Chapter 30
Ravensmere Keep, Realm of Calderre
A week of tension knotted Connor’s shoulders as he sat down to yet another clandestine meeting in the dark of night with Ryan, Thalia, Cass, and Morgan. He was itching to do something other than brood and worry, but they were stuck without enough evidence to actually do anything.
Ryan’s victorious grin heralded good news when it was his turn to report. “That is some code, let me tell you.”
“What took so long?” Morgan asked.
“The symbol Connor recognized is for water, if taken literally. But it can also be expanded to mean vastness, depth. Rain, winter. Emotion.”
“Magic, intuition,” Cass added.
“Yes, exactly,” Ryan said. “Using the literal word as a key to decode the letter would have made it quick to break. But it wasn’t.
For that symbol, the key was actually emotion.
Each of the letters we found used a combination of four symbols to decode, rotating through them over and over until the message was complete. ”
“You were able to decode them both, though?”
“Yes.” The previous happiness at breaking the code dropped from Ryan’s face. He pulled out two pages of short, plain text. Offered one to Connor and one to Morgan.
“These are the messages I extracted from the letters we copied. If we recover any of the other letters, I can decode them, too. But I didn’t see any in her desk. She may have burned the older ones.”
Taking the page with a queasy stomach, Connor forced himself to read the contents. It seemed to be a status report, updating Alison on the progress of the drug research.
Youth and teen lab trials satisfactory. Severe side effects of brain infection and internal bleeding have been mitigated enough to continue to next phase.
Initial field trials seem promising. Teen age group continues to have a higher mortality rate than the youth with prolonged exposure.
Per leadership recommendation, an additional lab trial for the teen age group will occur alongside the planned adult trial.
An urgent request for fresh test subjects has been sent to our contacts with the mage trade.
Funding needed for trial continuation and for the second phase of drug development.
Connor’s stomach rolled, knowing they were referring to children like Veda and Opal. Either of his girls could have easily been swept away to a lab like this, used as test subjects for the drug research.
He passed the page he’d read over to Thalia without comment. Across from him, Cass had taken the second message out of Morgan’s hand to read it.
“I know, it’s bad,” Ryan said softly, looking just at him.
It truly was. Connor directed his words to Morgan when he finally spoke. “Is this enough to charge her? Combined with the drug vial?”
“It’s enough to arrest her,” Morgan specified. “The interrogation will have to gather more to make it stick. But the military isn’t the proper jury for her. She needs to be tried for treason.”
Beside him, Connor felt Ryan and Thalia’s tension mixing with his own. They had wanted justice for the death of their teammates. This wasn’t the same. Crimes against the state were long and drawn out. There hadn’t been one for treason in his memory.
Morgan continued when the room remained silent. “She betrayed the core values of Calderre, not just the Lightning Teams. We’re a sanctuary realm. She threatened not only that, but also the refugee program and our military operations. It’s treason.”
“She deserves to die,” Cass argued. “Treason is a hard case to win.”
Thalia broke her silence finally, rage seething beneath her words. “The crown never authorizes death for criminals. The military does. If she’s tried for treason with the crown, she won’t suffer in punishment. I want her blood. Or at least her suffering. Very, very deep suffering.”
“You’re right,” Ryan agreed. “But there’s no way around it. We don’t have the evidence for the viper attack. There’s no way to prove it.”
“Jax died for these children. All of them,” Connor said, looking at Thalia. “Not just for Veda and Opal. Not just so that we could live and return home. It’s not the justice we planned, but it is justice.”
“You’re both right,” Morgan said. “Luckily there is another option—a trial by the Va’shana Council.”
The idea startled Connor. In all their debate and his never-ending thoughts on the matter, he’d never come up with that as a potential option.
The Va’shana Council was Calderre’s secret jury.
Members were elected in secret and called on to judge extreme situations.
Usually those when neither the crown nor the military could be trusted to be unbiased.
Or when there was potential for severe repercussions for the jurors.
The Va’shana met in secret, shielded by magic, to make their judgments.
Operated from the shadows to keep their identities safe.
“The Va’shana can’t call for a death sentence though, can they?” Thalia asked.
“Yes, they can.” Ryan looked blown away, but the slight wrinkle between his brows showed how hard his mind was working. “It’s a protection, should the leaders of the realm turn against its values. Or for extremely volatile situations.”
Morgan smiled menacingly, a sharp glint in his eye. “I think this qualifies.”
“How do we secure their involvement?” Ryan asked, his tone filling with intrigue. “Not just anyone can call them. I’ve never heard of it being done. The process is totally secret.”
“I can do it,” Cass said. “There is a Wolflumen representative on the council. I can make the request to the clan and whoever it is can initiate the process anonymously.”
“It works that way in the military, too,” Morgan said.
“You’re not high enough ranked to submit a request,” Cass told him.
Morgan’s eyes narrowed in a glare. “No, I’m not. But I have people I trust who can call the council.”
“Cass. I want you to do it. You call the Va’shana Council,” Connor said, ending the argument he felt brewing between the two fierce warriors.
“A lot of lives will be affected by our choices in this investigation. Saving them is a legacy Jax deserves. That has to come before vengeance. Hopefully, we’ll get both.
But I think she would make the same choice. So would Drew.”
It was the best they could hope for under the circumstances and would be the best for the safety of the refugee program.
“Tals, are you okay with this?” Ryan asked.
Thalia made a stop gesture and then stood abruptly, walking away from the table to pace.
