.
“Follow your self-interest, Ulmar. Make this deal. At the very least, it will preserve your life long enough for you to find out if Silveren will come to your rescue. Tell me how to call off your pet assassin.”
He laughed a quiet bitter laugh. “I can’t.”
“Why not?”
“I will not allow you to beat me.”
I reached into my bodice and touched Digi’s amulet hanging around my neck. If I broke it, Hreban would see the person he loved most. It would likely be his grandfather. Of course, knowing him, it could be himself. The question was, would he tell that person what I wanted to know?
I looked into his eyes and let go of the amulet.
“I don’t believe you.” I leaned forward. “You are too selfish to gamble with your life. You can’t call him off even if you want to, can you? You have no idea where he is or how he will strike.”
“You fear failure,” he said. “It gnaws at you and keeps you up at night. You will fail tomorrow, and I will savor it. Come and see me again, so I can drink in your despair.”
I got up.
“You have some time left before they kill you. Look into your own heart, Ulmar, if you’re brave enough. Come to terms with all that darkness so you can go in peace. We will never meet again. The next person to speak to you will be your executioner.”
I walked back the way I came, to where the Sun Margrave waited.
“Nothing?” Jenicor guessed.
“No. He set this in motion, but he can’t stop it.”
“Then I will have to put my faith into my armor and my blade tomorrow,” he said.
He was never the best with a blade. Jenicor was a competent fighter back in the day, but he’d been fighting a paper war for the last two decades.
“If I might make a suggestion?” I asked.
“Of course.”
“Cai of Sunder is very fast. He relies on that speed to deliver the killing blow.”
“But?” the Sun Margrave said.
“But I know someone who is faster.”
“Would they be willing to put their life on the line?”
Why do I never get to do anything exciting?
I smiled. “In a heartbeat.”