Chapter 20 Losham
LOSHAM
The mansion's main entrance door stood open, which was the first sign that protocol had collapsed.
Losham paused at the threshold, noting the absence of the usual guards posted by the door, the way voices echoed from upper floors where they should have been muffled by proper door management. The staff had abandoned their posts, drawn to the crisis unfolding upstairs.
"Stay close and stay alert," he told Rami. "Let me know if any of my brothers show up."
Because they would.
Like vultures smelling carrion, they would soon find out that Navuh had gone over the deep end, and they would come to fight over the corpse.
That's how power worked. The moment one leader fell, a dozen others positioned themselves to fill the void. Losham just hadn't expected to see it ever happening here.
His father was supposed to be invincible.
Navuh had just one weakness, the seeds of madness he had inherited from Mortdh, and it must have suddenly flared up.
The most logical explanation remained the one he'd constructed at home: Navuh had finally succumbed to the madness that ran in his bloodline, murdered his entire harem in some fit of paranoid rage, and was now either paralyzed by guilt or still lost in whatever delusion had driven him to it.
The question was how to manage the aftermath.
No bodies had been found, so Navuh must have disposed of them somehow.
Perhaps they were in the tunnel that connected the mansion to the harem.
He would have to go in there later and check.
If they were there, he would need to dispose of them discreetly.
They couldn't admit that the Brotherhood's leader had lost control, and if Navuh was still raging and had not offed himself in his office, Losham would need to extract him quietly, get him sedated, and figure out a long-term solution for dealing with an insane leader who possessed the gift of compulsion.
He would need to be constantly sedated.
As they reached the second floor, Losham could hear raised voices, the sound of boots on marble, and that particular quality of barely controlled panic that could explode at any moment into violence.
When he rounded the corner and stopped, he found a large group of people clustered outside Navuh's office door.
Hakum was at the center of the cluster, sweating profusely and looking close to collapse.
Two guards flanked him, their hands on their weapons but uncertain whether to draw them.
Various staff members hovered at the edges, craning their necks to see and whispering to each other.
"What's happening here?" Losham pitched his voice to cut through the noise without shouting. Authority came from confidence, not volume.
Every head turned toward him, and he saw the relief wash across multiple faces. Finally. Someone who might know what to do. Someone who could take charge so they wouldn't have to.
Sheep, he thought. Useful when properly directed.
"Commander Losham." Hakum practically stumbled toward him. His title wasn't commander, but right now, he would take it.
"We know now that Lord Navuh has locked himself in his office. We tried the key and found that the door was bolted from the inside. The lord is in there, but he doesn't respond. Also, the harem reports that all the ladies are missing. We don't know what has happened."
The cliff was where bodies went when they needed to disappear forever. The currents there were brutal, the rocks sharp enough to shred even immortal flesh. If Navuh had killed them and disposed of them there...
But all of them?
The other option was the tunnel, but the cliff was more likely. Navuh must have compelled the guards to help him and then forget about what they had seen and done.
“Have you contacted the security office?”
Hakum nodded.
“And?”
“They didn’t see anything suspicious.”
They wouldn’t if Navuh had returned from the harem using his private tunnel and then used the secret passage to go straight from his bedroom to the office. Those were all areas that the island’s security had no access to.
"Step aside," Losham said. "Let me try."
As he approached the door, the crowd parted automatically. He raised his hand and knocked—three measured raps that Navuh would recognize as his signature knock.
"My lord? It's Losham. May I speak with you?"
Silence from within.
Losham waited ten seconds, then knocked again. "My lord, whatever's happened, we can address it. But I need you to open the door."
Still nothing.
He pressed his ear against the wood, listening for any sound—breathing, movement, anything that would indicate life on the other side. The door was thick, designed for privacy and soundproofing, but immortal hearing should have picked up something.
He heard nothing.
Either Navuh was deliberately remaining silent, or he was unconscious, or—
Or he wasn't in there at all.
That last possibility opened up an entirely new decision tree, and Losham felt his mind branching through the implications.
If Navuh wasn't in the office, where was he?
Why lock the door from the inside? Unless someone else had locked it, creating the impression that Navuh was barricaded within when actually—
Losham turned to face the crowd, reading their expressions, their body language, the tiny tells that revealed who was genuinely concerned versus who was already calculating their next move.
"Did you try the staircase that leads from the basement directly into this office?"
"Of course." Hakum assumed an offended expression. "It's locked as well."
"Then we have no choice. We need to break this door down."
"Sir, I don't think—" Hakum began.
"I'm not asking your opinion." Losham kept his voice flat, matter-of-fact. "If something is wrong in there, every additional second we waste debating protocols could be critical."
