Weapon of Pain by Chris A. Jackson & Anne L. McMillen-Jackson

Author:Chris A. Jackson & Anne L. McMillen-Jackson [Jackson, Chris A. & McMillen-Jackson, Anne L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Fantasy
Publisher: Jaxbooks
Published: 2016-07-12T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter XII

A frantic knock on the library door snapped Arbuckle’s attention from his work. The insightful phrase he’d been crafting scattered like ashes on a breeze.

“Damn it, Tennison. I thought we were not to be disturbed!” He threw himself back in his chair and gazed sullenly at his beleaguered secretary. Dozens of books and hundreds of sheets of parchment littered the table between them, testimony to their efforts to craft the perfect document, his nascent New Accords.

“I’m sorry, Majesty.” Tennison frowned at the door and put down the book he’d been reading. “I told the guards to allow no interruptions unless there was an emergency.”

“An emergency...” Arbuckle looked to the door, a thousand scenarios of disaster trundling through his mind.

Another knock, even more insistent, and the two imperial guards stationed there looked uncertain. They would not open the door without permission, of course, but they knew, as Arbuckle did, that the guards outside would not have allowed anyone to knock if it wasn’t a matter of dire import.

Arbuckle swallowed his trepidation and waved a hand. “See what it is.”

Truth be told, the interruption was not wholly unwelcome. He and Tennison had been working nearly without stop for days, postponing appointments, audiences, and social events alike. They’d made good progress, but the deeper they delved into matters of law, the more the emperor wished he had been born a commoner. Arbuckle’s eyes felt like they’d been rolled in sand, and his back ached from sitting hunched over pen and parchment for untold hours.

The guards opened the door to admit a harried Captain Ithross, his face sheened with sweat.

“Your Majesty!” The captain bowed low, heaving breath. “Forgive the interruption, but a...uh...your hunting expedition has bagged a prize.”

“My hunting expedition?” Arbuckle’s mind stumbled, still befuddled with a thousand details of imperial law. “What are you...”

“Yes, Majesty!” Ithross glanced significantly over his shoulder at the guards. “The young miss you contracted has arrived with...something you need to see.”

The “young miss” could only mean Miss Moirin.

“She recovered...” Arbuckle caught himself, realizing why Ithross was being cagy. The guards assigned to the door were not of the trusted few privy to the details of the kidnappings. “...what We wished her to find?”

“One of them, Majesty. The...um...quarry is out of sorts, but undamaged.”

“Well, We should like to see this!” Arbuckle stood stiffly. Tennison lurched to his feet, but the emperor raised a forestalling hand. “Stay here, Tennison. We’ve got many more hours of work yet tonight. You needn’t come along.”

“Thank you, Majesty.” The secretary sat down and picked up the tome he had been reading.

“Lead on, Captain!” The emperor strode toward the door, his guards closing in to surround him and the captain in a protective cocoon of steel. “Ithross, have you notified the...other concerned person of this development?”

“I sent a horse messenger the moment the parcel arrived.” In response to Arbuckle’s raised eyebrows—an imperial horse messenger clattering through the Heights District to Duke Tessifus’ mansion would not go unnoticed—the captain smiled reassuringly. “A trusted messenger, Majesty.”

“Very good, Captain.

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