Mervidia (41 page)

Ambrose looked at the warriors.
Had it just been the two of them, the kalku liked his chances of getting away unscathed. He glanced at Quag, who, while fearful, looked ready to dart across the room and attack the kalku. The grogstack knew that his best chance of survival was to join the other merwin in the room and hope to overwhelm Ambrose before he killed too many.

“Plus,” Zane continued.
“There are numerous guards outside and three powerful kalku close by. Combined, they would surely be able to subdue you. I have heard stories about you, Ambrose,” the neondra said, looking unflinchingly at the octolaide. “Should you force our hand, I feel certain that you would not survive the day, regardless of your potent sorcerous abilities.”

“You would do well to respect those abilities,” Ambrose said, his mind going over his options thoroughly as he spoke.

“Oh, I do, Ambrose,” Zane replied, smiling. “Which is why a hundred of my Red Tridents are on the floor below us to augment the Palace Guard.”

A quick intake of water was the only sign of surprise that the golden-scaled
neondra showed. “Sire?” Penn asked, not taking his milky-white eyes from Ambrose.

“Captain Raygo is quite aware of my merwin supporting his guards, Domo Penn,” Zane said
curtly and then continued his conversation with the captured octolaide. “I do respect your talents. However, with all these factors in place, I think you would agree it would be quite impossible for you to escape.” The neondra’s smile widened. “Though I doubt you would be so foolish as to try.”

Ambrose considered the forces arrayed against him.
He could easily best his brother and Odette individually. Together they would present a challenge, but he felt confident that he could overcome them.
Marin though,
Ambrose thought.
She is too much of an unknown. There is an untapped potential there that could prove to be most potent. If she opposed me, could I…?
The kalku realized, with some small amount of disappointment in himself, that he could not bring himself to kill his own daughter. That weakness might cause him to hesitate at a crucial moment.
Their combined sorcerous might, the Red Tridents and the Palace Guard joined with these two warriors, Quag and that devious little faera…,
Ambrose glanced at Kiva, floating indifferently above her seat with her arms crossed and her hands more than likely close to half a dozen poisoned daggers hidden about her body.

Ambrose sighed and folded his arms across his chest.
“Very well,” he said impatiently. “Let’s get on with this, so I can get back home and leave this insipid city behind.”

A wave of relief washed over the room, their collective breaths released as Ambrose submitted, outwardly at least.
I can wait,
he connived.
There will come a time when there are not so many of
them
and then….”

“Guard,” Zane said to the remaining
ethyrie soldier posted inside the door. “Please see that Captain Raygo is made comfortable while he recovers.” The guardsman reluctantly complied, cautiously removing the incapacitated merwin out of Ambrose’s reach while keeping a watchful eye on the kalku the entire time. Nayan darted around the octolaide captive, mostly ignoring Ambrose to her credit, and began to palpitate the skin around where the kalku’s tentacle had touched the captain’s chest. Ambrose felt the familiar hum of machi magic in the water.

“I await your charges, whelp,” Ambrose stated simply, his narrow chin raised defiantly

“Very well,” Zane said, ignoring the insult. “Please take your chairs, Assembly members,” the king directed.

Nayan left Raygo’s side, seemingly satisfied that no permanent damage had been done to the captain, and took her seat.
The jellod left him in the hands of his fellow guard, who took the injured ethyrie from the room. The rest of the merwin resumed their seats as well. Only Ambrose and Zane remained upright.

“Ambrose of House…,” the
neondra began.

“I owe allegiance to no house,” the kalku interrupted.

“As you wish,” Zane nodded. “Ambrose the Houseless, you are accused of the murder of Domo Uchenna of House Chimaera. How do you respond?”

“I killed him,” the
octolaide replied bluntly. Many of the merwin around the table widened their eyes at Ambrose’s brazen admission.

“Sire, if I may?” Thaddeus interjected.
“There are extenuating circumstances surrounding the matter.”

Ambrose shot his brother a questioning look.
Now you defend me, Thaddy?
using his childhood nickname for his older sibling. The kalku narrowed his eyes.
What game are you playing at?

“As I have been told,” Zane replied.
“There are witnesses outside who will speak to those
circumstances
. I was going to bring them in later, after Captain Raygo had given his testimony, but...” he gestured to the closed doors, “that will have to wait. Besides, the captain was quite thorough in his report, before we reconvened. I doubt there are any details he would be able to supply in person that he has not already relayed to me.”

“Domo Slone,” Zane said nodding at the orange and black
neondra. “Would you please ask the witnesses to come in?”

The striped merwin rose from his seat and swam to the door, giving Ambrose a wide berth as he did.
Slone opened the door and spoke briefly with the guards outside. In short order, two octolaide females were brought into the room, Odette and Marin. Both shied away from Ambrose, his former lover taking a position on the opposite side of his daughter from the prisoner, but otherwise they floated patiently at the same end of the table as the accused kalku.

Ambrose watched
Zane fixate on Marin’s bruised neck. The neondra’s expression darkened and his hand fell to the hilt of his weapon once more.

It seems Captain Raygo’s report wasn’t as thorough as you thought, was it?
Ambrose snickered silently, looking back and forth between the neondra and his daughter. Marin remained stoic, though there was a tension in her brow that Ambrose doubted anyone else could see at a distance.
Something else is going on here,
the kalku pondered.

Two guards swam into the room after them. They filled the empty posts of Raygo and the other guard, who had taken the captain out of the chamber.

“So that we might all be privy to the same information,” Zane said, addressing Thaddeus, “please fill in for Captain Raygo in his absence and question the witnesses about the extenuating circumstances surrounding Uchenna’s death.”

If the mention of her husband’s death affected the older female octolaide, she showed no outward sign of it.

