9 #2
“The Council will not allow you to ride out hunting for her like a border tracker,” Iven warned grimly.
“Odran is already in the command room rallying envoys from the three great houses. If you don’t step in there now and seize control of the narrative, Thorne will draft a warrant for her arrest before dawn.
And on that warrant, the word they will use is ‘terrorist.’”
I gave a single nod, buckled my sword belt tight, and started toward the entrance to the lower chancery.
The command room of the lower chancery smelled of scorched wax, damp leather, and the stale sweat of twelve men watching their political calculations crumble in the middle of the longest night of the year.
When I shoved open the iron-banded oak double doors, the heated hum of argument died instantly.
Lord Odran stood beside the great walnut table where the map of Eryndor lay spread, his purple velvet robe unbuttoned at the throat, his face flushed with a fury he could scarcely conceal beneath his customary veneer of senatorial gravity.
To his right, two barons of the northern plateau were conferring in low voices with the customs chancellor; to his left, Captain Thorne leaned against the stone hearth with a bundle of parchments tucked under his arm, watching my entrance with icy composure.
“Darian,” my uncle said, stepping forward with hands spread in a gesture meant to seem conciliatory but trembling with poorly contained rage.
“The entire court is in a state of absolute panic. Four hundred guests from the twelve great bloodlines have been kept in the great hall under armed guard while you vanished into the lower courtyards chasing some beast.”
I crossed the chamber without looking at him and took the head of the table, bracing both palms against the polished wood.
“The beast is no longer within Vhal’s grounds,” I said, meeting the eyes of every man present.
“The outer gates are secured, and there is no armed threat within these walls. Clear the Solstice Hall. Allow guests who wish to return to their Asterian townhomes to do so under regular escort from the city watch, and see that nobles lodging in the fortress are conducted to the guest wings with appropriate protocol.”
“We cannot allow anyone to leave the fortress without a thorough search!” exploded Baron Karr, a burly, gray-haired man with a trimmed beard representing the house of the consort the Council was trying to force upon me.
“An unknown intruder infiltrated the Gala, breached the lower chancery, evaded sovereign security, and fled transformed as a beast before the eyes of our envoys. If we let carriages roll out without searching every last trunk, word that the Crown has lost control of its own seat will reach the northern provinces before noon.”
“Baron Karr is right,” Thorne interjected from the hearth, stepping forward and laying his bundle of parchments over the map.
“I have drafted an emergency decree for the capital district. It authorizes the immediate sealing of Asteria’s four city gates, systematic searches of all inns, liveries, and riverfront warehouses, and the detainment of any individual lacking a travel permit sealed by this captaincy.
Furthermore, I have issued a bounty warrant of five hundred silver pieces for whoever brings in the intruder, dead or alive. ”
“‘Dead or alive,’” I repeated, lifting my gaze slowly toward Thorne.
The chamber’s temperature seemed to drop ten degrees. My wolf surfaced at the back of my throat with a low rumble, a vibration so heavy the flames of the four tallow tapers on the table guttered to the left.
“It is standard wording for cases of high treason and military infiltration, my lord,” Thorne defended, keeping his chin high.
“Take that document off the table, Captain.”
“Sovereign, the confederation’s emergency charter—”
“I said take that document away,” I commanded, and this time the full weight of my Alpha presence dropped across the room with a force that sent Baron Karr back half a step until his thighs hit his chair. “No one will sign a summary execution warrant in my name. Not while I am lord of this house.”
Lord Odran rapped his knuckles against the map:
“You are shielding the very person who tried to ruin you, Darian! That woman—or whatever lies beneath that skin—mocked you in the middle of the dance floor! She coerced you into granting her public safe-conduct while laughing at the laws that preserve this realm! Will you let a criminal run loose across our districts simply because your pride cannot stomach admitting you were outmaneuvered?”
“I was not outmaneuvered, Uncle,” I answered with an icy calm that took immense effort to sustain. “Give me one fact. A single verifiable fact showing that intruder carried weapons, planted explosives, or made an attempt on the life of any noble gathered in this hall.”
Odran opened his mouth, but found no immediate answer.
“She breached the chancery archives,” Thorne said, pointing toward the eastern passage. “She broke into a steward’s trunk.”
“A private trunk,” I corrected. “The trunk of a minor plateau house that doesn’t even sit on the Council of Elders. No state register, no military plan, and no diplomatic correspondence was stolen. Iven Ardel has already inspected the archive vaults, and the royal seals are untouched.”
I reached into my tunic pocket, drew out the sheared plate of porous brass, and tossed it onto the center of the map, right across the river course cutting through Asteria.
The metal clattered against the timber with a heavy, dull ring.
Every eye locked onto the object.
“That is what was left in the lower yard’s mud,” I said.
“A clandestine suppression plate, altered to force an overdose of experimental chemical blockers. The person who entered this citadel did not come to lead an armed rebellion; she came for a personal matter, and did so by consuming a compound that is on the verge of killing her from multiorgan failure.”
Iven Ardel stepped forward from the door’s shadow:
“As physician to the Crown, I certify that the bearer of this device is in a state of acute chemical poisoning. If the guard hunts her with mastiffs and crossbows, pheromonal stress will accelerate her collapse and she will die before we can question her. If we wish to learn who compounded this formula, who supplied it, and what interests drive contraband drugs in the capital, we need that woman alive, lucid, and capable of sworn testimony.”
Silence took hold of the chancery once more.
Odran looked at the blackened brass plate, then at Thorne, and finally fixed his graying eyes on mine, searching for any crack that would let him press his advantage.
“If we do not declare a state of treason,” my uncle said, measuring each syllable with bureaucratic venom, “how do we justify deploying troops throughout the city to the twelve bloodlines? We cannot pretend nothing occurred.”
“We will pretend nothing,” I answered. “We will declare a Health and Customs Alert for trafficking of prohibited compounds across the capital district.”
Thorne frowned:
“A health alert?”
“Precisely,” I said, resting my hands on the table and laying down terms that brooked no argument.
“The city watch will establish checkpoints at Asteria’s four main gates and along the canal docks.
They will search apothecary wagons, merchant bundles, and grain wains for unregistered blockers and illegal suppression reagents.
The use of square-head bolts, jaw traps, and mastiffs is strictly forbidden on any sweep within or without the walls.
Any suspect showing signs of scent instability or glandular fever will be brought immediately to the citadel’s infirmary under Dr. Ardel’s exclusive custody. ”
“That ties our hands during searches,” Thorne protested bitterly.
“Your hands will be tied to the law, Captain,” I countered.
“Every seized sample, every preventive detention, and every watch report will be countersigned by Iven Ardel before it reaches your desk. If I discover a single one of your men holding a suspect in a clandestine cell without medical authorization, I will treat it as a usurpation of judicial authority and order your immediate arrest.”
Thorne clamped his teeth until his jaw shook, but bowed his head an inch:
“It will be done according to your will, Sovereign.”
“Clear the room,” I ordered. “Draft the proclamations using the exact wording I’ve set, and begin the orderly evacuation of the great hall. Odran, escort House Karr’s envoys and assure them the Council will hold its regular session in five days, once the district is secured.”
The councilors gathered their papers amidst disgruntled mutters, filing out toward the upper gallery.