Page 84 of Magick and Lead
“Maybe I wanted to,” I shrugged, and I shoved the door open.
Prelate Kortoi sat on a couch with a silver-haired man. Both had their legs crossed and a teacup in their hands, and both looked up at us with matching expressions of surprise. But I noticed instantly, perhaps with a flare of dragon intuition, that although Kortoi looked startled, he remained almost smugly unafraid. Alarmingly so.
To our left and right, a pair of Gray Brotherhood mages stood. The one nearest to Charlie was already conjuring some sort of black, undulating force between his splayed fingers. The other’s eyes were beginning to glow with fire. Charlie leveled his gun and fired once. The shot caught the fire mage in the belly and dropped him instantly.
I whipped my dagger at the other one. It caught him on the left side of the chest, just below the heart, and he dropped to his hands and knees, gasping.
Charlie slammed the door shut behind us and locked it as I turned my attention to the prelate and drew my second dagger.
“Princess Essaphine,” he said amiably. “I would say I’m surprised to see you so far from home, but… I’m not.”
“You are a traitor,” I said, fighting to keep my voice from wavering. I’d rehearsed in my head all the things I planned to say to Kortoi before I watched his life’s blood spill from him. Now that the moment had come, my tongue felt leaden, but I forced myself to press on. “You tried to take my crown. You turned thenobles against us. You let Issastar be destroyed. You unleashed those horrible golenae on our country. You caused my mother to die.”
“All true,” Kortoi said, taking a sip of his tea. “Sometimes the things of the past must be cleared away to make room for the future, my dear Essa.”
“And you think you’re the future of Maethalia?” I snarled.
“No,” he said. “You are.”
Those were the last words I expected, and for a moment, I was too stunned to respond. Kortoi set his cup down on the table in front of him and stood, straightening his robes.
“Essa. As much as I hate to say it, your mother and all those around her would never have allowed the war with Admar to end. It was how they held on to power. A nation at war needs its mighty dragon riders and their royal knights. But the world is weary of war, Essaphine. And Maethalia needs a leader who appreciates what an alliance with our enemies across the sea could mean.” Here, he gave a meaningful glance at Charlie, who stood watching him with distrust. “You, Essa, are that leader.”
The Admite President, who had remained forgotten up to this point, shot to his feet and began bolting for the door. Charlie whipped his gun around to aim it at his head. Ramos froze.
“With respect, Mr. President—sit the hell down,” Charlie said with such command in his voice that the president immediately sat.
Just then, a side door to the room opened and a man walked in. I cocked my arm back, ready to throw my dagger, then froze. This new visitor bore the blue robes and the long braid of a Torouman.
“Hoatan?” In my shock, the name came out a whisper.
He gave a decorous bow while my mind spun, trying to process what I was seeing.
Hoatan was my mother’s most trusted advisor. I’d assumed he’d been killed in the assault on Charcain—or imprisoned, at least. But now, he stood before me holding a wine glass and a folder full of papers, as if he were just another member of the diplomatic entourage.
I adjusted my grip on my dagger.
“Hello, Essaphine,” he said—like Kortoi, he didn’t sound terribly surprised to see me.
“Why are you here?” I demanded, my words slow and exacting.
He pursed his lips, taking the Torouman’s customary pause for thought before responding. At last, he said, “Remember the Torzame, Essa. I know Ollie has taught it to you, our holy game. We play every side.”
I felt my heartbeat speeding up. “And was my mother just another piece on the board to be knocked off? Was Issastar? Were the Skrathan?”
“I did not kill your mother, nor did Prelate Kortoi, though one may posit that his plans contributed to her demise,” Hoatan said in his low, maddeningly smooth drawl. “Still, you know the answer to your question, Essaphine. There is no piece too precious to sacrifice, so long as the game is won. What we do, we do for Maethalia.”
“Enough,” I snarled. “Your words twist like maggots. I came to kill this one.” I pointed my dagger at Kortoi. “And when I’m done with him, I’ll deal with you, too.”
I lunged for Kortoi. He didn’t move, but President Ramos did, pulling a small pistol from inside his suit coat. Before he could turn it on me, a gunshot rang out.Charlie.
The president fell back onto the couch, holding his face.
Gods. He killed his own president,I thought in shock.
For you, Othura’s voice added from the back of my mind.
But the president was not dead.
