Gavin shifted his gaze to Ovir and held the priest’s eyes with his own for several moments before he said, “That man will not be alive when I leave this estate, Ovir. If you disapprove of my methods, do it yourself. Either way, he dies today.”
“You’re very confident with all your friends around you,” Iosen said. “I’m not about to kneel before you. I demand a wizards’ duel.”
Gavin shifted his gaze to Iosen, his impassive expression shifting almost to a sneer as he said, “You’re a traitor, Sivas. You know it. I know it. The Great Houses know it. What makes you think you have any grounds to demand an honorable duel from me?”
“Sivas is one of the most respected Houses of the Society. Besides, you have no authority to decree my execution. Duel me, or let me leave.”
A hush descended upon the assembled crowd. Gavin and Iosen held each other’s gaze, as those assembled looked back and forth between them.
Gavin spoke a Word, “Thraxys.” Iosen collapsed to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut. Iosen’s wife screamed.
Gavin looked down at the corpse on the ground, his expression stone, and said, “Traitors do not deserve an honorable death.”
Gavin shifted his attention to Iosen’s wife. Tears streamed down her cheeks, and her jaw trembled. She closed her eyes and sank to her knees. Her knees on the grass, shaking hands reached up and pulled her lustrous, dark hair from her neck to rest on her left shoulder. She took a deep breath and opened her eyes to face Gavin.
“I had no part in what Iosen did to you,” she said, “but I supported him in his plot in every way. I don’t want to die, but I will not beg.”
Gavin stood in silence, regarding the woman who knelt and bared her neck for the axe. She trembled, her pallor pale, but she faced Gavin with squared shoulders.
“If you did not die today,” Gavin asked, “what would you do?”
Iosen’s wife blinked and said. “I…I don’t know. My only child became a monster and died for it. My husband lies dead beside me. Before long, it will be known throughout the Society and the Kingdom what we tried to do. I don’t know what there is left for me.”
“Who managed the affairs of the Sivas commercial interests?” Gavin said.
“I did. Iosen made the deals and led his conspiracy, leaving me to pay the bills and ensure our people were fed.”
Gavin nodded. After a few moments, he said, “You do realize that, after today, House Sivas is no more?”
“Yes.”
“Very well,” Gavin said. “You will sign over to me everything you would have inherited as Iosen’s widow, and you will remain as manager of the estate and commercial interests. You will wear plain, simple clothes and sleep with the servants. I shall provide a steward to assist you and, yes, ensure your cooperation. I trust I do not need to explain what awaits you if you speak with the other conspirators or transgress further in any way?”
“I understand,” she said, bowing her head. “I thank you for my life.”
“Starting next month, I want all of your son’s victims to receive a monthly stipend. It will not make them one of the idle rich, but I believe they are owed something. I was going to sell off all the assets I acquired through the duel and split the proceeds between them, but I think this will work out better. Besides, I’m sure there are quite a few people worried about their livelihood just now. What is your name?”
“Layla, sir.”
“Thank you, Layla,” Gavin said. “Go get changed.”
Layla pushed herself to her feet and stripped off the clothes Lady Sivas wore. She turned and walked to the servants’ quarters nude.
Once she was out of hearing range, Gavin turned at Declan and said, “Let’s finish up here. Take the corpse and toss it inside the front door of the manor. Then, get everyone out of the house.”
A few minutes later, Declan returned and nodded once, saying, “The house is clear, except for Sivas’s corpse.”
Gavin turned to the manor house where he would’ve died were it not for his friends. He cleared his mind of everything, except his intent. His intent a crystal-clear picture in his mind, Gavin took a deep breath and invoked a Word of Evocation, “Idluhn.”
The pain that tried to savage Gavin was a pale imitation of the agony he had endured, but the invocation took so much power that Gavin staggered and would have fallen had Ovir and Declan not each taken an arm.
Gavin’s invocation was a complete surprise to Lillian, Braden, Wynn, and Mariana. None of them had the chance to buttress themselves against what was coming, and the resonance of Gavin’s power was an abrupt, vicious bludgeon that drove the air from their lungs and the strength from their legs. They collapsed to their knees, gasping for air and their arms wrapped around their midriffs.
At first, the effect of Gavin’s invocation was not apparent. Soon, though, the stone of the manor house took on a faint red glow as blue flames licked up through the wooden floors, reducing them to ash.
The group watched the flames in silence for several moments. At last, Declan said, “I’m glad the Sivas vault is under that storehouse off to the west, instead of inside the house. That could’ve made problems for your stipend plan until more income arrived.”
Gavin blinked and looked at Declan. “You know…I never once considered where the vault might be.”
More than one person within earshot looked away, hiding a smile or grin.
After a few moments more, Gavin said, “Leave some people to be sure no one tries to go back inside, and send the steward from Kalinor’s estate to keep an eye on her. Oh, and have someone strike Sivas’s name from the gate. Otherwise, we’re finished here. Let’s go home.”
As Gavin turned to find an available mount, Declan reached into a belt pouch and withdrew something, extending his hand to Gavin. Gavin looked down and smiled; a medallion of House Kirloth rested in Declan’s hand, gleaming in the noon-day sun.
Chapter 54
She floated over the city as the besiegers broke through the gates. In mere moments, the disciplined army became a disorganized mob; the sack of the city had begun. She flowed with the mob, witnessing their atrocities…every rape, every murder. She was spared nothing.
The scene before her shifted, and she found herself at eye level with a bound Terris Muran, King of Vushaar. He knelt before a headsman’s block, and the black-hooded man at his right shoulder held a gruesome axe. The rebel leader stepped to the front of the platform.
“People of Vushaar, I-General Sclaros Ivarson-stand before you today as your liberator. I have freed you from the tyrant family that has ruined your lives for thousands of years. King Terris stands before you a captured traitor to the spirit of Vushaar, and we are here today to see that justice is done!” The general turned to the men behind him and nodded. “Begin.”
The headsman pushed Terris down to lay his neck on the block, and he hefted his axe and swung. The image froze with the axe at the apex of its path. A voice resonated throughout the vision, even shaking the mists that formed the vision’s fringe.
“The new year shall herald the fate of Vushaar, but should the Tiger and the Arrow ally, as was in ages past, the Tiger shall be bloodied yet unbroken. You shall know their victory by the golden flame.”
Valera jerked upright, her eyes wide and skin clammy. She gasped for breath while her heart fought to burst open her chest. She lost precious moments realizing she still sat in the Office of the Collegiate Justice. Calming just a bit, she grabbed paper and a stylus, before reaching for the ink bottle. She almost spilled the ink, but she wrote the final words of the dream, reciting them over and over so they would not be forgotten. Valera put the stylus aside and leaned back in the chair once she made sure the words were recorded.