Along with the elves, tree sprites and Dragoness Moraina. My face became drawn with the certainty of another war with the Border. I knew which side I'd be on, thrice sworn to the king. I wondered if I would end up fighting against my da and brothers.
"We have grievously wounded you," Jusson said to Laurel. "But you're an ambassador. Show us what to do to make amends, how to make restitution.”
Laurel let out a sigh and ran his paw over his head, staring at the staves. "Yes, honored king. Let me think on it.”
I also stared down on the bodies neatly arranged in the rune circle and something nudged my brain. "You say Honor Ash was fine when you left, Laurel Faena?”
"True, honored Rabbit," Laurel replied. "She saw me off, wishing me good hunting.” "Yet here her body is, arriving in the city before you, already seasoned and fashioned with holy bells." I looked at Captain Javes. "What did the restaurant server say about her ice boats?"
Javes stared back at me. "That's it.”
"We suppose that eventually someone will tell us what is going on," King Jusson said.
Javes bowed. "Forgive us, Your Majesty, but Lord Rabbit has just come up with the answer to the problem you sent me to Freston to solve."
The king's eyes abruptly turned gold again.
"You knew, sire?" I asked. "You knew there was smuggling going on?”
"My tutors were very insistent that I learn to count and do sums," Jusson said. "I could see that the docks were busy and the harbor was full of ships, but when I checked the revenue books, they did not match."
He shrugged, his mouth hard. "You aren't the only one to indulge in naivete, cousin. I accepted the explanations given me by my Lord Treasurer. Then I heard the rumors of slave running, and sent Javes to investigate.”
"We got the staves from Lord Gherat, Your Majesty," the patriarch interjected. His face was calm, his eyes angry. "He gifted them to the Church. Said that they came from a northern estate.”
Chancellor Berle had come up to stand with Lord Esclaur, and she now prompted me. "The ice boats?”
"False reports of pirates that sent everyone chasing their own tails in Dornel," I said.
"Yes, we received Commander Ystan's report," Jusson said.
"And while they're scouring the Banson for the raiders, they ignore the boat carrying ice to the favorite restaurant of the rich and noble in the Royal City." I looked at Javes. "You had me thinking, sir, that it was my likeness to my Chause grandda that had everyone jumping."
"You do look an awful lot like him, cousin," Jusson said.
"As you say, Your Majesty," I replied. "But I'm guessing that wasn't the reason for their reaction when I showed up—as if they'd opened the door and found a thieftaker looking for them. And there they were today, all ready to give false witness. Why else would a royal shopkeeper and a restaurant server entangle themselves in my cousin's treason?”
"There's bribery and blackmail," Lord Esclaur said. "A little money and threats against one's family go a long way.”
"That sword cuts both ways, Esclaur," I said, "because they're also threatened with exposure if they're involved in the smuggling, so they joined my cousin in an effort to discredit Laurel and me." I looked back at the staves lying in the rune circle. "It must've alarmed them when they found out that we could tell spritewood from ordinary, dragon skin from lizard." My mouth twisted. "That we could even tell who they'd killed."
Laurel softly yowled. "That they were friends.”
"Friends," Jusson echoed. He sighed and looked around the throne room. "Our palace has been turned into an abattoir.”
That was nothing new, I thought. The whole kingdom was one.
"That will cease, Lieutenant Lord Rabbit ibn Chause e Flavan," Jusson said, turning glittering eyes on me.
I said nothing at the confirmation that the king could hear me. Most of the Court looked from Jusson to me, puzzled. A few, though, frowned.
"Your Majesty—" began Suiden.
"No, Captain Prince. Again, while your zeal for your charges is commendable, we are talking to our cousin." Jusson kept his gold-shot gaze on me. "We have had enough people pulling at the stability of our kingdom. We do not need you to add to it, Lord Rabbit."
The puzzled looks intensified.
I supposed the smart thing would've been to fall to my knees and beg for forgiveness. I supposed. "One of my earliest memories, sire, is Honor Ash Faena guiding my steps as she led me around the farm, teaching me how to track." The knot in my chest tightened and I tried to catch my breath. "Look what they did to her." I took another deep breath. "Look what they did to all of them.”
