Movement out of the corner of my eye prompted me to glance to the right, where I saw the three elves who'd been caught during the attack on Gentry Tech. I scowled at the magic-dampening shackles on their wrists. I'd forgotten about these men. They didn't deserve to be treated as criminals anymore. Now that I knew they'd been acting on the Goddess' orders. But I'd have to deal with them later, my father came first.
“You wanna tell me why it sounds like my father is under attack?”
“Ambassador,” High Councilman Greer, from the Isle of Danu Council House, smiled at me. “Welcome. The Human Council was merely having a disagreement with King Keir. We had expected him to bring the leaders of the elven community for questioning, but he has decided to speak on their behalf. Things got heated.”
“And they thought they could intimidate me with tactics of the human judicial system,” my father rolled his eyes.
“King Keir, you should have complied with our request to bring the elves,” Councilman Murdock chided. “Then we wouldn't have to question you, and you wouldn't have felt offended.”
“I feared for the safety of my people,” my father said stiffly, casting a look to the shackled elves. “I know how you punish fey.”
“The same way that the Wild Hunt punishes humans,” Murdock growled.
“Humans rarely meet the Hunt,” Keir lifted his chin. “Exceptions are made for them all the time, and I expect one to be made for the elves today. Including these three men here.”
The table erupted into arguments.
“Dad,” I whispered to Keir as the arguments continued, “let me handle this, okay?”
“Of course, sweetheart,” he kissed my cheek. “Tear their heads off.”
“What?” I blinked at him.
“Isn't that the saying?”
“No, that isnotthe saying. And please never say that saying again.”
“I was certain it was tear something...” Keir frowned.
“Tear them a new one?” I offered.
“Yes! That's it! Tear thema new one,” Keir nodded happily. Then he looked confused again, “A new what?”
“Never mind, Dad. We'll talk about it later.”
“Your Majesty?” High Councilman Murdock asked.
“Yes?” Both my father and I answered.
“Dad,” I gave him a look.
“My daughter will represent our people in my stead,” Keir said regally, then took a few steps back.
“We cannot excuse murder, Your Majesty,” Murdock said. “You must see that. You were an extinguisher yourself.”
I considered him, and then the rest of the table, as I weighed my answers. I had been an extinguisher. Some people believed that I still was one. Including myself. So what would an extinguisher say to excuse an elf who had murdered a human?
“It was done in a time of war.”
They all gaped at me. Which gave me confidence. I continued.
“War had been declared, and we know it was accepted, because when I was shot, the Sluagh did not come to avenge me,” I suppressed the urge to smile.
Seeing the responses of the wide-eyed humans and the smug looking fey, encouraged me further. I knew the fairy council members wouldn't approve of the elves being slaughtered, but there was little they could do when faced with the rules of the truce. But I happened to know the truce very well. I upheld it for most of my life. And I knew that there was a war clause in it. All laws went out the window during time of war. Both sides could do as they chose, and not be punished for it after peace was reinstated. The obvious reason for this was that peace would be far more difficult to reach if both sides were crying for soldiers to be executed.
“As per the clause of war in the truce, parties involved in a war cannot be sentenced for acts committed during said war. Especially the crime of murder.”
“Is that true?” Elder Crispin Arterbury, of the Bite Witch Tribe, asked Murdock.
