No Solace (The Flames of Retribution - Book 1)

Chapter Twenty-Five - Onward to Sanfelton

Chapter Warning: Violence, Interrogation tactics

For a while, silence reigned except for the ticking of a grandfather clock tucked in the corner of Janicen's living room. Janicen's shoulders trembled with soundless weeping that tried to pluck at my lone heartstring.

The ticking of the clock became a throb behind my eyes. I could kill them right here.

I should kill them. It would be justified. But what if they killed Gladys because they'd been conditioned by the third prince?

Tick, tick, Solace. Standing still was not the answer. They killed a precious phoenix. They killed Gladys.

They knew where the Tavla and his family were. Killing them would rob me of the answer.

Tick, tick. Tick, tick.

As Ursula folded her arms and shook her head at me, knowing I was weighing on the side of mercy as I regarded the two women, I swore I heard their hearts beating in time with the clock. Tick, tick. Beat, beat.

They'd participated in breaking Xīwàng's heart. They might have heard his father's beat its last. My fist clenched.

I allowed myself a few more moments of calm analysis. I had to dig out all the information from these stacks in front of me. I couldn't burn them until I did.

I shuffled the letters in my hand, putting the best ones on top. Ursula had recording devices in her backpack, and once we had all the answers, we could decide what to do with these women.

I sat down with the letters and read them one by one. The clock marked each torturous second as the chronology of Gladys's friendship with Madame Claire went from loving, to confused, to perfunctory.

And there was one thing that especially stuck out in her last missive.

"Claire Ensen," I read aloud, "You are just as evil as your father. You've taken my heart from me just as surely as if you ripped it from me yourself, and you've beaten my love and left it to die on the streets." I lowered the letter. "Ensen... why does that name sound so familiar?"

The little mice in my head that ran the internal database I possessed spun in their wheels. Eventually, they grabbed for the tidbit I sought. "Ensen... was the name of the Lord that killed the peridot seller."

There was an intake of breath, I'm not sure which one of the ladies did it, and I didn't really care. The sound was confirmation of the truth.

I trapped Madame Claire's attention with the claws of my vicious regard. "You were not in Sanfelton because of business dealings at that time. You were trying to get your father out of the city."

Her jaw clenched. "There are more Ensens in Sanfelton than Felgus Ensen."

Felgus Ensen. Her utterance of the name was all I needed. "But none that Gladys would call evil. But why would she save you?" I scoffed. "Oh, I think I know why. You played the poor me card, making her believe that you were just an innocent daughter."

"Sounds valid," Ursula chimed in.

"But..." I put my hand up. "There were five things that went wrong, leading to Gladys' betrayal."

I put down my first finger. "Your father was arrested, which was not something you wanted."

I put down my next finger, "You and Janicen were forced to agree to work for the emperor that you hated in exchange for your lives."

I held up an older letter sent from another friend named Davo, "This one clearly shows how much you wished you'd never left Aluraparine and that you hate the emperor."