Herine sagged. 'Oh, dear Omniscient, I don't know. What do you say to Chancellor Koroyan?'
'Lonely Advocate
...'
Jhered tried a smile but it didn't come off.
'You know you haven't even asked me about the Solastro Palace senate meeting,' said Herine.
She stared at him again and understood the extent of the horrors he had seen in the palace. It took a great deal to shake up Paul Jhered.
'And you haven't asked me about Kark and Gestern. But one thing at a time, eh?'
Herine shook her head. 'Not exactly. You need to find Arvan Vasselis and my daughter at the earliest opportunity. Sit with Marcus Gesteris and Elise Kastenas. And maybe Arducius.'
'What happened?'
'Half the Conquord decided not to send troops but defend their own petty borders.' Herine could feel herself flushing at the memory. 'What's in Neratham, Gosland and Atreska fight now is pretty much all they'll be getting.'
Jhered sneered. 'Don't tell me, Phaskar has been listening to Dornos.'
'And Tundarra, Paul. I'm sorry.'
The colour drained from Jhered's face. He stood abruptly and turned away, catching sight of his grandfather's portrait. He cleared his throat and swallowed. When he turned she thought she could see his eyes glistening but it might have been a trick of the lantern light.
'I'll have them send in the Chancellor,' he said. 'Be careful.'
Jhered bowed and turned to leave.
'Paul.' He looked back at her. 'One thing at a time, eh? Let's clear up this mess then take back what is ours.'
He stood still for a moment before nodding fractionally and marching from the room. Herine sighed and leaned back into her recliner. She snapped her fingers for a servant to refill her goblet but of course they had all been dismissed already. She wondered instead how she should appear when the Chancellor walked in.
It was perennially difficult to predict what would disarm Felice Koroyan. And perhaps now was not the time for such games. Herine stood and walked across to her balcony. Dawn was coming but fires still burned away at the early hours of the morning. A picture of the continuing trouble sparked in the Chancellor's name. It would do perfectly.
There was a knock on the door at the far end of the chamber. Herine did not turn when she heard the door open.
'Chancellor Koroyan, my Advocate,' said a guard.
Herine waved a hand to acknowledge him. The door closed again. Herine heard the Chancellor's sandalled feet whispering across the marble floor.
'Isn't Estorr resplendent as dawn breaks,' said Herine when she guessed Koroyan was just a few paces away. 'The twinkling lights of the dock, the myriad patter of fountain pools, the white of our walls catching the sun's first rays. The rioters' fires destroying proud buildings that have stood for hundreds of years.'
Herine turned. The Chancellor looked exhausted. There were streaks of dirt on her toga. The odd bit of straw was caught in hair that was dishevelled and needed a wash. And there was a look to her face that suggested minimal food and water.
'Your new quarters not to your liking?' asked Herine. 'I know you would have preferred these surroundings, perhaps my bedchamber and certainly my throne, but I'm afraid a cell is the best I can do for you at the moment.' .
The Chancellor chose not to respond. There was caution in her eyes but her bearing still bespoke pride. Injustice burned from her face. Herine shook her head.
'Unbelievable. I have you on five counts of murder, not counting guardsmen in the line of duty. I have you on treason. I may even have you on heresy but I have to look at the statutes for what it means when someone, anyone, attempts to supplant the appointed representative of the Omniscient on this earth. I would have respected you just a little had you stuck to the code of law which poor Aurelius felt it his duty to abide by.
'But that's the trouble with bullies and zealots, isn't it? Things don't go their way and they resort immediately to base methods. I'm surprised you have nothing to say. After all, you clearly feel you have done nothing wrong.'
'It matters little what I say. You will bounce me through court and have me executed anyway.'
'Seems to be all the rage round here at the moment, doesn't it?' Herine took a pace forward. 'How dare you lecture me on the process of law. My officers, like poor Senator Aurelius, carried out their duties exactly as they should, don't you think?'
'Aurelius didn't see the true picture.'
'Oh, he saw it all too clearly. And that was his real problem, wasn't it? And what about Orin D'Allinnius? What didn't he see?'
'That science cannot be allowed to create destruction of the Omniscient faithful.'
Herine gaped, she couldn't help herself.
‘I
cannot believe my own ears. Have we just marched back five hundred years? Not even you can really hold to the ancient scriptures. This is progress. To keep the faithful, we must have the means to defend them. And if that means explosive powders, then I'm all for it. And if it means the Ascendants too, then that is our future. Not yours, not now. But mine and every citizen's walking the Conquord this day.'
'You can't see it, Herine, but I can and so can the citizenry. The Ascendants are evil. One came to me and admitted as much. Another makes the dead walk, so I am told. What more must they do to convince you? I had no choice.'
'No choice?' Herine barked a laugh. 'Do you think I am grossly stupid? You waited your chance and you took it. Lucky for the Conquord you failed. Lucky for me, Aurelius wasn't the weak man you thought him.'
'If you think that, then yes, you are stupid. The Ascendants are a plague and they must be arrested, tried and burned.'
The light was back in Koroyan's eyes. She was standing tall and her voice was gaining strength.
'You would have me arrest the only people capable of saving the Conquord? When did you lose your reason, Felice? You have no idea what is happening on our borders. I have. The plague is one of the walking dead and the Ascendants can stop it.'
