Mervidia by J.K. Barber

Author:J.K. Barber [Barber, J.K.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2014-06-19T21:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Six

The call for an emergency Coral Assembly meeting was not a surprise to anyone. Word had spread swiftly of the regent’s eradication of House Stonegem. The messengers had been swimming back and forth all morning between the Houses of the Coral Assembly members. They were making full use of their authority, having the Palace Guard arresting perpetrators and then discussing what sentences should be allotted to them.

Penn, incapable of calling off the Palace Guard with just his and Damaris’ vote, had accompanied Captain Raygo to witness the foul deed and keep the rest of the city from getting involved. Even though Damaris had gone straight to the other Assembly members, asking for their aid, a majority vote was needed to counter Iago’s command. The regent had acted quickly, and the Assembly had been too late to aid House Stonegem. The council members were just now gathering at the Royal Palace.

The Red Tridents had arrived after the carnage. Most of them were still at House Stonegem, protecting the ravaged house from looters. Zane, Captain of the Red Tridents, had reported to Raygo that there was only one survivor of the massacre, a single unborn faera still in its egg.

Kiva, the faera representative on the Coral Assembly, was beyond outraged and gave no credit to Damaris for seeking out the Assembly. The Queen Mother just wanted to look good to the rest of the council, being the first to deliver the news, Kiva thought, as she watched some of her peers filing from the entry chamber into the palace’s Coral Assembly meeting room. Damaris is desperate to keep an ethyrie on the throne. Who will she support now? Iago will never be king. He’ll be stripped of his temporary title and thrown in the palace’s dungeon for the rest of his days. No leader of Mervidia, especially a regent with a temporary rule, acts with such deadly force without the Assembly’s blessing. Even King Luzige would not have acted with such brazen audacity behind our backs.

The faera domo had yet to make her presence known. Kiva was doing what she did best; she was lurking in the shadows and was observing, waiting, and listening. After what her spies had reported to her just a few moments ago about what had exactly transpired inside House Stonegem, Kiva didn’t trust anyone. She never dreamed that revealing Beryl’s assassin to Lachlan would have caused such an unforgiving series of events. No one could have predicted Iago’s blind and savage revenge upon the house that had been hired to murder his wife. If a machi had foreseen the regent’s actions, he or she had kept that information to himself. Kiva trusted the seers even less now.

Young and rash, Kiva sighed, staring down at the bound and gagged regent, stripped of his armor and sword down to only his skin and fin. His hands were tied behind his back, and two Serfin held him in place with their arms encircling his elbows. Iago’s expression was defiant, his eyes set forward staring at nothing in particular.

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