Drakenfeld (50 page)

I turned the corner in time to see her whip her blade low through the air, clipping Licintius’ heels.

The king collapsed face forward to the ground. Leana stood back for me to descend upon him. I arrived at his sprawling form, pressed my fingers into his throat and looked fiercely into his eyes
while heaving deep breaths. Sweat poured down my face. From the look in his eye, both of us knew all I had to do was squeeze on his throat and that would be the end of it. I wanted to – for
all he had done.

But no. A violent resolution might have felt satisfactory for a fleeting moment, but I represented the Sun Chamber, and followed Vispasian laws, those of a dignified culture, and I would not
regress to the ways of some northern savage.

‘Get him out of the way, in there.’ Leana pointed to the nearest door. ‘It is out of sight. I will check the other guards quickly before they recover and bring
attention.’

I opened the door to a side room, which turned out to be an office of some description, then threw the king across the floor, gently closed the door, and watched over him, in an angry silence,
waiting for Leana to return.

Eventually Leana came in and closed the door behind her. ‘Both now dead. I hid the bodies in the temple.’

She lit one of three candles on the desk, while I regarded Licintius once again. In his boots and a dark green outfit that seemed more suited for travelling than the business of state, he looked
like a man who had other plans tonight. I reached down to grab his hair, pulled him up onto his feet and shoved him back into one of the fine leather chairs.

The tip of my sword touched his throat. ‘We have your sister, Lacanta, alive and outside the city walls.’

‘Oh spare me any lectures.’ Blood trickled down his grazed cheek from where he had fallen. ‘I heard from your messengers, and I cannot exactly miss the army that is currently
trying to gain access to my city.’

‘It’s only a matter of time before they get in. The gates will be opened one way or another and, very soon, they’ll march Lacanta back along the roads chanting that she’s
alive and that you, Licintius, deceived the people of Tryum. Your subjects will soon learn to despise you.’

‘So she’s alive,’ he said, showing more calm and control. ‘That should be a time for rejoicing, surely?’

Smiling at his audacity, I said, ‘She’s admitted everything, Licintius, so there really is no point pretending otherwise. You’ll just make yourself look even more
foolish.’

He grunted a laugh.

‘You really had me running about this city, didn’t you.’

‘I would have had you killed right at the start if I’d known how annoying you would become. The Sun Legion have come to my door anyway, so what does it matter now?’

‘Every move I made while still alive contributed to your deception, didn’t it?’

Licintius shrugged, seemingly oblivious to his situation.

‘A man who sleeps with his own sister. The gods would be appalled.’

He glared at me. Once I would have been nervous at such a stare, but not now. ‘When you spoke with Lacanta, did she mention a certain Drakenfeld senior?’

‘She did. I’ve already brought up the matter with my superiors. If the subject is aired, then so be it. It is better to have such things out in the open than burning into my guilty
conscience for the rest of my life.’

‘What a sanctimonious bastard you are. How noble of you. How moral,’ Licintius spat. ‘What now?’

‘We wait it out,’ I replied. ‘The gates will open soon. The soldiers from the Sun Legion will do their business. My superiors will take over the reins. I can finally get some
sleep.’

‘What about me? What will happen to me?’

‘You’ll be put before the men and women of the Senate, where the evidence will be presented. It will be up to your senators to show mercy or not.’

I explained what was known and the process of how his crimes had been exposed. In the end it couldn’t be helped: I had to ask about Titiana.

‘Who?’ he asked.

I described her in more detail, every word of it almost sticking in my throat. ‘I know that she was working for you.’

‘Titiana . . .’ Licintius said. ‘Oh I bet you thought she loved you? How sweet of you. Yes, I wanted someone who knew you, ideally someone who could get close to you, but to
find someone like her, skilled in the arts of subterfuge – that was fortunate. Senator Veron talks so much it was easy enough to find a place to arrange a chance encounter. Your history
together was perfect. She loathed you at first, but then tolerated you, so I understand. The moment she told me all I needed to know . . . Well, one must eliminate all trails. I suppose it is only
fair to let you know she never actually loved you, Drakenfeld. A man needs to know such things.’

I said nothing, simply staring at him, analysing every minute alteration in his expression to see if he might have been lying.

‘What a sentimental young fool you really are.’

Leana placed her hand on my shoulder while I saw Titiana’s hanging body in my mind once again. I considered striking Licintius down, or at least smacking the hilt of my sword across his
forehead.

But dignity must be maintained.

There were still many questions that needed answering and over the following painfully slow hours of darkness I decided to try my luck seeking explanations from the king.
Tiredness might have brought out a side of him that wished to tell the truth.

‘I was impressed by the way you staged Maxant’s death,’ I began. ‘Quite the masterpiece – poisoning him like that, arranging it to look as if he had killed himself.
I know how you did it, I just don’t understand why you did it.’

‘You’ve worked out this much already,’ the king sneered. ‘Are you sure you cannot work out the rest?’

‘I have my theories,’ I said. ‘That you had Maxant killed by some skilled assassin because he had done your dirty work and knew too much for your comfort. Perhaps you did the
job yourself, if you could manage to escape the palace – you managed to sneak down to see those actors often enough. He was the one, after all, who probably killed the priestess in the temple
– on your behalf. You could have had an argument with him; perhaps you never told him why he had to kill the priestess until then. I can imagine all sorts of scenes between the king and his
favourite general.’