Always the cold fish, eh Odette?
Ambrose mused and turned his attention to Zane.
Why are you not going to question them, young king?
The kalku sensed anxiety in the neondra, who was still eyeing Marin’s injured neck.

The
octolaide representative nodded to Zane and then addressed Odette. “For the sake of brevity, I will ask you directly, Odette of House Chimaera,” Thaddeus began. All eyes turned to the older female octolaide. “Why did Ambrose enter your home?”

“To save his daughter,” Odette supplied.
Her words were devoid of emotion.

“So it is true?” Zane blurted out, unable to let Thaddeus do the talking after all.
The octolaide did not seem to mind. “I wasn’t even aware he had a daughter until today.” The startled looks around the table mirrored the neondra’s, hearing Odette so casually admit Marin’s lineage was unexpected.

“Neither did he,” Odette responded
, evenly. She looked at the younger octolaide next to her. “Part of me suspected that Marin might be Ambrose’s daughter, but given his… status, it seemed pointless to pursue the matter. It would only have hurt her standing in House Chimaera and Mervidia.”

Zane looked at Marin.
“You… you’re
his
daughter?” he asked haltingly, one of his webbed hands pointing at Ambrose.

“So I have been told,” Marin replied, her eyes distant and cold, “
finally.
” She shot her mother an icy look.

“It was news to me as well,” Ambrose interjected.
“Of course, with the number of merwin that Odette has….”

“Quiet!” Thaddeus yelled at his older sibling, another pulse of dark sorcery accompanying the single word.

Ambrose was unaffected though by his older brother’s attempt to mystically coerce him into silence. “You don’t truly believe that would work on me, do you Thaddy?” The older kalku shot the octolaide representative a contemptuous look.

“I knew it would not, but perhaps it will illustrate to you the seriousness of the matter and convince you to keep your mouth shut for once.”
Thaddeus eyes showed disdain but, underneath there was a glimmer of genuine concern.

After all these cycles,
Ambrose thought, looking at his big brother,
you’re still trying to protect me. How quaint.

“If we could return to the matter at hand please?” Zane asked.
Though it was phrased as a question, the neondra’s tone made it clear that it was not a request. “According to Captain Raygo’s report, Ambrose, accompanied by two grogstack, entered House Chimaera by force. He then proceeded to kill several of House Chimaera’s guards on his way to Marin’s bedchamber, where he attacked Uchenna and Odette.”

“I beg your pardon, Sire,” Odette interrupted.
Zane gestured for her to continue. “That is not entirely accurate. Ambrose did not attack me. He was trying to protect me from Uchenna.”

“The marks upon your neck and Marin’s?” Zane asked, his teeth
momentarily clenched as he said the younger octolaide’s name.

Ambrose turned his head in time to see Odette’s delicate webbed hand go to the bruises around her throat.
Cycles ago, he would have been enraged that someone had laid hands upon the beautiful octolaide female. That day, he felt indifferent. Odette had made her feelings quite clear towards Ambrose, when they had spoken via the blood sending. She had no further use for him, and he had realized that he felt the same.

“Left by Uchenna,” Odette responded, her voice
strong and fully under her control. She showed neither anger nor sadness. “My husband was in a rage over discovering that Marin was not his daughter. He was angry with her, a living sign of his own cuckolding, and with me, that I’d kept Marin perhaps not being his daughter from him for so long.” Odette lowered her eyes to the floor. “Uchenna has always had a temper.”

“Alright so, Ambrose then attacked Uchenna, defending Odette and Marin from the
domo’s wrath,” Zane amended. “Once Uchenna was subdued, Ambrose then attempted to flee House Chimaera, taking his prisoner with him, but was intercepted by Captain Raygo and the Palace Guard. At which point, Ambrose killed Uchenna and surrendered to Captain Raygo.”

Zane looked at the accused
octolaide. “Do you have anything to add, Ambrose?”

Uchenna was a posturing idiot,
Ambrose thought.
Odette is a lying whore. It’s a miracle that they survived this long.

“No,” Ambrose replied, smirking.
“I have nothing to add.”

“Very well then,” Zane said, addressing the entire room.
“So that we may put this matter quickly behind us and move on to other pressing concerns, I will call for an immediate vote.”

“Sire,” Slone interjected.
“In cases like this, time is usually given for us to deliberate amongst ourselves before we render a decision.”

“Does anyone have anything to add to Captain Raygo’s report or Odette’s testimony?” Zane asked, looking around the table.
Clearly, the neondra did not expect a response. “No? Excellent, then we’ll proceed immediately.”

Clever boy,
Ambrose thought.
Don’t give these conniving little merwin time to plot and plan together, trading my life for political favors.

“All those who find Ambrose guilty of the murder of Domo Uchenna of House Chimaera, say ‘aye,’” Zane directed.

A small chorus of assent sounded from around the table. Nayan, Slone, Penn and Vaschel all raised their hands and voices to deliver a verdict of guilty.

“All those who believe that Ambrose was defending his daughter,” Zane’s tongue tripped over the last word, “and that he is innocent of murder, say ‘nay,’” Zane instructed.

Three hands were raised around the table, Hasad, Kiva and Quag, accompanied by a voiced vote of “nay.”

All eyes turned to Ambrose’s brother, who had not voted either way.

“Domo Thaddeus,” Zane said, gently addressing the octolaide representative. “What say you? You have voted neither yay nor nay.”

Thaddeus looked sadly at his older sibling, conflict warring behind his milky-white eyes.

Here’s your chance, brother,
Ambrose thought.
Restore House Tenebris’ honor and wipe clean the shame of your little brother deserting his own birth house.
A long silence stretched out in the room, as every merwin present held their collective breaths in anticipation, waiting for the octolaide representative’s vote.