CHAPTER 33
THE WITHDRAWING HOUSE
Every House in Vallenna has a duty to the other, to guarantee the safety and provisions of all Vallenna’s people.
– The Arcanth Accords, Article XIII
The Council chamber was already a storm of fury when Tobias Thorne entered.
He’d expected as much ever since he received word from his captain at the Temple that morning.
His son had taken the Fire Shard last night.
Only a handful dead. Tobias grieved the loss of his men – his hand in it.
But there had been no other way. He’d sent a hawk to the Council straight away.
To delay would have bred too much suspicion. It had made better time than he had.
“The Fire Shard – gone,” Merrick spat, slamming a fist against the table. “Torn from beneath Thorne guard. More than twenty men taken down with one casting – slumbering in their boots!”
Yes, truly excellent work, Lady Hale.
“My archers reported the soldiers spoke of golden mist rolling through the valley before they fell,” Evelyn added sharply. “Not crimson. Not emerald. Something else entirely. What is this magic your daughter can conjure, Alaric?”
But before he could respond, she continued, her voice turning cold, “And not all of them were asleep. One of the bodies recovered was... unusual.” She paused, letting her words hang in the air. “Dead with no wound at all. No cut. No arrow. His heart simply stopped beating.”
A ripple of unease passed through the chamber – more than unease. Fear.
“The girl,” Merrick growled. “It must have been her.”
Galen’s face went pale. “That’s not possible. Hale magic doesn’t–”
Evelyn was already speaking before he’d finished. “It does now.”
To kill without blade or bow... that’s new.
All eyes turned to Alaric. His face had gone white.
“Hale healers do not – we are taught restraint, control–” He broke off, jaw clenched, and folded his arms across his chest as if to distance himself from it.
“That girl did not learn it in my walls. I would have known. I would have stopped it,” he said icily.
No, not in his walls. That’s Hale magic tangled with Thorne fury.
“If they make the Arcanth whole,” Evelyn said, cutting through the noise, “we are doomed. We must ready for Draknor.”
“It’s a four-week sail across the Valdrak Sea,” Simone said grimly. “My fleet patrols those waters. If Draknor gets close, we’ll know.”
“No,” Galen shot back. “We must redouble our efforts. Catch them before they unite the Shards.”
“Surely they have united them already,” Merrick snarled.
But Galen leaned forward, palms flat on the table, his voice booming over theirs. “It isn’t that simple. The Arcanth is mysterious, yes. I do not claim to understand it. But I know this: to unite the Shards, they must choose you.”
Elias’s gaze narrowed. “It appears they have an unusual bond. Perhaps they have been chosen already.”
“They have slipped through every defence,” Simone added, her face carved from stone.
Galen’s teeth ground together. “Because they are clever. That doesn’t mean they are chosen.”
Merrick rounded on Tobias, amber magic flaring. “They broke through your soldiers, Lord Thorne. How do you explain that?”
“And Evelyn’s archers fell just as swiftly,” Tobias hissed back. “Do not place the failure solely at Thorne’s feet.”
Evelyn stiffened. “My archers–”
Elias’s quiet voice cut over her. “I know how you feel for your son, Tobias. That much is plain for us all to see. Perhaps...” His pale eyes lingered, too long. “Perhaps you are more committed to him than to the Council, to Vallenna. It was your Keep he escaped.”
The chamber stilled at the accusation. Merrick and Evelyn exchanged a significant look. Tobias caught it – an alliance forming against him.
“And it was the Council’s keep that Kara Hale escaped,” Tobias said evenly. “I have already explained myself in this matter. So what exactly is it you are accusing me of?”
Elias didn’t answer, but he looked to Galen and gave an almost imperceptible nod.
A faint shimmer of ice-white rose in Galen’s palm. “A father’s love can cloud his duty. Say the word, Tobias, and I will know if you are compromised in the Council’s mission.”
Crimson erupted hot along Tobias’s hands, threatening but contained.
“Don’t try it,” he growled dangerously, eyeing the creeping white light.
“I love my son. That has not, nor will it ever change. But I have done my duty. I sent my soldiers – manned the Temple and Thorne lost lives. That is the truth of it.”
For a breath, the two men locked eyes. Galen didn’t move, but Tobias knew that look – the intense focus, the stillness.
He wouldn’t necessarily feel it if Galen tried to brush his thoughts, but he slammed the shutters of his mind closed all the same, forcing it blank.
He’d always had a knack for keeping his mind his own with little effort, but it never hurt to be cautious.
Finally, Galen’s glow dimmed, and the resignation in his face showed he gleaned nothing.
Good.
“The Temple was well protected,” Tobias added fiercely. “Garrisons on every approach, bowmen on the ramparts, a squad within the temple. Those are not the actions of a man who isn’t committed to the Council’s cause.”
