Chapter 7 #3
Kira stiffened at the tiny whisper in the back of her mind. For a moment, she thought she might have imagined it. But no, she’d definitely heard him for the first time since he’d taken possession of his body.
Excitement briefly rose before she suppressed it.
She could examine the why of everything later. Their connection was healing. That was all that mattered.
Dropping her hand from Jin’s shoulder, Kira shot a hard look at Danai’s Overlord. She found it strange that he knew who Jin was to the emperor.
Helena hadn’t.
Kira was betting the rest of the Overlords didn’t either since Torvald never got around to announcing Jin’s identity publicly.
It looked like someone had been speaking out of turn, Kira realized as her gaze drifted toward Sariah.
The inquisitor stared back at her with a gloating look that spoke volumes.
Yup, definitely that someone. She wasn’t even trying to hide it.
Torvald rubbed his forehead. “Elias, leave the boy alone.”
“I cannot. I believe your judgment is clouded,” Elias declared hotly. “Otherwise, why else would you allow the woman who facilitated an assassination attempt on the emperor’s first born to attend this meeting. She deserves to be thrown into a cell and left to rot.”
Torvald lifted his head to pin Elias with an unfathomable look. “Where did you hear that?”
Elias waved his question away with a dismissive hand. “I have my sources.”
“Well then, you should reconsider their veracity. Roake’s heir and her companions were instrumental in protecting my first born from the assassin.”
Kira glanced at Torvald, surprised at the use of singular rather than the plural assassins that it should have been.
He must not want the Overlords to know about the breach in his security.
Bad enough that the Caius lookalike had made it all the way to Jin’s wing.
If the Overlords found out that his people had also been impersonated, the uproar that resulted would make their current hysteria seem minor in comparison.
She wished Torvald luck. The likelihood of him keeping this from them was low. Not with someone running her big mouth all over the place.
Then again, Sariah had already proven to be someone whose perception of events was less than trustworthy.
Look at the way she’d instantly jumped to the assumption that Kira had tried to kill Jin.
The woman was crazy. She might choose not to mention the impersonated oshota’s presence simply because it didn’t fit her narrative.
“An assassin that came from their own House,” Elias argued.
“Again, wrong,” Torvald rumbled, looking at the end of his patience. “The assassin had no connection to Roake. They weren’t even Tuann.”
Kira sensed the surprise that filled the room at that revelation.
“My source says otherwise,” Elias insisted stubbornly.
Dylan stepped forward to flank Jin’s other side. “Roake’s heir placed herself in danger to protect the emperor’s first born. Her actions were heroic and befitting of one of the emperor’s own oshota. I can also confirm the assailant wasn’t Tuann.”
“Shit,” Jin muttered, staring at Dylan like he’d never seen him before when Elias didn’t retort.
“Remember—you picked him,” Kira murmured.
“I don’t need you to point out the obvious.”
“Are you sure?”
It would be a shame if he forgot.
Jin’s irritated grimace brought a smirk to her face.
God, she loved that he could do that.
“We’re getting off track,” Eurus announced. “We’re here to discuss recompense for the attacks. As victims, Kashori and Asanth are the only ones with a say.”
“Since Asanth’s Overlord isn’t present to speak on his House’s behalf, I motion that this discussion be postponed until he can attend,” Elias objected.
The interim lord cast him a cool look. “No need. My Overlord has given me full authority in this matter. Question my honor again and Danai will be the one we declare a blood feud against.”
Liara added her voice to the proceedings.
“Don’t think the rest of us have forgotten about your absence in the aftermath of the rebel’s last attack.
I already have questions regarding your commitment and loyalty to this empire.
Continue to stir strife at such a turbulent time as this and there will be consequences. I’ll make sure of it.”
“I didn’t know your cousin had it in her,” Jin whispered.
Kira hadn’t either.
Elias’s features were rigid with fury as he tried to intimidate Liara into backing down.
Her cousin was unruffled, holding Elias’s gaze with an exasperating calm.
Seeing that Liara wasn’t going to be cowed, Elias changed tactics. “Are you sure this isn’t just about protecting your cousin?”
“It is none of Danai’s business who Luatha chooses to support,” Liara said.
“Does your House agree?”
