جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 20

Draven recovered his composure quickly, though Sable caught the flicker of surprise before he smoothed it away, the particular tell of a man unused to being met with anything but either fear or flattery."Answer me, then," he said, spreading his hands in a gesture of open invitation toward the gathered witnesses on both sides. "Say whatever it is you came all this way to say, Sable Windmere. I'm listening."Sable stepped forward, close enough that she stood apart from Kael's shadow entirely, her own voice the only thing carrying her words now. "Two winters ago, you offered for my hand through my pack elders, and they refused you without asking what I wanted. I've thought about that refusal many times since, and I've decided I agree with it completely, though not for the reasons they gave.""And what reasons would those be?" Draven asked, something careful entering his tone now."They said I wasn't worth the trouble of a formal offer," Sable said. "I don't believe that anymore, and I d

Kael read the note twice before he spoke, and Sable watched something cold and calculating settle into his expression, the look of a king forced to consider a possibility he'd rather not entertain. "He's trying to plant doubt," Kael said finally. "Turn us against each other, or against my own command, before he has to face us again directly." "Or he's telling the truth," Faelan said grimly, having arrived with the second wave of riders only minutes before, still catching his breath from the hard ride. "My king, I don't say this lightly, but we already know your uncle has been in contact with Kastor. We don't know how many others in your command might be compromised the same way." The words landed heavy in the small cottage, and Sable watched Kael's jaw tighten at the implication, the particular tension of a man who had spent his whole life trusting the soldiers sworn to his service without question, now forced to wonder which of them might not deserve that trust at all. "I won'

Faelan's report hung in the war room air like a blade waiting to fall, and Sable watched Kael absorb it with the particular stillness that had become, over the past weeks, her clearest signal of how deeply something had wounded him."You're certain," Kael said. "Marisol was already inside when Alric arrived.""Certain enough," Faelan said. "My man watched through the study's side window long enough to see the three of them seated together before he withdrew, unwilling to risk discovery by pressing closer. He heard raised voices at one point, though not clearly enough to make out words.""Then we still don't have proof," Kael said, frustration edging into his voice now. "Only three people meeting privately, which any of them could explain away as ordinary council business if confronted.""There's more, my king." Faelan hesitated, clearly weighing how much to say. "My man stayed long enough to see Alric leave first, alone, considerably paler than when he'd arrived. Lady Marisol left per

Sable reached Marisol's chambers at a dead run, Kael close behind her, and found the small room already crowded with the palace physician and two frightened attendants, Marisol herself deathly pale against her pillows, breath shallow and uneven."What was she given?" Kael demanded."Something in her evening wine, my king," the physician said, not looking up from his work, hands steady despite the urgency. "A plant toxin, similar in effect to nightroot but faster-acting, which suggests whoever administered it wanted her silenced quickly rather than slowly. We caught it in time, I believe, but she won't wake for some hours yet, and I can't say with certainty what condition her mind will be in when she does."Sable's stomach twisted with a guilt she hadn't expected to feel so sharply. "This happened because she spoke to me," she said quietly. "Because she was considering testifying against Torv.""Or because someone already suspected she might," Kael said grimly. "Which means our convers

The ride back to Mount Ashkar felt longer than any Sable had endured since arriving in Drakoria, dread building with every mile as Faelan's scouts brought fresh reports of Kastor's swelling force, numbers that seemed to grow with every count until the picture forming in the war room by the time they reached the palace gates had become genuinely alarming."Two hundred and change," Faelan said grimly, studying the latest estimate against the map's marked distances. "More than Kastor could have raised from his own border packs alone, even accounting for the men he already had. Someone else is lending him numbers.""Torv's gold," Kael said, the pieces finally settling into a shape none of them liked. "Alric already told us Torv wants the throne destabilized enough to install a regency. If he's been quietly funding Kastor's campaign beyond simple persuasion, this was never meant to stay a border dispute. It was meant to become exactly this."Sable studied the map, the marked positions of K