“I may have overestimated your intelligence, Adsden. I thought I already made myself clear on this point,” Rezkin replied with a raised brow.

The interloper’s calm demeanor unnerved the second. He appeared to have absolutely no compunctions with leveling threats in the middle of the Serpents’ Guildhouse with nothing but a terrified boy for support. “And, you have,” Adsden quickly assured the new leader. “But, you understand, I have to ask,” he said with a nod toward the men standing at the door. Both men shifted nervously as they glanced back and forth between the second and the stranger. “If I do not at least make an effort, the others will talk, and people will question my decision to acknowledge you as leader.”

“Either of you two care to protest?” Rezkin asked.

The swordsman glanced at his companion. “No, sir. If Adsden says we follow you, then we’ll follow you. Don’t matter to me whether it’s you or him,” he said with a lift of his chin toward the dead man. “Seein’ as how I don’t know you, I can’t say you’ll be better, but at least you seem to have some skill to back you up. You didn’t have no problem dealing with Urek, but that ain’t sayin’ much. The only reason we didn’t do something sooner was cause of the marquis. What do you plan to do about him?”

Rezkin shrugged off the man’s concern. “The marquis is not a problem. I have everything I need to keep him in line. Let us get to business.”

“Might I suggest that for our first order of business we take care of him,” Adsden said, indicating the corpse. In truth, Adsden was very concerned about the marquis’s reaction. Urek had never shared with Adsden how exactly he kept in the marquis’s good graces, but he was not surprised to hear the stranger’s earlier assertion that it was some sort of blackmail. That the young man claimed to know the secret did surprise him.

“Fine. Have him removed,” Rezkin ordered. “In fact, deliver him to the marquis. Put him in a wagon with a wreath.”

“A wreath, sir?” asked the swordsman. “Like … flowers?”

“Yes, a large arrangement of white lilies with a single crimson rose in the center,” Rezkin stated.

“That is very … specific,” observed Adsden. “Does it have some meaning?”

“The marquis will get the message. If he is smart, he will stay out of our way.”

“If he is not?” asked the second.

“Then he will be dead. I have no problem with removing the marquis. In fact, I may still do so. His son is a far better man and would do the position justice. For now, though, Addercroft may be of use to us,” Rezkin explained.