Page 176 of House of Embers
They all deserved to burn. And still she was glad that it was out of her hands.
Lowan returned to his seat at the head of the tribunal. “As for the case of the ten council members,” he said, listing out the first ten, “who are charged with a litany of crimes against the state including…” Then he droned on with the page-long list of war crimes. “We find them guilty of all charges.”
A gasp went up around the room.
“And we sentence them to death by hanging.”
Another gasp. The ten council members who had admitted to their crimes and had shown zero remorse just stared forward. They had been emotionless to this point, almost reveling in what they had done. They deserved this death.
“For the nine remaining council members,” he said, listing their names, “who were charged with crimes including aiding and abetting the fall of a government…” Then he continued down his list of additional charges that were only slightly less severe than the first set. “We find them not guilty of all but the first charge.”
Kerrigan’s mouth dropped open. How was that possible? Had they not heard the testimony that they had delivered? They had been involved. They haddonethis. Maybe not as terrible as the others but…
Fordham put his hand on her shoulder and pushed her back down. “You wanted justice.”
“Yeah, but…”
Lowan called over the angry voices. “You have been sentenced to life in prison.”
Kerrigan’s ears were ringing as everyone wanted to have their voices heard about the outrage. She had wanted justice. Fordham was right. This didn’t feel like justice. This didn’t feel like sliding her blade through their chest. But she wasn’t an assassin. She was a leader. And sometimes leaders did things they did not enjoy.
This would always be one of them.
“Come on,” Fordham said, taking her hand.
Together they left the courtroom behind and navigated the mountain. She needed to walk off her anger. Lowan knew what he was doing. So did Islay and Dyta and the other tribunal members, and still it infuriated her.
“Justice,” she grumbled.
“You wanted them alive.”
“I know. I know.”
Fordham slid his fingers into hers and kissed her hand. “We’ll make do.”
“I wish we’d found Benton and Bayton,” she said instead of dealing with her roiling emotions about the tribunal.
“There were no humans or half-Fae in the mountain.”
Kerrigan sighed. “Does that mean he killed them all or they fled?”
Fordham shook his head. “Even the council members couldn’t give a satisfactory answer to that.”
“I can’t live not knowing.”
“We’ll get to the bottom of it. We haven’t been able to leave for dealing with all these problems,” Fordham said. “I’ve barely even been back to the House of Shadows. They may be in hiding.”
“They could be anywhere.”
“We’ll keep looking,” he promised. “Now, come with me. Your next appointment awaits.”
A second later, they jumped from their position deeper into the heart of the mountain. Kerrigan hadn’t been in this room yet. Her hand rested on the door, and she almost couldn’t manage it. But then Fordham covered her hand, turning the knob and opening the door.
There was the portal door. She’d jumped through it twice. Once to join Fordham in the final of the dragon tournament. Once to fall through to Domara.
Bastian had done a hell of a job trying to break the portal. The shimmery iridescence that normally revealed the permanent portal was gone. Only the stone archway remained, with scattered pieces littering the floor. As if Bastian had taken a sledgehammer to it in his fury and left what remained behind when it would not yield to him.
Kerrigan touched one of the scars. “What a monster.”