He saw several people nod in agreement. Good. Establish momentum, get them moving, keep them from having time to think too carefully about the implications of what they were doing.
"You two." Losham pointed at the guards. "Find a heavy beam or a piece of pipe, whatever you can improvise. Something we can use to break through a reinforced door."
They obeyed immediately, looking grateful to have clear orders to follow.
"Hakum, I need you to quietly notify the senior commanders that there's a situation and they should report to the main conference room. Don't tell them any details. Just say Lord Navuh has requested their presence for an emergency briefing."
"But Lord Navuh hasn't—"
"I know what Lord Navuh has and hasn't done.
" Losham's voice carried an edge now. "When we get that door open, we're going to need to move fast to control whatever narrative emerges.
That means having the senior leadership in one place where they can be properly informed and given coordinated instructions.
" He needed them in one place where he could keep an eye on them.
"Unless you'd prefer to let rumors spread unchecked through the entire compound? "
Hakum blanched. "I'll notify them immediately."
"Good. The rest of you—" Losham addressed the remaining staff. "Return to your stations and continue your duties. You don't want the lord to find you out here loitering."
They scattered like startled birds, frightened to be found idling when they were supposed to be working.
Within minutes, the two guards returned carrying a thick wooden beam from the construction work. Heavy enough to do damage, sturdy enough not to shatter on impact.
"Perfect," Losham said. "On my count. Aim for the area around the lock. Three strikes should do it."
The guards positioned themselves, hefting the beam between them.
Losham stepped back, joining Rami at his spot next to the wall.
"One," Losham said. "Two. Three."
The beam crashed into the door with a sound like thunder. The wood around the lock splintered but held.
"Again."
Another impact. More splintering. The door frame cracked.
"Once more."
The third strike did it. The lock mechanism tore free from the splintered wood, the deadbolt still engaged but no longer attached to anything. The door swung inward, revealing—
Losham's breath caught.
Not Navuh. Not a crime scene. Not anything he'd expected.
Eight enhanced soldiers stood in the office, arranged around the space like pieces on a chessboard. Eight enhanced immortals who shouldn't have been there, who by all reports should have been confined in the laboratory's detention cells.
They were all looking at him with expressionless eyes in perfect, unsettling synchronization.
"Commander Losham," they said in unison, their voices overlapping in a way that made Losham's skin crawl. "We've been expecting you."
The enhanced soldiers had escaped. They'd gotten into Navuh's office without anyone noticing, which meant that they had used compulsion. That explained the absence of the guards at the front door. They must have sent them away. They had locked themselves in.
But why? What did they want?
Were they responsible for Navuh's disappearance?
Where was he?
What had they done to him?
This was a coup.
Unless these eight enhanced soldiers with their developing hive mind and their experimental capabilities had somehow managed to kill or incapacitate the most powerful immortal ever born.
Losham was horrified by the thought of his father's murder at their hands. Terrified of their immense power and what they might try to do to him. But he also saw an opportunity.
"Gentlemen," he said calmly. "I am looking for Lord Navuh. Have you seen him?"
The eight smiled in perfect unison, and the effect was profoundly disturbing.
"Lord Navuh is gone," they said. "Which presents you and us with an interesting situation, doesn't it?"
Behind him, Losham heard Rami's sharp intake of breath, heard the guards' hands moving to their weapons. He raised his hand, a gesture that meant wait, assess, don't react yet.
"Did you kill him?"
"We did not. We felt his life force dim and then wink out."
For some reason, he believed them. They had felt Navuh's absence and had seized the opportunity. Just like he planned to do.
Navuh was gone, most likely dead, and his throne was empty.
These eight enhanced soldiers were standing in the throne room, and with their help, he might prevent this situation from turning into Game of Thrones immortal style.
"We should discuss this situation in private." He turned to the two guards. "Secure the corridor. No one enters or leaves this floor without my authorization."
"Yes, sir." They moved, taking up positions at either end of the corridor.
Losham stepped into the office, with Rami close behind him, and let the damaged door swing partially closed.
Eight pairs of eyes tracked his every movement.
"Now then," Losham said, leaning against the desk as if he owned the space, as if this meeting was happening on his terms and not theirs. "Why don't you tell me what actually happened here?"
One of the eight spoke. "We could tell you the truth. We could tell you the story we've prepared for everyone else. Or we could skip past the explanations and get to the interesting part."
"Which is?"
"What happens next. What you want. What we need. And how we might help each other get both."
Losham studied them. They weren't threatening him. Weren't trying to intimidate or compel him. They were negotiating?
Fascinating.
"I'm listening," he said.