Page 64 of By Mistake
"Humans don't strictly require most of the foods they eat.Like wine and cake and shrimp crackers," Kressen replied dryly."Renik once drank all the beer in a tavern, left not a single drop.Paid so much for it that the owner started crying.It was pathetic.Renik, not the tavern owner."
Andrus laughed."So what do you like, other than wine?"
Kressen gave him a look that said he would not be answering that question.
"Cretins always get beauty they don't deserve," Markus, Alina's husband, said with a sigh as he watched Farthing move around the room like a hungry barracuda."He and I were friends for a few years in school.Back then, he seemed like a genuinely good person.Then he turned completely fucking rotten.To this day, I still don't know if the kind version was ever real.Suppose it doesn't really matter at this point."
Movement caught Andrus's eye, and then Shimari was standing amongst them."I don't like that choker he's wearing."
"Nor I, but he's got it so well shielded, I cannot get a read on it," Kressen replied."There's something else on him, shielded and strange.Either he knows he is going to be arrested, or he's rampantly paranoid.Or both, I suppose."
"Be careful," Shimari said."With every second, I like this less and less.I do not think you should arrest him here."
Alina's mouth flattened."Spectacles must be made to prevent greater problems in the future."
"Problems like that don'tstop," Shimari replied contemptuously."They simply get sneakier.But have it your way.I hope you are prepared to live with the blood that will stain your hands."He slipped away again, gone as suddenly as he'd appeared.
Kressen bowed and faded off, weaving through the crowd, effortlessly balancing a wine-laden tray for people to take from.
Andrus sighed, because if Shimari was this upset, they should be listening to him.They should be heeding his advice, anyway, but especially if he was so upset.But Alina had made the decision, and Oranti was not contesting it, and so they would do things her way.
Turning to Captain Nesira of the Royal Guard standing nearby, ready and waiting, Alina gave a bare nod.Nesira strode off, and moments later returned leading ten guards, forming two lines behind her.As they slowly drew attention, the ball came to a standstill, even the music cutting off abruptly.
Farthing, speaking with his wife and another person Andrus did not recognize, turned around slowly.In a voice more frigid than winter, he asked, "What is the meaning of this?"
"Lord Grell Farthing, you are under arrest," Nesira said, and read off the list of charges, everything from harassment and assault to bribery, abuse of prisoners, and more.When she reached out to take hold of him, he snarled and jerked away."You have no proof of any of that, and I will not be made a spectacle of just because some tart has the king's golden child by his dick."
"Take it up with the judge," Nesira said coldly, and made to grab him again as her guards fanned out into a circle, forcing everyone else even further back than they'd already retreated.
Farthing's wife stared, face ashen, eyes wide, and even from a distance, Andrus could see she was trembling.That…seemed a peculiar reaction.What had her so terrified?
Before he could voice the question, Farthing bellowed and shoved Nesira so hard she went flying back at least a dozen paces, taking two of her guards with her, their attempts to catch and stop her completely in vain.
Oresti swore and surged forward."Stop it, Farthing!"
"Get out!"Shimari bellowed."Everybody get out!"
Instead of Farthing, it was his wife who was suddenly in front of Oresti, eyes glowing yellow, tears streaming down her face.She moved strangely, as though her body wasn't her own, but controlled by puppet strings.
Oresti dodged and weaved her shockingly fast movements before finally slamming a hand over her face and doing something that made her drop unconscious to the ground.
While that happened, Farthing had three other puppets dealing with the guards.He stood in the midst of still more, as though he'd had these people under his control the whole time, simply waiting to use them.Or had he been using them all along?
Doors slammed shut as people still attempted to flee.
"Stop this at once!"Alina bellowed.
Drawing Farthing's attention.
"Run!"Oresti bellowed over his shoulder, then shoved his way past more puppets bound for Farthing—and getting slammed with some sort of dark, burning orange light that sent him tumbling like a rag doll across the room.
"Oresti!"
Farthing snarled, knocking everyone out of his way.The orange light seemed to surround him like armor, but also like another puppet or something, taking the crude shape of a body that surrounded his.He made straight for Alina, throwing out orange light that caught her as she was nearly to the door, right behind her father.
She wailed in agony as it caught her, dropping to the ground in a pool of rapidly growing blood.
"Alina!"Oresti screamed.
