And Jellan considered, if these men weren’t so pleasing to look upon, it would have been irritating.

Fortunately for them, they were pleasing to look upon.

This thought swept from his head as he entered the room, took in its occupants, and came to a swaying halt at experiencing at once all he surveyed.

For on the podium in the front, sitting in thrones side by side, were Cassius and Elena.

But also, to Cassius’ left, sat Mars and Silence.

To their left, sat True and Farah, though in between True and Silence sat a large, striking man with black hair that Jellan had never seen before.

And to Elena’s right, sat Aramus and Ha-Lah.

Through the people standing about the room, Jellan could just see Princess Serena seated at the step up to the podium, close to her sister’s feet.

Serena had one foot to the floor, leg bent, one foot to the dais, that leg bent as well, her forearm resting atop that knee, and her eyes, as well as the attention of all the others, was on the man standing on the floor before the thronal platform.

As he had their backs, Jellan couldn’t tell if he knew many of the people in the room, however he had been in that room before, and he was again stunned at the change of it with its carpets and pennants—and everywhere you looked—color.

However, as great a change as this was, it barely registered on him for Gallienus, in a tatty, loose, ill-fitting, and not all that clean outfit of matching pants and tunic of nondescript color was apparently in full bluster.

“Stop,” Cassius demanded of his father before Jellan had heard a word the ill-kempt king was saying. “You committed multiple acts of treason against your own realm.”

Jellan blinked rapidly.

“And naught you’re saying is giving me reason not to take your head,” Cassius finished.

Take his head?

By the gods.

Cassius turned his attention to someone else standing before him that Jellan could not see.

“Your castle is gone,” he stated. His gaze went to someone else Jellan couldn’t see. “Your manor is gone.” Another shift from Cassius. “And your keep. I’ll not have any universities or hospitals if things keep going at this rate. My peoples are in awe of the show of the dragons, but really, I tire of it. It is time to move on. But if we must, you’ve seen the list. The guards who were assisting you at the Bailey have been apprehended and now grace their own cells. We know the name of every lord who sat council in Dunlyn against me. The dragons will fly, but I’ll also be forced to send word to the executioner to sharpen his blade.”

“You have my capitulation,” one of the men Jellan could not see at the front called.