In the quiet that followed, boot steps sounded out in the hall, and we all turned as the lordling whom Jusson had sent to the House of Dru came through the throne room doors, hurried to the king, and bowed. "Your Majesty, Lord Gherat had already fled, but I've brought you who—and what—we found.” Troopers and guards entered, some carrying boxes and crates. And right in the middle of them was our own very officious clerk, Losan eso Dru.
"Oh, I say," murmured Javes.
At Jusson's request that all bodies be removed, Laurel bowed and, with Patriarch Pietr and Doyen Allwyn, took charge of the disposition of the staves, moving them back to the patriarch's See. As they were leaving, the patriarch told the Faena that he was recalling all Staves of Office, "for it grieves me, Laurel Faena, that we could be profaning not only our churches, but dishonoring the poor, uh, people who were murdered." Walking behind them, Archdoyen Obruesk scowled at Laurel from under his brows.
"At present, I am more concerned with the church elders using the staves, honored patriarch," Laurel said, "as they are not healthy to be around." His toe claws clicked against the marble floor as he left with the church clergy. "Please make sure that once I ward the room, no one enters it." His voice faded down the hall. "And I would give serious thought to going through purification again.”
Captain Suiden had the troopers move Basel's body out to the churchyard, where they were going to build a pyre to burn it at sunset, as Laurel also told Suiden that neither would it be healthy for the stag's body parts to float around loose in the city. Or anywhere else.
"To have his head mounted on someone's wall, or an apothecary to use his antlers in a potion for someone to drink would not be good, as it would become a focal point for all sorts of wickedness. We should destroy it completely, honored captain, with appropriate rites and ceremonies. That way we can counter any, hmm, adverse reactions arising from the trooper's murder.”
"Curses, you mean?" Suiden asked. He looked around. "Groskin, you are in charge of Trooper Basel's funeral arrangements. Vigil with full honors, everyone required to attend except those on duty rota."
"Yes, sir." Groskin's voice was subdued.
"Ask the garrison troopers and Royal Guard if they would also attend." The captain's eyes shifted to behind me. "Take Trooper Jeffen with you to help.”
"Yes, sir." The lieutenant and Jeff left the room, Basel following after them.
"How convenient to be able to oversee one's own funeral," Jusson remarked, watching.
Even with the bodies gone, Jusson apparently decided he had enough of his throne room, and he led us down the hall to double doors guarded by the King's Own. They flung them open, revealing a large chamber with decoration as rococo as the one in which Laurel and Chancellor Berle had first met half a lifetime ago (no nymphs or mermaids, though). As the crowd poured in, the king walked to a raised chair also guarded by the Royal Guard, and sat. Lord Esclaur and the other lordlings went to stand on one side of the king, while Suiden, Javes, and I remained in the back. The king, looking around, saw us lingering, and pointed to the other side of his chair, where Chancellor Berle and other advisors had taken up space.
Chancellor Berle gave me a tight-lipped smile, her face lit with satisfaction.
King Jusson looked over the people. "Is everyone here that ought to be?"
"Yes, Your Majesty," Captain Thadro said.
"Good. Bring her here.”
Royal guards escorted Losan eso Dru and her lordling captor before the king.
"This is not a trial, Losan eso Dru," the king said. "When we are done here, you will be turned over to the Lord Magistrate to face charges of treason.”
Losan started to weep. "I'm innocent, Your Majesty. Please—”
"We found her burning papers, Your Majesty," the lordling said. "We stopped her, but when we looked at them, they were about her dealings, not Lord Gherat's." Guardsmen and troopers approached with the boxes and crates. "Here they are, sire.”
"Take them over to Chancellor Berle, please," the king said. He waited until the crates were stacked against the wall by the chancellor. "Well, Losan eso Dru, all day we've been dealing with conspiracies and rebellions—and each time we look up, we hear the House of Dru's name. But when we send for our Lord Treasurer, we find that he is missing. We are sure you can see why we'd find this upsetting.”
If Lord Esclaur was a spiritual brother of Javes, then Losan of Dru was a blood sister of Ryson. She started talking immediately, going back to her days as a very junior clerk and how Gherat would have her falsify accounts, working up through larger acts of fraud and malfeasance, to how this morning she knew it had all come undone when she discovered that Lord Gherat was gone and his strongbox emptied.
"Names, Losan eso Dru," King Jusson said. "Give us names.”
