Page 71 of The Omega Thief

Carter lowered the parchment and walked to Raz, handing it over.

Raz didn’t look down. “Read it,” he commanded. He was one word away from ripping Markell to shreds. In fact, his wolf was on board with that plan right now.

“We, the undersigned Emperor Johannas, Sovereign Markell, and Princess Dalia, have received witness testimony that the last trial wasn’t undertaken by the Cadmeera contestant with just his designated companion, and as such, violates the rules of the challenge.”

“He returned within the time limit,” Raz ground out. “We have witnesses to prove—”

But Johannas waved an imperial hand to quiet Raz. The throne room fell silent at such an insult, and slowly, Raz got to his feet. If Johannas felt threatened, it would account for his hasty step back.

“Your Highness, my apologies,” Johannas hastened to say. “I don’t mean in reference to the Neerals. The Abergenny delegation is content that the omega was saving the children’s lives.”

Raz’s heart seemed to stop, then pound in his eardrums. What in seven hells did he mean then?

“If it pleases the judiciary,” Markell simpered to the justices. “I would like to call a witness. He’s a simple farmer of Cadmeera and is here of his own free will.”

Raz glanced at Attiker, but Attiker shook his head as if equally puzzled.

An old man came shuffling in, twirling the cap he’d removed. Raz stopped him when he tried to bow so low he would have fallen over.

At Johannas’s nod, one of the Abergenny officials stepped forward and bowed, then turned to the old man. “I understand you are Joxin Merriman of Angers Sheep Farm out at Fortcross?”

“Aye, Your Empor…er, ship.” If it had been at all funny, Raz would have laughed.

“And do you recognize either of the challenge contestants?”

He nodded at Attiker. “His Highness.”

The official nodded. “And can you tell the assembly what you saw?”

He wrung his cap a few times, but then he launched into the story. “It was last night. I was out making sure my new ewes weren’t about to lamb afore I went home, but then I ‘eard an ‘orse.”

“A horse?”

“Aye, it were raining some’at shockin, but I recognized His Highness fighting with another bloke.”

“Just to be clear, you mean His Highness Attiker Lynch, Omega Consort to His Highness Raz’mar Kinsharae?”

The farmer nodded. “I was gonna interfere on account I had my shotgun for poachers, but I didn’t need to.”

“You didn’t?”

Raz felt Attiker go very, very still.

“No, some assassin crept out of the shadows and finished the other bloke off.”

The official raised his eyebrows. “An assassin?”

“Aye, a woman in a cloak.”

“If she was in a cloak,” Justice Egar interrupted, “how do you know it was a female?”

“Well, I didn’t for sure,” Merriman answered, and Raz allowed a little oxygen into his burning lungs. “But I saw her face an’ His Highness called her a princess.”

Raz’s heart dropped somewhere near his boots. He didn’t dare look at either Attiker or the Rajpur delegation.

“And would you recognize her again, do you think?” the official asked.

Merriman shot Raz a nervous look but nodded.

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