When he rounded the corner and stopped, he found a large group of people clustered outside Navuh's office door. Hakum was at the center of the cluster, sweating profusely and looking close to collapse. Two guards flanked him, their hands on their weapons but uncertain whether to draw them. Various staff members hovered at the edges, craning their necks to see and whispering to each other.
"What's happening here?" Losham pitched his voice to cut through the noise without shouting. Authority came from confidence, not volume.
Every head turned toward him, and he saw the relief wash across multiple faces. Finally. Someone who might know what to do. Someone who could take charge so they wouldn't have to.
Sheep, he thought.Useful when properly directed.
"Commander Losham." Hakum practically stumbled toward him. His title wasn't commander, but right now, he would take it.
"We know now that Lord Navuh has locked himself in his office. We tried the key and found that the door was bolted from the inside. The lord is in there, but he doesn't respond. Also, the harem reports that all the ladies are missing. We don't know what has happened."
The cliff was where bodies went when they needed to disappear forever. The currents there were brutal, the rocks sharp enough to shred even immortal flesh. If Navuh had killed them and disposed of them there...
But all of them?
The other option was the tunnel, but the cliff was more likely. Navuh must have compelled the guards to help him and then forget about what they had seen and done.
“Have you contacted the security office?”
Hakum nodded.
“And?”
“They didn’t see anything suspicious.”
They wouldn’t if Navuh had returned from the harem using his private tunnel and then used the secret passage to go straight from his bedroom to the office. Those were all areas that the island’s security had no access to.
"Step aside," Losham said. "Let me try."
As he approached the door, the crowd parted automatically. He raised his hand and knocked—three measured raps that Navuh would recognize as his signature knock.
"My lord? It's Losham. May I speak with you?"
Silence from within.
Losham waited ten seconds, then knocked again. "My lord, whatever's happened, we can address it. But I need you to open the door."
Still nothing.
He pressed his ear against the wood, listening for any sound—breathing, movement, anything that would indicate life on the other side. The door was thick, designed for privacy and soundproofing, but immortal hearing should have picked up something.
He heard nothing.
Either Navuh was deliberately remaining silent, or he was unconscious, or?—
Or he wasn't in there at all.
That last possibility opened up an entirely new decision tree, and Losham felt his mind branching through the implications. If Navuh wasn't in the office, where was he? Why lock the doorfrom the inside? Unless someone else had locked it, creating the impression that Navuh was barricaded within when actually?—
Losham turned to face the crowd, reading their expressions, their body language, the tiny tells that revealed who was genuinely concerned versus who was already calculating their next move.
"Did you try the staircase that leads from the basement directly into this office?"
"Of course." Hakum assumed an offended expression. "It's locked as well."
"Then we have no choice. We need to break this door down."
"Sir, I don't think—" Hakum began.