Connor exchanged a look with Ryan, unsure whether to let her fume or offer her support. Would he be okay in her position? Especially if someone else had made the call?
Daya’s warm brown eyes and rare smile lit in his mind. No. He definitely wouldn’t be okay.
“Tals,” Connor called softly after giving her a few moments to pace. “We need you in this.”
“I want her blood.” Thalia’s hiss bounced off the walls and echoed painfully through the shadowed room.
Connor rubbed a hand over his mouth to stop any falsely placating words. Knowing they were making the right call didn’t make it less painful for her.
“You deserve it,” Cass said quietly. “She murdered someone you love. There’s no redemption for that. She deserves to die on your blade.”
Thalia stopped and met Cass’s stare across the room. “There’s no way to get it.”
Cass shook her head. “Not if you want to stop the atrocities she’s supporting.”
“That’s a zevving awful choice,” Thalia whispered.
Silence weighted heavily with grief swirled around them. They all held their positions, still and silent.
Eventually, Thalia gave a sharp nod. “Let’s get this done. I want to stop spending every moment of the day focused on that murderer.”
“We have our plan,” Morgan said, meeting each of their eyes in turn before finally landing on Thalia. “If we can, we’ll try her for Jax’s death. My word, Thalia. I’ll push for a confession to the viper attack during the interrogation. But we have to start with what evidence we have.”
“When you get that far in the interrogation, I want to be present,” Thalia said.
“I’ll do my best to arrange it,” Morgan promised.
Thalia nodded her acceptance.
“So, what’s next?” Ryan asked.
“Cass will call the council. I’ll stand as the military lead on the investigation to minimize blowback to the four of you,” Morgan said. “In the meantime, we need to work on intensifying security at the keep. If she has a partner we’re not aware of yet, it could be a problem.”
“What about Commander Varice?” Connor asked. “He knew I wasn’t dead and reported that I was anyway.”
“We’ll bring him in for questioning, but my gut says he’s not deeply involved,” Morgan said.
“I’ve been investigating him since Celina left to find you, and so far, haven’t found anything to indicate real involvement.
He was probably bullied into saying something he suspected was untrue.
His guilty conscience weighted the lie to Cat’s senses. She agrees with that theory.”
“You think Alison convinced him to lie.”
“I do.”
It made sense. She was one of the few who knew about Cat’s truth-seeking ability. She wouldn’t have wanted to be the one caught in the lie to his family. Speaking of… it was time to let his family know what was really going on.
“I’m going to tell Celina and Cat tomorrow. It’s time to bring them in.”
“Agreed,” Morgan said. “You should all be prepared to close ranks. When this comes out, there will be a lot of unhappy people.”
Alison was well-liked by the community and highly respected by the military. Once the news made its way through the realm, things would get volatile. They were unveiling a huge threat.
“This will make enemies for you,” Connor realized, noticing the look that passed between Cass and Morgan.
Moreso Morgan. Cass was already ostracized due to her Wolflumen status, but Morgan was just as beloved and well-respected as Alison was. More, because he supervised the refugee program and interacted with the community more than she did.
“Unavoidable, but I’ll handle it,” Morgan said.
Connor didn’t like putting him in that position, but with their chosen course of action, there was little he could do. He needed to focus on protecting his family.
“Cass, you’re with me,” Morgan said. “Let’s go wake up some dangerous people and get things moving. We’ll regroup in two days with a plan for her arrest.”
“Days?” Thalia asked. “I was hoping for sunrise.”
“The council needs to approve the arrest, otherwise the military will naturally step in and take over. That’s not in our best interest. Not for the outcome we want,” Morgan said.
“Kovvar and Evie are on protection duty tonight if there are any problems,” Cass said. “I’ll be back as soon as I can, Connor.”
“Thank you, both,” Connor said.
Cass and Morgan immediately took their leave and walked in sync together up the stairs as they left, talking too softly for him to hear.
Thalia nodded to him and Ryan and followed them out without a word.
“You know, I’m kind of surprised Thalia is still here,” Ryan murmured quietly after the door closed.
Connor frowned. “Here as in Calderre?”
“No. Here as in alive. She and Jax had a pretty strong mate bond. The first few weeks when we returned, she was completely unresponsive, even to me. I thought it was just a matter of time. That she’d follow her into death.”
A memory flickered through Connor’s mind from shortly before his parents passed out of the world.
“I knew from the moment I met your mother, I would follow her anywhere,” his father told him.
The firelight made the stone on his father’s joining bracelet spark and shimmer as he braced his arms on his knees.
He peered at Connor with a serious gleam in his gold-flecked eyes.
“Nothing could keep me from her, Connor. Not even death. I know that’s hard to understand and to forgive, but some choices are about the soul, not the mind.
Never regret a choice your soul makes, Connor.
Even if it means leaving parts of your heart behind. ”
At the time, he thought his father had been referring to how Davina had saved his life when they’d met, and he’d left his home realm behind to follow her to Calderre.
He’d been too young to comprehend the very real bond his parents shared.
With his mother’s premonition ability, they had to have known what would happen. Had an inkling, at least.
“It wouldn’t be the first time someone chose to follow their mate into the beyond,” Connor said, a rasp catching in his throat.
“No, it wouldn’t,” Ryan agreed.
He’d reconciled that truth but hadn’t thought about it in a long time.
His heart clenched as his mind reached for images and memories of Daya.
Even if there was a way forward for them, he would never get to fully bond with her.
The mountain would never allow him to have a stronger hold on her soul than it did.