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“Thank you, Mistress Corinna,” Kerrigan said with a small bow.
“We’re going to take the Red Mask here to the dungeons under the mountain, where he can’t do anyone harm ever again.” Corinna easily towered over Kerrigan, but when she held her hand out to shake, she did it as equals. “You and I are going to have a talk with the council about what happened here tonight.”
53
The Ruling
Kerrigan’s hair had slipped free of its ribbon. Her pale skin was covered in ash. Her eyes and lungs ached from inhaling the smoke that every inch of her smelled like. Her knees protested her harsh landing. Still, she held her head high as Tieran dropped her off into the arena, and she walked toward the waiting group of council members.
She counted seventeen out of the twenty in total. But even better, behind them stood her friends. Darby waved excitedly. Hadrian bit his lip, clearly anxious about what was to come. Clover was smoking a loch cigarette, brazen as ever. Valia stood next to Bastian. Her eyes wide with concern. Kerrigan felt a twinge of regret. She nodded her head at Valia in apology, who nodded back in acceptance, and then Kerrigan focused her attention back to the council.
Fordham, Audria, and Mistress Corinna dropped off their dragons and fell into step beside her. Almost a team—at least united in their cause.
Kerrigan was nervous, but she couldn’t show it. She came to a stop before Lorian and Helly and Bastian and the fourteen other members who sat on the high council.
“Before you begin,” Mistress Corinna said, “I would like to speak freely, if that is all right.”
“Go ahead, Corinna,” Helly said.
“Most of the Society members responded to the call for aid by flying to put out the fires rampaging the streets. My guards were in the streets, rescuing others from the burning buildings and trying to put down the riot, which had been engineered by a group of Red Masks. Unfortunately, most of them escaped. But Kerrigan entered the riot ring and went up against their leader, unprompted. She could have been injured or even killed, but she showed determination and fearlessness in the face of adversity. She stopped the leader, recovered the illegal magical artifact he had been using to generate lightning-bolt levels of destruction, and apprehended him. We are taking him to the dungeons, currently as a war criminal, and it is thanks to Kerrigan that we are able to do this,” Corinna said, point-blank. “She proved herself today, and I would be proud to call her a Society member.”
The council members began to whisper back and forth to each other, and Lorian coughed.
“Great. She knows how to disobey orders and enter a war zone that could have gotten many others killed. Just what we need.”
“We need free thinkers,” Corinna interjected. “People who will jump into action and not stay behind and let others fight their battles.”
Lorian reared back at the words, but they weren’t wrong. Lorian had a lot of bark but not much bite.
“Kerrigan, do you have anything to add?” Helly asked. “About the incident or your admittance into the competition.”
“I think everyone here knows that I belong in the Society at this point,” Kerrigan said boldly. “I went through testing with Gelryn. He passed me through. I was accepted into the room. I have a dragon. And now, I’m defending the city like any Society member should. But not just that, I was doing it long before any of you knew about it. My friend Lyam was killed in the Dregs, and everyone was content to say that it was just an accident—wrong place, wrong time, a senseless robbery. That the Dregs are bad, and it was no surprise, just tragic. But why should it have to be? The Dregs don’t have to be like that. We can fix them, make people’s lives better. Worse than that, Lyam wasn’t just killed; he was murdered by Basem Nix.”
A gasp went through the crowd. Helly nodded. Lorian pursed his lips.
“I discovered that he had been plotting to kill me as well. I rescued a hostage from his clutches, and the Society was supposed to bring him in on murder charges. Instead, he escaped and just tried to burn down the Artisan Village as the leader of the Red Masks! Now, he’s in Guard custody, thanks to me, and we can finally question him and put an end to this systemic problem.” Kerrigan held her hands out before her. “I don’t see why it’s even a question as to whether or not I should join unless some of you are just prejudiced against half-Fae.” She let the words linger. “And that’s not good enough.”
Her friends burst into applause, and more applause rang out in the arena. She hadn’t realized how easily her voice carried. That so many had been listening to her. But she saw more people nodding along in agreement than looking like they had just sucked on a lemon, like Lorian.
