Lightfall by R. Dugan

Author:R. Dugan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: R. Dugan
Published: 2020-04-29T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

STUNNED SILENCE SUFFOCATED the Chancellor’s sanctum for one long, breathless minute after the Vassoran guard gave his full report.

“How?” Maltadova growled at last. “How did this happen, Branko?”

“We’re still compiling the reports,” the guard replied. “Not all of them comprehensive, but we gather it was outright bedlam. Not a single prisoner remains in the Blood Hive.”

“The animals?” Benedikt asked. “I’m told they’re kept hungry. Could they have broken down the gates to reach the prisoners?”

Branko scratched his chin. “Possibly. But to break down two gates, reach the catacombs, and then devour every last prisoner and leave hardly any blood or bodies before they themselves escaped into the sands without a trace…”

“Wait a moment,” Bravis interrupted. “Without a trace?”

Branko spread his hands in a helpless shrug. “The perpetrator vanished while Siralek burned.”

Thorne and Maltadova exchanged a disbelieving glance.

“Thousands of mynts squandered, just like that,” Valdemar said bleakly. “Nordbran will be devastated, as will its coffers.”

Thorne plunked his hindquarters on the tabletop and rubbed his face with both hands. He didn’t regret the loss of Siralek; he would have torn it down himself if given the chance. But this rang a blow against Valgard’s bones, setting them all out of joint. Welcomed target or not, an attack was still an attack—and he knew where this one came from. “First Detlyse Halet, now this. Someone is trying very hard to distract us.”

“Get off my table, Thorne,” Bravis sighed, and Thorne dropped back to his feet. “You think you know what’s happening?”

“The timing can’t be coincidence, not when you consider the fallout.” His father’s face in the courtroom flashed across his mind, that cunning satisfaction a revolting echo of the night he dragged Thorne and Baba Kallah out to be whipped and broken. “Siralek falls the day one of its patronesses testifies. And because Nordbran is Sander’s territory, I have no choice but to send him to investigate.”

“The trial,” Benedikt groaned. “We’ll have to postpone it.”

“A welcome reprieve, perhaps, for our other witness,” Bravis mused, “but also for Salvotor. I agree, this reeks of his involvement.”

“And of Devitrius and Rakel doing his filthy work for him,” Valdemar added.

“To what end?” Maltadova asked. “Why these targets?”

“Perhaps they’re trying to prove that no prison is above their reach, and no prisoner beyond their freeing,” Thorne said. Benedikt swore, and Maltadova reclined, scowling.

“Send out more Vassora to search for the prisoners. As many as you can spare, whether it’s ten or twenty or two hundred,” Bravis said to Branko, and with a clip of his heels, he hurried out. “Maltadova, I beg for any Tribune you can spare. We need to find Devitrius and Rakel and stop them by any means necessary.”

“No need to beg. They will go at once.”

Bravis turned to Thorne. “Muster the Tribunes over Nordbran and tell Sander he’s over them all. I want every inch of Siralek searched.”

“Consider it done. I’d like to send two of my best with him as well.”

“The more the better. We need to find out what they’re planning and how they’re managing these sieges.

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