Page 189 of Sky’s Edge

“There’s more,” he said like it was a warning.

“What more?”

“There are a variety of reasons Aleksei dragged Laura up here. And one of them is that he needed to talk to me about Arnaud.”

Great.

Ar-fucking-naud.

“Okay,” I said so he’d go on.

“After Arnaud took the truth serum and it confirmed his innocence, the prosecutor’s case to try him for the murder of Tula Longshot fell apart. All the physical evidence points to him, but it’s impossible to circumvent the serum. It trumps even physical evidence. In the past, this has exposed frame jobs, and it’s seeming that’s what this is. Arnaud was framed. And it would appear this was done by his own mother. As hideous as that is, it makes sense, because, even if it’s his sickness, all reports were, he loved that girl.”

I felt my stomach curdle at this.

I still nodded.

Tanyn kept on, “The same thing has happened around the Center’s case against him for the troll attack. Therefore, now, there are murmurings they’re going to be forced to release him.”

“Oh no,” I whispered.

“He’s no threat to my crown,” Tanyn assured quickly. “The succession was proved clear, and the Assembly has ratified it. But among the many other irons I have in the fire, we’re investigating a number of issues around Arnaud’s reign. Misuse of funds. Bribes he may have accepted. Disreputable or even perverse associations he may have made and entangled with the crown. Pretty much anything I can use to continue to limit his liberty, because regardless if he is innocent of the crimes he’s been accused of, he’s still a predator.”

He was that, for certain.

“What I can’t do,” Tanyn went on, “as he’s a citizen of the Edge, is disallow him to return here if he’s released by Night’s Fall and the Center.”

“Oh shit.” I was still whispering.

“Agreed,” he replied. “Fillion and Aleksei have made it clear they want him out of the Fall, and although we have open borders, they can revoke permission for him to be there. They’ve done so.”

“Don’t blame them,” I mumbled.

“Anyone can go to the Center. But Arnaud won’t go there. He’ll come here.”

That male was such an ass.

“No doubt,” I agreed.

“I must say, underlining all of this, I just don’t trust him. I’m not sure he was aware of all his mother was up to. But he is not a good and decent male. I can’t retrospectively have him charged with sexual assault of underage females, since he made what he’d done before lawful, even if it’s now changed. But I don’t want to wait to catch him out doing it again.”

“No, we absolutely don’t want to wait for that.”

“And again, I just don’t trust him.”

“I think you’re right in that, however that might come about.”

“There’s more.”

Of course there was.

I rolled a hand to invite him to get on with it.

“Those three advisors of Arnaud’s I told you about?”

I nodded.

“Dagsbrun and Niall have had them brought in. They demanded representation immediately. Didn’t answer that first question. Now, we’re in the process of going through the motions to have them extradited here for questioning. This will certainly take days. It might even take weeks.”