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Jadren frowned, though thoughtfully this time.“Now there’s a greater challenge.I don’t know how you’d accomplish that without going to the well.”Nic had said the same thing, so Gabriel nodded.“Perhaps a device that could be installed in the well,” Jadren mused.“What other ideas do you have?”
Reflexively, Gabriel glanced at Nic, the font of revenue-producing ideas.“Nic?”
“Waterproof footwear and clothing,” she reminded him.“Perhaps Wizard Dahlia can collaborate?”She smiled down the table at the Ophiel fabric wizard who, having been listening to the conversation along with everyone else, looked intrigued.
“Familiars should be seen and not heard,” Jadren snapped dismissively.The entire table fell silent, only the proctor looking pleased.
Gabriel held onto his temper with a silver sliver of control.“You will respect Lady Phel,” he instructed quietly.
Jadren’s lip curled.“I realize you are ignorant of Convocation ways, Lord Phel.”Jadren made it sound like a fatal personal failing.“But I would advise you to have a care how much leash you give your familiar.Such laxity could turn out very badly for you.”
Gabriel sat back, considering the man, acutely aware of the raptly listening audience, and Nic’s plentiful advice on playing arrogant Lord Phel who must keep his minions suitably cowed.He also felt Nic’s intent gaze on the side of his face, burning with warning.“You are inmyhouse, Wizard Jadren,” he said softly.“House Phel is mine, as are the rules.I am thoroughly uninterested in your opinion of my rules, but I do require that you follow them.You are, of course, free to decline my contract and depart.”
It seemed the entire room held their breath.Jadren narrowed his eyes.“You don’t have the latitude you seem to think you do, Lord Phel,” he replied, not putting the threat into words, but implicitly reminding Gabriel of the enchanted dagger—evidence of license infringement—that Lady El-Adrel kept in custody to compel House Phel’s acceptance of her agent.“Your house is still on probationary status.Would you truly risk that to coddle a familiar?”
Down the table, the proctor leaned forward, expression keen with curiosity.Nic didn’t move, but Gabriel felt her alarm prickle along his skin.
“For my wife?Yes.”Turning to Nic, he took her hand.“You, and everyone who wishes to be a member of House Phel, will treat Lady Phel with the respect and deference due her station as an equal head of this house.”Nic’s hand spasmed in his, but he squeezed it, casting his gaze down the table to ensure everyone present knew they were included in this edict.Nic wanted him to be king of this castle?Then he would be, particularly on this.There were some concessions he simply would not make, not even as a pretense.
Jadren’s face was a picture of incredulity.“You’d destroy everything, forher?”
“No,” Nic said at the same time he said, “Yes.”
He caught and held her gaze.“I don’t care what the Convocation says about familiars,” he told her, then deliberately looked down the table at the proctor.“In Meresin, everyone is a person first, and their magical inclination second.If you don’t like that, you are welcome to depart.Immediately.”
“You might’ve waited until they all signed the NDA,” Nic muttered, but emotion shone in her green eyes, and it wasn’t anger.
He smiled at her.He might’ve started this venture to restore House Phel, but she’d become the means and the meaning.Without her, it could all sink back into the marsh.Besides, the proctor would never have signed the NDA anyway.Nic had accused him of wanting to go to war with the Convocation, and that wasn’t wrong.It was also sounding better all the time.
Jadren sat back in his chair, a strange expression on his face.“I can’t decide if you’re courageous or a fool.”
“Lord Phel can be both,” Asa noted wryly, without rancor, and Gabriel found himself unexpectedly grinning back at the healer.
“Regardless,” the proctor spoke up, her voice ringing with authority, “the Convocation’s laws take precedence over house rules, Lord Phel.You are already on tenuous ground, given your nonstandard bonding of your own familiar and your house’s willful concealment of an untapped rogue familiar, jeopardizing her health and sanity.Those are grave trespasses, Lord Phel, and the Convocation will not take them lightly when I report back.I will verify that you have no regard for Convocation law.You won’t have to be concerned with Lady Phel when your house status is revoked and both Lady Veronica Elal and Seliah Phel are taken into protective custody by the Convocation.”She smiled in smug triumph.
Gabriel gave her a cold look, barely containing the urge to kill.
“Don’t do it,” Nic warned under her breath, clutching his hand tightly.Someone gasped as silver condensed in the air, shimmering down onto the table like a gentle rain.
“Why are you still here?”he asked the proctor conversationally.
She lifted her chin.“As you are well aware, Lord Phel, I’m awaiting the return of your sister, so that I can—”
“That’s not what I’m asking,” Gabriel said, cutting her off and, letting go of Nic’s hand, rising to his feet.More silver condensed in the air, along with a silver spike that hovered menacingly before the proctor’s right eye.Outside, the downpour increased, thundering on the roof high overhead.“What confuses me,” he added silkily, “is why you value your own life so little.”
Her mouth fell open.“You wouldn’t dare!”
He solidified a second silver spike to hover before her left eye.“By your own words, you’ve judged me as a scofflaw.And you’re right.I don’t care about Convocation law, which means you have no protection.”
“Murdering a Convocation proctor would result in…” She trailed off.
“The same consequence you just threatened,” Sage Quinn put in softly.“Lord Phel, with all due respect, I feel I must point out that everyone in this room would be judged an accessory to that murder if we don’t attempt to stop you.”
“How can we stop him?”Jadren asked in a newly respectful and hushed tone.“Look at what he’s doing.And he’s not even touching his familiar right now.This is all him.That’s serious power.”
“The Convocation won’t see it that way,” Wolfgang, the Ratisbon furniture wizard observed, sounding not at all concerned, though he put a comforting arm around his familiar, Costa.
“Lord Phel.”Nic had risen to her feet also.“You’ve made your point.”
