I set my chest on the floor, took out the first scroll case, and offered it to him. Colart Jenicor pried the case open, extracted the scroll, and unrolled it.
His face changed. He looked at me, his expression unreadable. The magic pulsing over the signature line was obvious even from this distance.
I plucked out the second scroll and handed it over. He put the first one down as if it were a snake, took the second scroll, glanced at it, and put that one atop the first.
I reached into the chest and began stacking the scroll cases on his desk. He watched me without a word. I placed the sixteen remaining scroll cases into a neat little pile and passed him a piece of paper with a list on it. Eighteen names, everyone who was bound to Hreban by a life chain and still alive. Two clerks in the Chamber of Ceremonies, a woman very high up in the Treasury, a knight of the Silver Eagles, one Defender, two Redeemers, a royal cook, two royal guards, a City Guard Knight Captain, a sprinkling of officials, and a prosecutor from the Justice Chamber. That last one had to hurt. He worked directly under the Sun Margrave.
I plucked a stack of papers from the chest and put it in front of him. Detailed background on the eighteen with as much information as the Shears could find: their origins, their careers, their sins. Most of them had sold themselves for basic, human reasons. Some had nowhere to turn, others were just greedy.
The Sun Margrave flipped through the papers, scanning them with surprising speed, and looked back at me.
I handed the Butcher’s scroll to him. He stared at it, shocked.
If there was anything a liberal arts education taught you how to do, it was to read a bunch of different sources and vomit all the information in an organized and structured manner. I had wrapped this case in shiny paper and slapped a beautiful bow on top of it.
The Sun Margrave met my gaze.
“I know the kind of man you are. I know you will do the right thing. But if something stops you from saving the kingdom, I’ve kept enough evidence, and I will use what I have.”
I turned and walked out.
REDBERRY24
Iwalked on the Sun Margrave’s left, through a long hallway. Ahead, a knight with a torch led the way. Behind us, two more knights brought up the rear.
In my head the worddungeonalways conjured up either a dimly lit maze or something that came out of a LitRPG, but the dungeon of the Eagle Roost was nothing like that.
It looked like the rest of the Eagle Roost, ancient, foreboding, impenetrable, a wide hallway lit by lanterns, its floor swept clean and its thick stone walls free of grime. On our left, rows of cells ran the length of the hallway, guarded by solid iron bars, cages to contain human evil. On our right, narrow windows let the inmates glimpse a bit of the sky. A little hope was a terrible thing.
“Remember his power. Do not allow yourself to be hurt,” Jenicor said.
“I will not.”
The day of the audience with the Sun Margrave, I had made it all the way home, and fifteen minutes after I walked through the door, a carriage bearing the Sun Margrave’s standard arrived with the Sun Margrave’s second-in-command. Colart Jenicor had formally asked for my help. I’d climbed into the carriage and had yet to get home.
Ulmar Hreban was arrested the following day on an emergency warrant signed by Sauven himself.
The opening of the High Court’s session had to go forward. It was a massive public event, a celebration that had happened for twenty-five years, ever since Jenicor announced the case against Ralinbor’s widow and the High Court unanimously sentenced her to death. Tomorrow the Sun Margrave had to ascend the steps of the Eagle Roost escorted by three squires. Surrounding him with an escort of armored knights would send all sorts of wrong signals about the stability of Sauven’s reign.
Worse, I didn’t find a contract with Cai’s name on it. That meant that Hreban had hired his replacement assassin via ordinary means. If Cai failed tomorrow, he would face no magical repercussions. He would survive that failure.
Cai of Sunder always made his kill. If tomorrow didn’t work out, he would bide his time and kill Jenicor later. We couldn’t take that chance.
The Justice Chamber had interrogated Hreban for two days, trying to squeeze the location of the assassin out of him, but he revealed nothing. I was their last chance. It was a very long shot.
Ahead the knight stopped and raised her torch.
“Take care with your heart,” the Sun Margrave said.
“I will.”
I walked to the cell. The Sun Margrave and his escort retreated to one end of the hallway, out of earshot. The knight who escorted me thrust the torch into a holder on the wall, between the lanterns, and walked to the other end of the hallway. There was twenty yards of open space on both sides of me.
In the cell, Ulmar Hreban sat on the stone floor, stripped of his finery, wearing a plain tunic and pants with simple sandals on his feet. But the expression on his face was still the same. Pouty, arrogant, the man who expected his due.
I sat on the floor by the bars well out of his reach. We looked at each other.
“You’re wondering how you ended up here,” I told him. “It was me.”
