Regent's Mate (House Adamant Book 4) by Glynn Stewart

Author:Glynn Stewart [Stewart, Glynn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Faolan's Pen Publishing
Published: 2025-09-25T00:00:00+00:00

TWENTY-TWO

The grand portico of the Adamantine Palace was burning from the strafing fire as the drop pod hit the ground, fired out of the Thunderbird’s belly like a smart bomb. It split open around Nikola, clearing his visibility even as a second set of ground-attack planes swept over his head, cannon and beams tearing into what remained of the defenders.

His Guard were with him, and his Companions were hitting the ground behind him in their own pods. All around the Palace, heavier transports touched down, tanks and armored personnel carriers rolling out to reinforce the armored troops.

Nikola knew that he shouldn’t be the spearhead. There was an entire company of elite armored troopers from his old brigade with him, backed by two more companies of mechanized infantry and another two of tanks.

But it was the platoon-strength force made up of his personal guard and the veterans who’d joined up to support them that he led up the stone-paved patio toward the center of his Kingdom’s government and his family’s power.

The Adamantine Palace—separate from the Adamantine Manse, the residence of House Adamant, which also acted as an administrative center for the House’s commercial and industrial empire—was the home of the King of Adamant. It was the formal center for receiving ambassadors, dealing with internal and external politics, and, just as Adamantine Manse anchored the House’s commercial organization, the Adamantine Palace anchored the executive branch of the Kingdom’s government.

The building didn’t just hold the King; it held the administrative apparatus that supported the King in doing their job.

It resembled nothing so much as a minareted castle, with four golden domes marking the highest point of each of the wings. The main entrance and all of the formal receiving spaces were in the south wing, with the administrative offices in the east and west wings, while the King and their family lived in the north wing.

The plaza in front of the main entrance had been barricaded, and at least a company of troops had dug in there. That had proven a lethal mistake when the Thunderbirds swept in, and now Nikola led his Companions through the wreckage.

“Doors are sealed and barred,” one of the point troops reported. “Full security lockdown.”

“That’s fine,” Krupin said calmly. “Guard Shaleigh?”

Jack Shaleigh was the closest of the dozen remaining Adamant Guard to the door. He stepped up to the secured door—with a full blast door concealed behind the decorative oversized double doors—and pressed his armored palm to a scanner that no one outside the Guard would even know existed.

“Yep, they tried to change the codes,” Shaleigh reported. “Attempting Masada Protocol override… and there we go.”

The doors swung open as the metal backing them slid into the floor, revealing a shocked formation of defenders. There were a few mounted heavy weapons, but Nikola’s scanners didn’t detect any armored troopers.

He sent a silent hold order, stepping forward through his people as the Palace’s defenders waited, holding their own fire out of shock as much as anything.

They were a mix of Palace and House Security, with maybe a handful of Marines.

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