The Chancellor shook her head. A strand of straw fell to the ground. 'And what then? You hand them power of that magnitude and then expect them to return to their Academy and play their research games again? They will demand more influence over you, over the Order, over everyone. And you do not have the strength to stop them. One day they will rule in Estorr. You just don't see it yet.'
‘I
trust them, Felice. I trust them far more than I can ever trust you, that is sure.'
'Then you are an enemy of the Conquord and I denounce you.' Herine went cold.
‘I
beg your pardon?'
'They are an evil set against the will of God.' The Chancellor was shouting. She jabbed her finger at Herine, declaiming as if from the Principal House of Masks. 'And if you unleash them to do their work then you join them in that evil and you become an enemy of all you claim to support.'
'I am trying to save them, damn you!' Herine shouted back at her, coming closer still.
'1
have always said that I will do anything to keep the Conquord together. This is not evil, it is just action.'
'Enemy.' Spittle was flying from Koroyan's mouth. Her face was red, flushed with her passion. 'Every day, the Conquord fractures more. Territories desert you. People turn from you. You are the Advocate of a failing empire and the Ascendants play you for a fool every day, just waiting. Turn back.'
'To what? To you? To your murders and your torture? You and your thugs are tearing the credibility of the Order to shreds. I am about to put that right.'
'You cannot silence me. You are not my Advocate. You are a heretic, you are evil. Once more, I denounce you.'
Herine's hand came round fast and hard. Her open palm caught the Chancellor flush on the cheek and followed through, finishing behind her head. The Chancellor's head snapped to the right. She stumbled back. Her sandal slipped on the marble floor and she fell backwards. The base of her skull caught the corner of the bust of Herine's father. Herine heard a snap. The Chancellor collapsed to the floor, twitched briefly and lay still.
Herine's hand was ringing with the force of the slap. She stared at the Chancellor. There was a knocking sound. The door.
'Stay out,' she called, forcing a little calm into her voice. 'Everything's all right. Just a little accident.'
She knelt by Koroyan. The Chancellor's head lay at an ugly angle, the rest of her body lay in a heap. Herine was quivering all over.
'Oh no. Oh no.' She repeated the words over and over again. She reached out a hand and moved a strand of hair from the Chancellor's face. 'Please, no.'
Herine swallowed hard. Tears threatened. Her heart was pounding wildly. She felt cold. Sweat broke out all over her body. She stared at her guilty palm, trying to still the stinging that would not stop. She rubbed at her lips, they were so dry. She let out a huge sob and forced her mouth closed again.
The door was thrust open. She looked up straight into the eyes of
Paul Jhered. He took one glance, barked at guards to stay out and closed the door behind him. He walked over. Herine met his eyes again and in them was such sadness it tore at her will. 'Oh, Paul. What have I done?'
Chapter Forty-Five
859th cycle of God, 46th day of Genasrise
Paul Jhered knelt down and felt for a pulse at the Chancellor's neck. He had no real need to but he had to be sure. Her neck was broken. Snapped clean. The exposed cheek was red from an impact. He glanced up at the bust, saw blood on the marble at its base and the picture filled in quickly.
Herine had slumped back against the wall and was staring at him, beseeching him to tell her what he couldn't. He simply shook his head.
'It was an accident,' she said, her voice trembling and choked. 'She slipped when I hit her. She fell
...
she fell hard.'
'Shh. Shh. It's all right, Herine. Try and be calm. We'll deal with it.'
'How?' Herine's eyes were desperate. 'I've killed her. I've never killed anyone before.' 'I know, I know.'
Jhered moved round and sat by her. He put an arm around her shoulders and pulled her to him. Her head lay on his chest. Breath heaved in and out of her body in great pained gasps but she was too shocked to cry for now. That would come later. The guilt of the first person you kill never leaves you. Jhered knew that. But the real tragedy was that for everyone else you kill, that guilt is never as acute. He prayed Herine would never learn that particular lesson as he and the Chancellor both had.
'What do we do now?' Herine's voice was tiny and frightened.
'I'll think of something,' he replied. 'Don't you worry about it.'
Jhered hadn't thought the situation could get any worse but here was a total disaster. He hadn't even got as far as asking for Vasselis's whereabouts before he'd decided he should remain on station. He'd hurried back and could hear the shouting through the walls and echoing out over the balcony well before he reached the door. He'd run but he'd been too late to avert calamity. Again.
'We have to tell the citizens. Something they'll believe. This can't get out.'
Herine was starting to think again but she hadn't grasped what she'd done or its consequences. Jhered knew that whatever they told the Omniscient faithful, they would believe another story. They would see the hand of the Ascendants in this. The rest of the Order ministry would see to that. Jhered knew he should tell Herine that, get her walking the path of reality.
it won't,' he said instead. 'Everything will be fine.'
'Liar.'
She raised her head and looked at him. The pain was there but the panic was clearing away.
'Good,' he said. 'Right. I need you to stay here while I go and get things organised. It's an accident, all right? It's all we can say. Don't let anyone in until I return.'
‘I
don't want to look at her, Paul.'
'Then don't. Come on, get up. Lie down on the recliner and let's top up your wine.'
‘I
'm a murderer,' she said as they walked the few paces to the centre of the room,
‘I
should burn.'
'Don't talk like that,' said Jhered sharply, it won't help. Did you mean to kill her? No. Accident, Herine. Think nothing else.'
'She's still dead.'
'Yes. She even escaped public trial and burning. Almost like she wanted it to happen.'
Jhered tried to smile at his vain attempt at humour but saw Herine take it on board. She nodded.