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“I am a warrior, not an assassin.”
“You are friends with one.”
“Gift Collectors do not have friends.”
“They have associates,” Cassia said. “How much do you really know about what Skleros does when he is out of your sight? Although you are his colleague, I am certain he keeps you in the dark as much as possible.”
Lio followed Cassia’s insightful change of course. “Then again, he has been doing, shall we say, unsavory work on your behalf. You must have had to do something for him in return. You know at least a few of one another’s secrets.”
Chrysanthos shot Lio a glance. “Wouldn’t you love for me to answer such questions?”
Cassia gestured around her. “All of us here are expert players at the game board. We all know a token that changes hands once could do so again.”
“Perhaps I am prejudiced, as a Hesperine,” said Lio, “but I would not put it past a Gift Collector who turned on one high-ranking member of the Aithourian Circle to turn on another, as it suits him.”
“Throw him to the liegehounds,” Cassia urged. “You won’t miss him. But you will miss the sun, if the move Skleros made for you comes to the temple’s attention.”
“All my dealings with Skleros are in writing in the Synthikos’s office—next to the records of the Gift Collector’s dealings with Dalos and the Synthikos himself, I might add. I am one of the Synthikos’s mentorees. I do not need to deal under the table to accomplish my ends, and I certainly don’t need to commit murder to attain a promotion. I will without hesitation disclose before this half-baked rebellion and you, upstart Ambassador, that the Aithourian Circle has contracted with a well-qualified Gift Collector of the Order of Hypnos in the name of cooperating against Hesperine aggression.”
That Chrysanthos disclosed anything showed he was on the defensive. Lio touched his medallion. “Was it Hesperine aggression that nearly cost the Council of Free Lords their lives? Is it Hesperine aggression that has sabotaged Tenebra’s every effort at peace with Orthros?”
A chorus of “nays” around the table supported him.
“Really?” Chrysanthos demanded. “You have convinced the Tenebransyouare protectingthemfrom their own gods?”
“You, young man, are not the gods,” the Semna said.
Benedict stamped his feet. The shadowy room filled with the rhythm of Tenebran applause. Cassia joined in on her side of the table, while Lio clapped his hands just out of the Dexion’s sight. Chrysanthos’s heart pounded faster.
Callen laid his scythe on the table with a clang, and the applause hushed. “My lady could have died at the Equinox Summit.”
Benedict leaned forward. “You’d best make it clear whether you were in favor of Dalos’s assassination—or the man who killed him and stopped it.”
“We now know everything about your circle’s plan to destroy the nobility,” Lord Gaius said. “Now would be a wise time for you to abandon it.”
“You believe these Hesperine lies?” Chrysanthos demanded.
Eudias spoke for the first time. “They’re not Hesperine lies.”
Chrysanthos’s gaze swiveled to him. “I told Dalos he never should have wasted his time on you.”
“I told them everything,” Eudias shot back. “Basilis, Callen, Perita—all the Tenebrans who witnessed Dalos’s activities at Solorum confirmed it.”
“We believe their statements given under oath before the gods,” said Lord Gaius, “and yes, we believe the ambassador’s account, too.”
Lord Severin joined in. “We also believe you were standing unharmed while we nearly died in an avalanche and subsequent heart hunter attack. It was the Hesperines who saved us then, too.”
“Thank you for your trust, allies from Tenebra,” Lio said. “You see, Dexion, I have explained the precise details of the Hesperine embassy’s duel with Dalos to the Tenebrans. I have withheld nothing. I have offered them evidence that Dalos tried to assassinate everyone there with a massive fire spell and that we tried to stop him with a ward.”
“Your ward spell made his power rebound on him,” Chrysanthos said. “You killed him.”
“Our ward spell prevented his power from harming the Summit attendees. However, we were not the cause of his death.”
“You may twist those events in the minds of the Tenebrans, but such wiles will not work on me.”
“During our duel with him,” Lio went on, “the evidence of his condition was dramatic. You revealed your true affinity before the Firstblood Circle in a deliberate reclamation of your power, which summoned your magic to its natural place within you. When Dalos attempted the same, it was as if a break occurred inside him, and uncontrolled power was unleashed. His magic was fearsome in its power—unnaturally so. Unstable spells raged forth from him and struck our senses in disparate barrages.”
Chrysanthos sat very still, his breathing quiet. He was actually listening.