Roderick glowered. “Luatha stands with its Overlord.”
Elias smirked, crossing one leg over the other as if he thought he’d won that encounter.
“Asanth accepts Roake’s offer,” the interim overlord announced into the silence.
That wiped the smirk off Elias’s face.
“What say Kashori?” Torvald quickly asked.
Helena appeared to be thinking. “If Roake’s heir can deliver on what was previously discussed, I’m willing to allow Roake to make things right. Providing, of course, that they supply assurances that those whose likenesses were used were not co-conspirators.”
Kira’s breath whooshed out of her in relief.
They were safe.
Roake was safe.
“This is ridiculous,” Elias objected.
Behind him, his oshota looked equally upset.
Kira saw a little of that same unhappiness reflected on the faces of those along the wall. Regardless of House affiliation.
The sight sobered her.
“It’s done,” Torvald announced, cutting off any further objections. “Now I want to be briefed as to what has been done since the attack. Where are we on tracking the perpetrators?”
Harlow set a memory stone on the table in front of him. “Roake will go first.”
He touched the stone. Light flickered within its semi translucent depths. A spark of blue. Then another. And another. Until the color swirled throughout. When it had turned opaque, a hologram formed above it.
The room’s lights dimmed to make the projection easier to see.
Kira stared at the image of four Tuann. All wearing Roake colors.
Caius was the only one Kira knew well. Two others were Tuann she recognized in passing. The last one was a complete stranger to her.
“In addition to impersonating one of my commanders, they also impersonated an oshota and someone in the middle ranks of our House.”
“What about the last one?” Helena asked.
Kira glanced at the image of the stranger. He stood out from the rest. His clothes simple, understated. There was a gentleness around his eyes that suggested he wasn’t a warrior.
“Peri. One of Roake’s fishermen. His body was discovered shortly after the attack.”
The grief in Harlow’s admission was unmistakable, dampening some of the hostility from those in the room.
“Caius was the highest ranking of those impersonated,” Harlow continued. “We think he was taken while on a mission off world.”
“What mission?” Elias asked.
“That’s need to know.”
In other words, he didn’t.
Kira coughed, hiding her smirk behind her hand. What a polite way to say fuck off.
“We conducted a search after Kira’s oshota notified us that we’d been compromised. All of the individuals we captured died shortly after we took them into custody.”
“Convenient,” someone at the back of the room whispered.
“An autopsy revealed sub-dermal dead switches. The poison inside was a fast acting one. They died nearly instantly. There was no time for anyone to save them. They were gone in seconds.”
Graydon studied the hologram with a tiny frown. “Did the prisoners trigger them or were they triggered remotely?”
“From what we could tell, they were triggered remotely. I don’t think they were meant to survive their mission.”
Eurus had a speculative look on his face. “I wonder if they knew that.”
“None of the intruders were Tuann. Just like the one my heir took down, they were human.”
Kira’s face stayed blank despite the suspicious glances being snuck her way.
Her partiality toward the Consortium and its people was well known. The only thing that could have made the situation worse was if Raider had been there to flaunt his humanness in their faces.
“What about Asanth and Kashori? How did you fare in uncovering the infiltrators?” Torvald asked.
“Similar to Roake,” Asanth’s interim lord answered. “From our investigation, we identified two infiltrators. One escaped. The second, we captured. That person died shortly after. Our people found the first’s body an hour later.”
Torvald glanced at Helena.
The Overlord’s expression was grudging. “We came to the realization of a breach too late. This allowed the perpetrators to escape. We asked Luatha’s help in tracking them past the security net.”
Liara placed a memory stone on the table and tapped it twice. “Our sensors tracked the ship’s engine signature as far as we could.
A hologram of a star field formed over the table. A blinking line extended from a planet that Kira recognized as Ta Sa’Riel far into space. As it got further from the source of origin, the star map shifted. Out and out. Until finally the line stopped.
Liara nodded at the map. “This is where we lost them.”
Out of sight from the rest of the Overlord’s, Jin’s hand clutched Kira’s. He very carefully didn’t look at her.
Kira swallowed hard as she stared at the section of space where Liara’s sensors stopped tracking the infiltrators. She took back what she said before. Roake wasn’t safe yet. Not with someone trying to frame her as the mastermind.