Rune Knight: Book Two of The Empress Saga

EPILOGUE

    Princess Maya Algara seldom knew the throne room of the Palace of Towers to be so empty. It was early in the morning, an hour before dawn, and the courtiers wouldn't begin to arrive until the sun was up. The royal guards were absent now that Cathis had ordered Captain Falar to take her men away.

    This was a gathering for assassins.

    Around her in the dim gaslight, Maya saw pairs of faintly glowing blue eyes. Whether by chance or by fate, all three coteries were returned to the Spired City when word finally arrived from the frozen south. Only the few retired assassins attending court in other kingdoms remained absent.

    The members of the family trade, all together, Maya thought bitterly. Save two.

    Dashar was dead, and Jin had gone rogue. Both were impossibilities. Maya refused to believe either. Josy was clearly upset, and perhaps that led her to draw false conclusions. There was an explanation for all of this. Maya was certain of it.

    Looking at Josy, Maya knew those beliefs were desperate hopes. It was true. All of it. Thirteen royal assassins stood in a loose crowd at the base of Cathis' clockwork dais. One knelt.

    What are you doing, Jin? Josy didn't have much to say about it. Is she protecting you?

    "You confess, my niece?" Cathis asked.

    Josy, all but prostrating herself before the throne, nodded. "Dashar died by my hand, Uncle."

    Her voice was raspy. She'd been crying. She'd likely been crying for all the time it took her to get here from Ecclesia.

    "Brother, enough of this." Gain stepped up to the dais and stood over Josy. His grizzled face was creased with a deep frown, and he hadn't shaved since receiving the news. Gain rarely let his salt and pepper beard grow unkempt while in the city. "Josy is no liar. If she says she was placed under domination, then it is so."

    Cathis sneered. "The oren would have protected her from domination."

    "Then it was circumvented," Gain argued, his voice rising in volume.

    Maya watched her father stand from his seat on the throne. He glared down at his elder brother. "Yet she refuses to give the identity of this alleged master enchanter."

    "I don't know, Uncle," Josy protested.

    "Quiet," Cathis and Gain said in unison.

    Cathis leveled an accusing finger at her. "I will have blood for my heir's death, Josenthorne."

    "I said that's enough!" Gain shouted. He set his foot on the first step of the dais, without leave, and leaned upon it. It was a gesture of disrespect, only just short of a challenge to Cathis' authority as king. "Your heir. My son. Don't forget yourself, Your Grace."

    "You dare speak down to your king?" Cathis said in a dark tone.

    Gain's jaw clenched beneath the short bristles on his face. "Careful, little brother. It was I who allowed you that crown."

    Maya let her hand drift to the pommel of her sword, and she noted that several of the others did the same. There was a dangerous tension in this room. Unthinkable, once. Months of her father's paranoia and increasing hostilty towards his own house had finally made it a reality.

    House Algara was crumbling. Any longer, and angry shouts might be the least of their problems.

    You've gone mad, Father. How can I make you see that?