Alaric looked at him, and Tobias saw understanding in his face. Two men who had chosen the Council over their own kin.
We are nothing alike.
Alaric had turned his back on Kara. Left her to burn. Tobias was fighting to keep Sebastian alive.
“How could I have known of the Hale girl’s magic?” Tobias demanded of them. “I’ve never heard of such a thing.”
The chamber seethed, accusation and fear thick in the air. But he saw it – the hesitation, the sideways glances between them. Merrick’s fist unclenched, Evelyn’s hand, halfway to a retort, stilled. Reason returned. He had made his point, and they knew it.
Then the great doors opened. Two figures entered, moving in such perfect step they seemed one shadow split in two.
Serena and Kaelen Fatàn – twins, and heirs to their mother’s legacy and power.
Serena was tall and slight with long silvery blonde hair that fell down her back.
Kaelen was taller still, but stockier and darker featured.
Both wore the black-and-violet robes of their house.
They did not look at one another, yet every gesture mirrored – a tilt of the head, a pause, all perfectly synchronised.
“We hear much of failure. Much of blame. The Shards are taken, those responsible lost. Your arguments change nothing,” Kaelen said, his dark eyes sweeping the chamber. “When the Arcanth was shattered and spread, we decreed unity above all else. That unity has failed.”
Evelyn bristled. “Failed in part because your House hides behind shadows whilst Thorne bleeds men and Sorrel stations watchers. Meanwhile the traitor is walking through your apparently impenetrable shields.”
“Enough,” Tobias interrupted curtly. “Lady Serena, Lord Kaelen, please speak your purpose. I assume you come with a message from your mother.”
“We do,” Kaelen replied, inclining his head slightly.
“Our mother has decreed in light of the theft of the Fire Shard – Fatàn will look after its own. Our borders will be shielded. No more Sorrel hunters. No more Thorne patrols. You will call your men away. From tomorrow, no banner but our own shall cross. It will be considered trespass.”
Evelyn’s voice shot through the stunned silence. “Trespass? But we have an agreement – the Accords – you cannot simply withdraw from the rest of Vallenna. Not now. Not with the Shards gone, and the risk of Draknor–”
“We can, and we have,” Kaelen interrupted. “You may send your hawks, if you wish. If there are sightings of your fugitives within our lands, we will inform you. But it is exceptionally unlikely they remain so far north.”
The words were heavy. Final and deliberate.
“Your mother brought us prophecy mere weeks ago,” Simone said. “When the Shards of the Arcanth are whole once more, Draknor’s forces will strike upon our shores.” She leaned forward. “Sebastian Thorne and Karalynna Hale hold all four Shards. Tell us, is the condition met? Have they doomed us all?”
The chamber held its breath.
Serena inclined her head, her tone infuriatingly serene. “We See too much. To interpret prophecy, explain, persuade? No, we cannot. It would risk steering events to ends of our own making. We provided the Written Future, as agreed when the Arcanth was split to our borderlands.”
“Oh, that Accord you adhere to,” Evelyn said bitterly.
Serena ignored her. “The Council must do as it sees fit.”
Merrick scowled. “And what we saw fit to do was to name them as traitors.”
“Then that is what they are,” Serena said, unblinking.
Alaric’s expression hardened. “So you do believe their path leads us to Draknor? To ruin?”
“It is not about what we believe,” she answered, her voice ringing with finality. “We do not act. We do not interfere.”
At that, they turned on their heel and walked out of the chamber, their faces devoid of any emotion.
“Wait–” Simone called sharply. “We’re not finished–”
But the twins did not slow, nor did they spare a backwards glance.
Once they had disappeared from view the room erupted, voices overlapping in fury, in fear, in denial.
But Tobias did not speak. He was watching the empty doorway.
Fatàn always knew far more than they said.
Their mother did not waste decrees on caution and their house had never in all its histories abandoned Vallenna.
Shielding their borders now, after the Fire Shard had fallen, after prophecy had already shaken the chamber into panic – this was not withdrawal. It was calculation. A plan.
Either they feared something crossing into their lands... or they were protecting something already within.
Perhaps both.
The board was set now, the pieces moving beyond his reach.
For all his rank, his soldiers, he had no more moves to make.
All he could do was watch. Pray that they’d seen his son’s survival Written in their visions.
And the woman Sebastian had chosen. He did not think his son would survive losing her.
No commander could plan for it. No father would wish to watch it.
He would not ask. They would not tell.
Keep running, Sebastian. For Gods’ sake – keep running. And when Draknor lands on our shores... I’ll be there. At your side.
But until then – he could do nothing but hope his son did not walk into a trap he couldn’t see.