Page 175 of House of Embers
“We still need Amond,” Darby said through her tears.
“Fordham went to get him. We’ll do all we can.”
Darby nodded and squeezed her hand. “I can’t believe I did that.”
“I can,” Kerrigan told her with a sad smile. “You’ve always been brilliant.”
It was a painful twenty minutes as more soldiers died from the blast before Fordham returned with Amond, who took over for Darby, checking Clover’s wounds and then smiling at his pupil.
“You did it exactly right. She’ll live. She’ll have a nasty scar, and we won’t know about long-term side effects until she fully recovers, but I couldn’t have done it better myself.”
Darby cried all over again.
Dragons landed all around them, Kerrigan’s generals forming up around her. Wynter and Dozan together, breaking the news about Audria and Roake. Zina hobbling over to explain about how Mendy had fallen. Noda and Viviana leaned on each other. Viviana’s side had been clawed through by a dragon, and Amond had already patched her up as best he could. Fallon crossed his arms and declared that he preferred his book and fashion to the battle.
They’d all been through it. Not one of them had made it out without a scar. Physical or otherwise, they would hold what had happened here today inside them forever.
“What do we do now, Kerrigan?” Viviana asked with a wince.
“Plans, princess?” Dozan teased.
“Of course she has a plan,” Wynter said with a smirk.
“My love?” Fordham asked as she looked away from them toward the mountain that housed the Society.
“We live.”
Chapter Sixty-Three
The War Tribunal
At the end, the Society fell the way Bastian had—with some garbled words and then silence.
Kerrigan’s team took over Draco Mountain, declaring their victory. There was no resistance within the mountain. The guards had been emptied to defend the streets and the arena. The Society members who remained had been in the air with their unbonded dragons. Many had fled and were still being hunted down to be held accountable. It was a long process.
The decision of what to do with the council members had already been made before they left for their fight. Should they kill them all along with Bastian? Should they put them up for trial? Kerrigan had voted for trial. It had been a close vote, but she’d won.
Today, the official military war tribunal had been cast for the first Red Masks trials, which was to decide the fate of the nineteen council members who had sat on the council for Bastian and the Red Masks. Alura was the only one exempt, as she was a double agent for Kerrigan.
They’d wanted Kerrigan to sit on the tribunal, but she had declined. She couldn’t possibly remain impartial to their crimes. A new government council was a different story. She wanted to be a partof that. But declaring whether these cowardly Fae had done enough to deserve death belonged to someone else.
Especially since people were still upset that she had let Isa go.
Many believed Isa should be up on charges with the council members. Kerrigan allowing her to wander off after killing Bastian, no matter the circumstances, had probably been enough to keep her out of the tribunal.
So they had set up a group of judges—two Fae, two half-Fae, two humans, two dragons, and one elected head of council. In the end, Kerrigan had only met Islay from the drifters and Dyta from the dragons. The head of council ended up being the dragon speaker, Lowan, of all people. Kerrigan considered that fair.
They’d deliberated for hours after days of testimony from the accused. Now they all held their breaths to find out the verdict.
Fordham squeezed her hand. “Maybe we should have just killed them all.”
“We wanted it to be just. We wanted an account of all that had happened. We wanted everyone toknowthe crimes of the Red Masks, to not be able to turn a blind eye to the atrocities.”
And atrocities there were, in spades. More than Kerrigan could ever bear to consider. Tens of thousands dead, thousands more imprisoned on false charges, more drained of their magic and left practically brain-dead after the loss. Homes were looted, people displaced, property seized. The Dregs were still on fire from their destruction.
Bastian had done this.
Kerrigan had not stopped him in time.