But Losan didn't know who else was involved, as Lord Gherat had been very careful about keeping his cohorts separate and hidden. She only knew what she did because she had a nasty habit of eavesdropping, going so far as to drill holes and create hidden nooks so she could listen in to conversations held in Lord Gherat's private chambers. As she said that, several in the room shifted uneasily.
It was the same with the rest of the witnesses—they had bits and pieces of the puzzle, but not the whole.
In fact, the only information that all of them shared was that Javes was the king's agent.
"How?" Jusson asked. "Not even my Lord Commander knew."
"I bet Gherat did," Berle said, her voice soft.
"We received a letter over two years ago, Your Majesty," the furniture dealer Guarez said. "And when the captain and Lord Rabbit came to my shop, I sent word." The old man stood with his hands shaking from fear and the palsy. "I received instructions back that if either ever returned, I was to delay them and send a message quick, and they would be taken care of.”
I glanced at King Jusson, then averted my eyes from his face. There was nothing like betrayal by a close and trusted friend. Someone so close that he was allowed to stand beside the throne and join any of the king's conversations. Someone so trusted that he was given the keys to the kingdom's strongbox—which he then used to overthrow the king.
"Perhaps Teram knows more, Your Majesty," Lord Esclaur said from the other side of the dais as the guards escorted the furniture dealer out of the room.
"Perhaps," Jusson said, nodding. "We were going to wait and question the rebels separately, but as Flavan's and Dru's affairs do seem to crisscross, we should examine the pretender Locival." He looked at the Lord Commander. "Please bring Teram to me.”
It didn't surprise me to see that the Flavan lord had regained a measure of his arrogance as he came into the chamber, his gait strong despite his broken nose and bandaged hand. However, it did surprise me to see who had arrived with him; Archdoyen Obruesk walked in behind Lord Teram, his cavernous eyes sweeping the room until they lit on me. If his glare had been a sword, I would've been skewered to the wall.
"We only recall asking for Teram ibn Flavan, Your Reverence," Jusson said, a brow rising.
"We were praying together in his cell, Your Majesty." Obruesk's deep voice boomed out in the chamber.
"He asked that I accompany him." Teram stood next to the archdoyen, his face pious.
"Does the Church support this rebel in his effort to seize the throne?" Jusson asked, raising the other brow.
"I am only providing spiritual comfort and guidance, Your Majesty," Obruesk replied. "As I would to any poor soul in need.”
"There's a multitude of 'poor souls' in our dungeons at this moment. Why this particular one?”
Obruesk's face went stern. "He has been threatened with sorcery, Your Majesty. The so-called Witness Circle?" he added at the king's blank look.
King Jusson's brows snapped together. "Lord Teram's life is forfeit to us, to do with as we please.”
"My only concern, Your Majesty, is the purity of your rule—”
"You should be more concerned with the purity of our anger."
The archdoyen opened his mouth but the king cut him off. "You have made your apprehensions known, Archdoyen Obruesk. Now please leave.”
"See how the Holy Church is barred from the palace, yet the king's sorcerer cousin stands next to the throne!" Teram said, his face gone beyond pious to saintly.
"You are close to having your head barred from your body, Flavan e Dru," Jusson said, his eyes glinting down on Lord Teram. Lord Commander Thadro drew his sword and, standing behind Teram, forced him to his knees, placing the sword edge against his neck. Teram glared back up at the king, unrepentant.
"Your Majesty, forbearance, please—" Obruesk began.
"Thank you, Your Reverence," Jusson said. "Please rest assured that we will inform Patriarch Pietr of your assistance.” Obruesk hesitated, then bowed and, after another glare at me, walked from the room, his robes flaring out behind him.
"Very clever, Lord Teram, to involve the Church." The king shifted in his chair and placed his elbow on the chair arm, propping his chin against his fist. "But we suppose that His Reverence hasn't told you: The patriarch has found sprite bodies throughout his See, each one donated by Lord Gherat of Dru. His Holiness wasn't too thrilled by that.”
Teram did a credible job of sneering, even with the sword at his neck. "There's only the freak cat and Border bumpkin's word what they are."
"Such a brave man!" Jusson marveled. "Or a very stupid one. Tell us, Flavan, whether or not it's spritewood, did it come from Iversterre?"