‘Vispasia is better off with him dead. He would have wanted to lead his soldiers across to Maristan if he had the chance. You come here making your theories, but you have no idea about the
tide I was holding back. With Maxant among them, those in the Senate would willingly revive the Empire. They’d want us to invade any nearby nation in a heartbeat. I was keeping Detrata in the
Union.’

‘Forgive me for thinking you not the most trustworthy person in the building. So are you admitting you killed him?’

Licintius shrugged off the question.

‘Somehow,’ I continued, ‘you managed to get poison into his food or drink, and he threw it up over himself, didn’t he?’

‘Unreliable things, poisons,’ Licintius said. ‘Who can say how he ended up consuming such a nasty substance?’

‘I know he killed Drullus, too, but I don’t know why that poor actor had to be caught up in all of this.’

‘Young Drullus had played his final role.’

I tried to work it out for myself from those few words. ‘I think I get it now. He was a mouthy disturbance to make people think he had something to do with Lacanta’s death. You hired
him to do that, to be a clever distraction for whoever investigated the matter, to attract attention down-city. One last role to act.’

‘He was a delightful actor, but then I knew sooner or later you might find him. Could he keep a secret? I didn’t want to find out. How did you ascertain that Maxant killed
him?’

I explained about the fresh henbane leaf Maxant had somehow brought with him to the city. ‘And, of course, I only found that out because Maxant himself had been killed. So many deaths,
Licintius. You’ve caused so much pain.’

‘Ah, but my hands did not kill the priestess or Drullus. And you are forgetting one rather valuable thing. There is no law against a king ensuring that people are removed if they pose a
threat to him,’ Licintius muttered. ‘That is our privilege. We are immune to common murder laws, as anyone could be a threat to us. Who are you to argue whom I find to be a threat or
otherwise?’

The sun was about to break free of the rooftops when shouting could be heard, repeated constantly: ‘Lacanta is alive. Your king has deceived you! Lacanta is alive. Your
king has deceived you!’

The voice sounded a little frailer than I had hoped, possibly after having repeated the message a thousand times throughout the city. I could imagine Lacanta in her caged carriage being hauled
through the streets for everyone to see. It would have been a deeply embarrassing and humbling moment for her. Now that it had all ended, I felt an overwhelming sense of exhaustion wash over
me.

Licintius was asleep in his chair; Leana stood behind him with her blade.

‘I’ll go out and see what’s going on,’ I said. ‘Will you be OK?’

Leana nodded.

‘Try not to kill him.’

‘You would not mind if I did,’ she replied. ‘No, I suppose this time I wouldn’t.’

When my name was called loudly from the corridors I ran towards the source. Sun Legion soldiers rushed in. The gates of the city had been opened before dawn and our forces
marched into the city. Only a hundred people had died in the confusion: many of Tryum’s own soldiers had been bought off, but a few others foolishly followed the king’s word rather than
coin.

After the initial position had been secured, hundreds of soldiers filed in and escorted Lacanta’s rolling cage through the streets as the news was called out. Apparently people gaped in
awe: this was the first time many of them had even seen the king’s sister, who was all the more famous since her staged death.

Lacanta and her eunuchs were paraded like the spoils of war through the city to Optryx. She remained outside the residence while soldiers began searching the premises – and that was what
brought them here, to me.

I told them we had Licintius; they told us that Callimar and all his men had been found dead.

Poor Callimar had done so much to help me. Was it wrong of me to feel a little relieved at the fact that their knowledge of my seizures had died with them?

The whole process continued at breathtaking speed. Commissioner Tibus came personally to address the king and placed him under arrest. I’ll never forget seeing his expression falter just
the once at the acknowledgement of what might happen to him.

While our military personnel filled the residence, Licintius was taken to a safe room where he could be placed on suicide watch until his trial. A message went out to every senator of Tryum that
by Vispasian, not Detratan, powers, an emergency session of the Senate would start within the hour. Attendance was mandatory.

However, what Licintius had told me was already starting to haunt me. If he wasn’t bluffing and he was removed from control of the nation – with a warmongering senate taking control
– just what would that mean for Vispasia? What if Detrata without Licintius then wanted to pull out of the Union, the very thing that the Sun Chamber worked so hard to bind together with its
law? Ultimately, in some roundabout way, I could be responsible for that. The thought did not sit well with me.

Many of the Sun Legion’s forces and auxiliaries were present in the upper city, maintaining order surrounding Lacanta’s carriage. There had been one crazed attempt
at freeing her from a fanatic, but he had been killed on the spot and disposed of without further comment. No one else tried after that, though thousands wanted to see her in the carriage.

I gave my statement to the men and women of the Senate, the enormous domed building situated in the heart of Regallum. Veron was sitting in the front row, and made a brief wave before he
maintained his serious countenance. Several rows of benches extended back behind him, each filled with senators.

It seemed strange to repeat all that I’d done in front of the gaze of Licintius and Lacanta, both bound and heavily guarded. Her expression was empty, her shoulders were stooped, and her
skin grubby from travel across the country. In her simple dress she must have felt humbled, having previously been someone used to looking more glamorous in front of the senatorial class.