“You can’t stay here.”

“Where would I go?” He patted the wall. His fingers left no mark in decades of impacted soot. “Forty years, this place has been my home. There’s something to be said for the familiar.”

“Maybe.” Viktor limped to the filthy window and stared out across Tressia. “My whole life I’ve fought for the Republic. Now? I wonder whether I should have been fighting at all.”

“That depends. Why did you fight?”

“Because those were my orders.”

Elzar scratched the back of his head. “Don’t give me that. Why did you fight?”

“To defend those who couldn’t.”

Elzar’s smile was weary. “And that’s your answer. Don’t mistake the people for the Republic. Fighting for one needn’t mean fighting for the other. But you already knew that, else you’d never have gotten into this mess.”

Viktor laughed. A flash of pain dulled the mirth on his lips and he pressed a hand to his side. The fingers came away bloody.

“So much for your healing touch,” he breathed.

“I told you before – it takes a rare talent to make magic lower itself to knitting flesh. I don’t have it.” Elzar sniffed and fished a rag from his desk. “But if you want to try for yourself . . . ?”

Viktor ignored the quizzical eyebrow. His shadow had been silent ever since escaping the vaults, and it certainly had no gift for healing.

“I’ll give you another chance, old man. Just try to keep my insides on the inside.”

“What in Lumestra’s name do you think you’re doing, Ebigail?” roared Hadon Akadra.

It was Apara’s first glimpse of his lordship so near. She’d seen him before from a distance, giving one pompous speech or another in the Hayadra Grove. She’d always written him off as just one more arrogant noble – all wind and no fury. Up close, she realised that she’d been very much mistaken, and darted across the Council chamber to block his path.

Lord Akadra barely spared her a glance. It might have been otherwise if Apara had still worn the raven-cloak rather than the plain tunic of a Freemont hearthguard, but its presence would have invited too many questions best left unanswered.

Ebigail brushed Apara aside. “I should have thought that was obvious, Hadon. Even to you. I am giving the Republic much-needed direction.”

He drew up on the far side of the table and glared daggers at her. “And what of the Council?”

“As of this morning, you and I are the Council. I’ve given orders for the arrest of Malachi Reveque and Josiri Trelan, and Josiri Akadra – we’ll have no more bungling in that regard, I can assure you.”

“On what grounds?”

“Their association with your heretic son. I assured Captain Horden you and I were of like mind on this issue.”