Total pages in book: 222
Estimated words: 210715 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1054(@200wpm)___ 843(@250wpm)___ 702(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 210715 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1054(@200wpm)___ 843(@250wpm)___ 702(@300wpm)
Everything I had gone through, all the pain and suffering, and the assassination was still going forward. Not only that—we were worse off than when we started.
The Butcher was an assassin of opportunity. Hreban had hired him for his cruelty and shock value, but before the Butcher became a serial killer, he was a knight. He told me so when he declared that I was not one of them because I didn’t have the right heart. Skulking around the city didn’t come to him naturally. Cai of Sunder had been trained by one of the best assassins of the age, and assassination was his profession from the start. He wouldn’t make the Butcher’s mistakes.
I’d managed to escalate things again. Every time I crawled a foot forward, Rellas kicked me two feet back. I’d scream but I had already made enough of a spectacle.
“There is one thing that puzzles me,” Solentine said. “We know that Hreban becomes the Sun Margrave.”
He’d read the pages I’d given him. “Yes.”
“But Hreban himself can’t possibly know that,” Solentine said.
Everard sat up straighter. “That’s true. Sauven is volatile and Hreban is an unlikely man for that post.”
“So why does Hreban want to kill the Sun Margrave?” Solentine asked. “Why him of all people?”
I opened my mouth. Nothing came out.
We knew what would happen, because of me. Hreban didn’t have me. Trying to assassinate the Sun Margrave was incredibly dangerous. It would infuriate Sauven beyond anything Rellas had seen. Hreban had to have figured out that much. So why risk it?
“Are there any charges in the High Court against Hreban?” Everard asked.
“Before I left, I told my people to look into the High Court docket. There is nothing. There is no bad blood between Colart Jenicor and Ulmar Hreban. They know of each other, but they’ve never come into conflict.”
The two of them looked at me.
I shrugged. “Your guess is as good as mine.”
“If Hreban doesn’t have an obvious reason to kill the Sun Margrave, it must be Silveren,” Everard said.
That made sense.
“We wondered why Silveren decided to back Hreban,” I said. “Perhaps they struck a deal. Hreban kills the Sun Margrave for Silveren, and in return, the Redeemers support Hreban’s climb.”
“But why would Silveren want the Sun Margrave dead?” Solentine asked.
“I don’t know. But after the Sun Margrave was buried, Silveren did go to Jenicor’s family tree.”
Everard leaned forward. “Did he deface the burial plot?”
“No. He just sat there for several hours. Another Redeemer knight came to see him, and Silveren told her that life was a chain that anchored you to the past like a rope that secures you as you scale a wall. One link attached to the other, each coming full circle. If you failed to close the links, the chain would come apart, and you would plummet.”
Solentine frowned again. “This new Silveren, the one who is running around the city in disguise, plotting with Hreban, and contemplating the meaning of life, I don’t know him. I find it troubling when people act unlike themselves.”
“Which Silveren do you know?” Everard asked.
Solentine sighed. “He says little. When he’s forced into small talk, he is dull, save for a rare quip. If you attempt to converse with him, he will inevitably turn the topic to the burdens of war or his old injuries. Silveren broke his legs somehow during his service and they bother him when it rains. He tends to Inhan and hangs behind him like a bitter shadow. Considering his face, he should be far more coveted, but he is so unresponsive that he isn’t pursued by either women or men. The only time Silveren comes to life is when the discussion touches on matters pertaining to the Redeemers. He is a zealous advocate for his order, and he doesn’t back down from either Arvel or Bors, I will give him that.”
“That is not the Silveren I met,” I said.
“I gathered,” Solentine said. “Who did you meet?”
“A dargan in mel’s clothing. Sharp, menacing, clever. Hreban walked into the Garden wrapped in loud luxury, and Silveren referred to him as a rare beauty who couldn’t be kept waiting.”
Solentine raised his eyebrows.
“You said he attached himself to Inhan?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“Silveren kills Inhan in the future. Slits his throat and watches him bleed out.”
Solentine swore.
“There must be a connection between the Sun Margrave and Silveren,” Everard said. “His graveside speech at Sonndor suggests it may not be about him. It may concern his parents or his siblings.”
“I’ll take a deeper look,” Solentine said. “However, that will take time, and the start of High Court is a month away. We could always take a direct approach. Eliminating Silveren would be problematic, but we could remove Ulmar Hreban from the picture.”
“No,” Everard and I said in one voice.
“Why?”
“It’s not about eliminating the man himself, but about removing the opportunity he’s taking advantage of,” Everard told him. “If we kill him without changing the circumstances that allow his rise, we risk someone else sliding into his place. Better the dursan we know than the one we don’t.”