What He Came to See
Chris went with Michael to the place where he had hidden the Mana Helmet. They dug it up and returned to the VIP Guest Pavilion, only to find David waiting.
"The Lion Pavilion apprentices of this cohort..."
He shook his head, then looked at Yan.
"At the Commander's firm request, we set aside time for you to interrogate Chris. The Tower will now take him into custody."
Chris spoke up.
"Mage David."
"What?"
"Couldn't you give me a little more time?"
"What do you need time for? It's not as if you have family to say goodbye to."
"There's still one friend I haven't said farewell to."
"Who?"
"Alex."
David looked as though he could hardly believe his ears.
"Alex is close with you?"
"Because of my low birth, Alex despised me, but I looked up to him. I'd like to see him one last time."
"You might get off with a lighter punishment than you expect. See him later."
"Alex would never deign to look at a lowly laborer like me. Ours was a one-sided relationship. If I asked to meet him, he'd snort and ignore me. Even so, I want to see him."
"Not a healthy relationship."
"In a Tower crawling with every kind of twisted bond, I'd say this one is comparatively tame."
"Fine. Go see him."
They moved into the parlor.
"May I order a sandwich?"
John answered.
"I'll pay. Eat."
He did more than cover the bill. He ordered the sandwiches himself and brought them in, even setting out drinks to go with them, and Chris ate with genuine gratitude.
Alex arrived before sunset. He stepped into the parlor, hesitated, then caught sight of Chris and frowned.
"Why do you keep hanging around here?"
Chris replied.
"I take it you haven't heard."
"Heard what?"
"Juan is dead."
For a moment Alex's face went blank.
"Why would Juan suddenly die?"
"Heaven punished him."
Alex blew out a harsh breath through his nose.
"You're mocking me right now, aren't you?"
He looked thoroughly displeased.
"Why would I mock Lord Alex, whom I respect?"
"This bastard is mocking me. You want to die!"
Alex bellowed in a burst of anger, then stole a glance at Yan.
"My apologies. This wretch kept provoking me, and my voice rose."
Yan spoke.
"Do you admit your crime?"
"Calling it a crime just because I raised my voice at a laborer is..."
"I'm talking about the prince."
"Ah. That."
Alex was genuinely aggrieved. He beat his own chest and pleaded his innocence.
"I am truly blameless. I did not kill His Highness."
"Then do you admit to defying your superior?"
Alex did not.
"Defying a superior is something a subordinate does to someone above him. Within the Tower, I am not the prince's subordinate. Strictly speaking, I am the one above him here. So Mark should have bowed to me—"
He couldn't finish, and appealed instead.
"Mage David, please say something."
David did not come to his aid. Arms folded, he kept his mouth firmly shut.
Yan's gaze turned sharp.
"So you tormented him? Because you were the superior?"
"I never tormented Mark. I gave him advice. Advice!"
"Give that advice twice and you'd kill a man."
Yan looked at Michael.
"Do you see any grounds for leniency?"
Michael's tone was firm.
"None."
Yan's stern gaze struck Alex full in the face, and Alex felt as if it were boring straight through him.
"Leniency? What are you talking about?"
A sense of foreboding seized him, and he stepped back.
"I haven't committed a crime. What leniency?"
Yan rose and set a hand on his sword's grip. Alex's eyes wavered.
"Why are you taking hold of your sword?"
Yan took one step forward.
"Criminal Alex."
"What criminal! I'm innocent. Lord David, please say something."
"You have committed the crime of insulting the royal house."
Steel whispered coldly as the sword left its sheath.
Alex's face went white.
"No!"
The blade moved, flinging light as white as snow. A clean stroke, and that white light sheared away Alex's right arm. The severed limb thumped to the floor, and a scream tore out of him.
"Aaagh!"
Blood poured from the cut and dyed the carpet red. As the sword that had taken the arm moved to strike again, David stepped forward, a staff already in his hand—when he had drawn it, no one could have said.
Yan's sword swept not upward, but down. Aura leaping from the blade speared the fallen arm and lifted it. The severed limb whipped up into the air, and in that instant Yan's sword worked it lengthwise and crosswise, carving it apart as if he were mincing meat on a board. What had once been an arm pattered onto the floor in remnants.
White light flowed from David's staff and wrapped what remained of Alex's arm. If Yan's light had been cold and savage as hoarfrost, David's was soft as cloud, and that light treated him. The bleeding stopped. New flesh budded and closed over the wound.
David spoke.
"Your hand is excessive."
Yan flicked his sword, and the blood on the blade spattered across the floor. When he offered no reply, David turned to Chris.
"Satisfied now?"
Chris pursed his lips.
"Pardon?"
"You asked for time because you wanted to watch Alex get punished, didn't you? Don't tell me you thought I'd actually believe you considered him a friend. Or that you respected him."
Embarrassed, Chris turned his head aside. He had thought he'd pulled the deception off neatly, but David had read him clean through.
"Let's go."
Chris lowered his head and followed. Then he looked back and offered the knights a bow.
"Thank you for everything."
John answered.
"I was grateful too."
Yan, Michael, and Bianca gave no separate reply.
David spoke to Alex, who still had not climbed out of the shock and terror of losing his arm.
"You too. Come."
Alex wailed.
"That man cut off my arm."
David's reply was cold.
"Count yourself lucky it wasn't your neck."
Alex snapped awake as if someone had dumped cold water over him. If he stayed, his neck really might come off. He hurried after David.
Once they were gone, Bianca vented her dissatisfaction.
"It should have been his neck, not his arm."
"Didn't you hear David?"
"Hear what...?"
"He said my hand was excessive."
John slapped his knee.
"Ah. So that's it. That's it."
Bianca turned to him.
"What do you mean, that's it?"
"David caught Chris's lie and still pretended to fall for it. Why? He stayed on purpose, to protect Alex. If Chris had been ready to leave at once, David would have invented some other excuse to remain."
"I see. And the Commander knew?"
Yan nodded.
"That's why I cut the arm instead of the neck."
"Then what did he mean by an excessive hand?"
"He wasn't pointing at the cut. He was pointing at what came after—mincing the severed arm."
"Why mince it?"
"This is the Tower. Reattaching a severed arm is as easy as gulping cold soup. Mince it like that, and there's nothing left to put back."
Bianca looked ill at ease.
John, by contrast, looked unburdened.
"So it's all over."
Tony had been cleared as the culprit, and Alex's defiance of his better had set a black mark against the marquis house he belonged to. John was entirely satisfied with the outcome. Of everyone on this investigation, the greatest winner was him.