I inhale sharply, following Jax’s movements until he stands in the center of the room. The Ezkai who brought him here step away from him immediately. I could kill someone right about now, that’s how furious I am at the corruption that runs deep in my Order.
All those emotions evaporate in the blink of an eye when Jax lifts his head just high enough to look at me for the briefest moment. The emptiness in his dark gaze robs me out of breath.
It hits me then.
Jax doesn’t expect to be saved.
He isn’t waiting for mercy.
He’s waiting for the end.
I tear my gaze away before I lose myself in the grief. The attention in the room has shifted. I don’t have to open my senses to read the room.
House Dzuni smell the blood in the water.
And they’re ravenous.
I lift my chin and in a voice so cold I barely recognize it, say, “Ekios demands judgment. Let it be given.”
Noire pulls out a parchment roll from his robes and steps forward. His shadows swirl around his neck and wrists in anticipation.
“Noble House Dzuni,” Noire says, his voice carrying easily through the tribunal, “you stand convened under the ancient laws of Ekios to hear judgment for a crime without pardon.”
My pulse races. The urge to fidget is irresistible, but somehow I manage to remain still as a statue carved from coldest marble.
Noire unfurls the parchment with deliberate care.
“Jax Kregger of Emera stands accused of the highest crime known to our land.”
Noire’s gaze flicks briefly to Jax, then back to nobles. Jax doesn’t stir. He’s so still I’m not even sure he’s breathing.
“The willful assassination of the Ezkai General Kitajo Hiromasa, a life bound to the spirits of the gods, chosen through the ancient trials, and sworn to serve and protect people of Ekios.”
A heavy pause.
I watch the faces of the nobles seated in the auditorium. Some look on with frowns between their eyebrows, with sad eyes. Some have their lips curled in snarls, and others are impossible to read.
Like Nobleman Uringi.
I’m aware he dislikes me, was never fond of supporting a human Decarios as his Ezkai General. But he’s one of Vera’s loyal noble circle. Noire assured me he’d vote in our favor.
“By committing an assassination, the accused did not merely take a life. He severed a divine bond, disrupted sacred succession, and cast Ekios into sanctioned chaos.”
Noire’s shadows at his neck flicker. I hope it’s only for the show, and not a sign of something bad.
Noire lowers the parchment and levels his gaze at the nobles. “The punishment Ekios laws demand is not vengeance. It is restitution. A life must answer for a life taken as our tradition calls.”
I let the silence settle before I speak.
“Thank you, Taaslord,” I say. “Jax Kregger owes Ekios a life. And he will deliver it.”
My eyes sweep over the nobles in auditorium.
“As ancient law dictates, a willing life may be bound to that of the Ezkai General as restitution.”
Hushed chatter ripples through the chamber.
I brace myself.
