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Eudias cleared his throat. “Ambassador Deukalion is rather difficult to sway from his course, once he has set it.”
“I wasn’t supposed to formally receive him until after Princess Solia’s arrival tomorrow.”
“I’m afraid it cannot wait.”
“Hadria is breathing down my neck and Severitas is shouting in my face. I cannot afford for a Hesperine to step out of line. And if violence has erupted in the camp, I certainly don’t have time for diplomatic blather. Ben, go find out what happened.”
Eudias said nothing more. The door swung open to reveal Benedict, about to charge out to meet the threat. He stopped short, his eyes widening.
Lio must have made precisely the right impression for this diplomatic encounter, because Benedict backed out of Lio’s way in haste.
Lio did not send the door slamming back against the wall. He did not announce his epithets or offices. He was above such posturing. He strode into Flavian’s solar in complete silence.
But the feral Craving in him was still gratified when Flavian jumped to his feet and staggered back, keeping his desk between them.
Flavian’s solar was an ancient room, more drafty than stately, appointed with impressive furniture and an unimpressive man. Tenebra’s paragon of manhood looked as he had in Cassia’s memories, well-dressed and athletic, with the chestnut hair of the Segetian line. But his cocky charm was nowhere to be seen now. He stared at Lio with bloodshot eyes and ran a nervous hand over his unshaven chin.
With Lyros a quiet threat at his side, Lio laid Flavian’s fallen soldier out before him on the large desk. “What was his name?”
Flavian’s gaze dropped to the sentry, and a grimace of regret crossed his face. “Aw, gods. Hamon.”
“Did he have a family?” Lio asked.
Flavian heaved a sigh. “My men were his family. He’s one of our best. Was.”
Eudias rested an unsteady hand on Hamon’s brow and said a blessing in the Divine Tongue. A glyph of Anthros gleamed to life on the man’s pallid skin.
Benedict echoed with a prayer to Andragathos, but did not sheath his sword. “Who did this? I don’t see a wound on him.”
“It was necromancy,” Lio stated.
Flavian looked to Eudias for confirmation, and the mage nodded.
“How is that possible?” Flavian protested. “The necromancers the Temple of Hypnos sent to attend the Council are all trusted Tenebran mages. They’re village undertakers, not assassins.”
“This was the work of a Gift Collector,” Lio said. “Skleros, the same master necromancer who tried to undermine our negotiations with the Allied Lords.”
Flavian’s expression hardened. “And what is a Gift Collector doing at Patria? Is it a coincidence that he appeared the same night as a Hesperine, and that one of my men got caught in the middle?”
It seemed Flavian was working on finding his spine, but his men deserved a better defense than their lord blaming someone else for this tragedy.
Lio said, “The Gift Collector has been here all along. He strolled through your perimeter days, perhaps weeks ago. I am the reason he is gone.”
Flavian rested his hands on the desk and leaned forward over Hamon’s remains. “I ask again, what was an assassin of Hesperines doing in my camp?”
Lio stood calmly. “The same thing he was doing at the Solstice Summit in Orthros. Sabotaging King Lucis’s enemies for the Orders.”
Lyros asked, “What information might Skleros have extracted from Hamon that he could report to the king and Cordium?”
Flavian shook his head. “I find it doubtful that an expert necromancer from the Magelands would attack my sentry when his Hesperine prey is within reach.”
“With respect, Lord Flavian,” Lyros continued, “would not Hamon have known everyone who entered Patria from his checkpoint? That information would be tempting to the king and his allies. It could help them determine which lords are siding with you, or how many of their allies have joined the Full Council to vote in Lucis’s favor.”
“What else did Hamon know?” Lio pressed. “Was he privy to any of your meetings with the Allied Lords?”
“No,” Flavian snapped. “He was a foot soldier, not a commander. But a loyal one. That’s why I entrusted him with the task of overseeing who entered that part of the perimeter.”
It was as Lio had suspected. This had been a warning shot from the Collector. He had not yet infiltrated Flavian’s inner circle, but he would not stop at perimeter sentries.
