Jesstin snorted. “Someone needs to tell your cronies in Mythgarde.”
“We don’t claim those outcasts,” Ryquin said with an indignant chortle.
“They sure love invoking your name.”
“I’d prefer we not argue, Jesstin. We’re on the same side here.”
Jesstin shook his head at the ceiling.
“What side is that, Ryquin?” Acheron asked. “We speaking of the living now, or the dead?”
“No one cares about her except us,” Taven whispered to Jesstin. “So let’s stop quarreling and work together.”
Tansea clapped her hands. The sharp sound bounced off the bare walls. “Aelloven was murdered, but we also have roughly forty dead esguards whose families will want answers. This family wants answers. But we will not cast judgment without evidence. Ryquin, your whereabouts during the attack cannot be accounted for, so until your involvement is ruled out, you will stay in your apartments under guard. Daire, we know you were with Sesto, so you may return to the haven with the other necromancers, but you will not meet with Ryquin until his innocence is proven, as you are too easily manipulated.”
Daire cast his defeated eyes toward his lap.
The fact that both Ryquin’s parents thought he was guilty was enough for Sesto, but he’d be naïve to expect any real justice to come of it. It was almost too obvious Ryquin was behind the massacre, but they had to be seen giving the matter serious consideration, so his eventual acquittal would be accepted by the soldiers’ families.
Sesto hated to shift his thoughts to more practical matters, when the grief was so fresh, but it was time to consider their positions there were far more precarious with Elloven gone. Taven was ‘of the blood’ and tolerated, but Sesto and Jesstin were interlopers. Elloven wouldn’t have participated in whatever they needed from her if they’d hurt her friends, but any thin protection they’d been afforded had died with her.
Jesstin looked ready to murder every single one of them. His sword was stored in a barrel in the corner, with everyone else’s weapons, but Sesto hadn’t ruled out him going for it anyway.
“Acheron,” Tansea said. “If I hear you’ve been questioning citizens or digging where your spade does not belong, I will see no alternative but to confine you to your apartments as well. This is my investigation. Are we understood?”
He gave a curt nod and muttered something off to the side.
“Lexsea, you’re with me,” Tansea said. “You often see what others fail to.”
“Mother.” Lexsea bowed her head. As it lowered, she grinned at her brother, sly and easy to miss.
But Sesto missed very little.
“I want to help,” Taven said. “I need to help.”
“Until we know why Aelloven was targeted, we can’t know if you’re in the same danger.” Tansea had no warmth or concern in her response. “You’ll keep to your croft. If you must travel to the village, we’ll provide an escort. But you’re not to return to the sept until summoned.” She glanced at Jesstin. “Nor you.”
Jesstin shoved back. He went straight for the barrel, but two esguards stamped forward. “Am I a prisoner here?”
“No, you are our treasured guest,” Estelar said quickly.
“Then I’ll keep my steel.” Jesstin stood until Estelar waved the guards off. “Sesto, you’ll stay with me.”
“I am not one who needs to be told twice.” Sesto leaped from his seat. “Daire... Would you like to come with us?”
Daire cast a shy, hopeful look at Tansea.
“That would be an acceptable compromise,” she said.
“You have my gratitude for looking after him,” Ryquin said. “His well-being is paramount to me.”
Keep lying so poorly, they won’t need hard evidence to seal your fate. “He’ll not lack for companionship,” Sesto replied as amiably as he could muster.
“I’m coming as well,” Taven said. His chair fell to the floor.
Jesstin swung his head around. “Not with us.”
“Yes, with you,” Taven snapped. “If we’re done here, Pretor, I believe the four of us could do with a walk back to clear our heads.”
