It wasn’t known for certain, but it was suspected that Ekopane had been behind the assassination of her parents. And since it had been an assassin from the Southern Continent who had attempted to kill both her and Grandmamma at her coronation ceremony, Ellina wasn’t exactly inclined to feel lenient when she looked at the prisoner chained to the table in the interrogation room.
“Your Majesty!” Kikbax exclaimed, getting ponderously to his feet when he saw Ellina in the doorway. “Only see what we have found—the mastermind behind the plot to kill your most royal and noble self at the Grand Promenade!”
“And kill her I would have—and still will—when next I get the chance!” the prisoner spat. His brownish-purple skin looked like a wound that covered his entire body, Ellina thought with a shiver of revulsion and his third eye was shrunken and cloudy—clearly he could see nothing with it. The chewchie which screeched his hatred at her from the prisoner’s head was scaly instead of fluffy, as a proper chewchie ought to be. Its coloration was somewhere between mud and refuse and it seemed to radiate all the hatred the prisoner from the Southern Continent felt for her.
“The only one who’s going to die is you, scum!” Lord Kikbax thundered, pointing a finger at the prisoner as his chewchie jumped and screeched on top of his head. “How dare you speak so of the Goddess in the Flesh?”
“Lies!” the prisoner spat. “Y’res the Fourth, is nothing but an imposter! Everyone knows a female can’t rule effectively or well! Helios Beta should be ruled by a male—by my master, Azurel Ekopane! Long may he live!”
Ty leaned in close, his fists planted on the wooden table, his eyes glowing red with rage.
“I’ll tell you who’s not going to live very long and that’s you, you filthy bastard,” he growled. “Keep my Lady’s name out of your mouth if you don’t want me to gut you here and now!”
The prisoner flinched back but glared up at Ty unrepentantly.
“Who are you, off-worlder?” he spat. “Some foreign mercenary the ‘Goddess’ here hired because she can’t trust her own guards? Well maybe that’s because they know that real males ought to be ruled by another male! Not a weak, diseased whore of a female! She—”
But before he could finish his hateful words, his head suddenly exploded in a splatter of purple and red and gray that made Ellina jump and gasp.
At first she was certain it was Ty who had shot him but when she looked closer, she saw that it was Lord Kikbax holding the blaster.
“Forgive me, Your Majesty,” he said, when he saw her looking. “But I could not allow that filthy scum to speak so of my Potentate.” And he bowed low, as though he had only been doing his job.
“That was really fucking foolish,” Ty growled, turning to glare at the priest as he wiped the prisoner’s brains off his cheek where they had splattered. “What if he had cohorts? You should have saved your righteous wrath, priest, until we had all the information we could get out of him!”
The High Priest drew himself up indignantly.
“How dare you?” he exclaimed. “Do you not know that speaking in such a disrespectful way to the Potentate is a crime punishable by death? I was only carrying out the miscreant’s rightful sentence. Besides, we did question him—most thoroughly,” he went on when Ty opened his mouth to protest again. “He was the last remnant of the band of assassins who attacked during the Grand Promenade—and he was the one who tried to poison the Potentate’s wine twice. The guards caught him trying to sneak out of the kingdom by a side way which leads directly to the Southern Continent and he confessed to all of it. His guilt could not be more clear.”
Ellina thought he was probably right. But standing here in the same room with a headless body which still had blood trickling from its ruined stump of a neck made her feel ill.
“I thank you, High Priest, for neutralizing this threat to my royal person,” she said formally to Kikbax. “Truly, you have done me a great service today.”
“Of course, My Potentate.” Grinning widely, the High Priest bowed. As he came up, he shot a triumphant glance at Ty, who returned the look stonily.
Apparently the High Priest was looking to outdo her Kindred bodyguard and, in killing the assassin who had sought to take her life, he clearly thought he had won this round.
Well, that’s one worry gone, at least, Ellina thought dully. Two, actually. We know the source of the assassination attempt and the last assassin has been caught and killed.
And also her High Priest, rather than plotting to overthrow or subvert her, had apparently decided the best way to get along was to curry favor. That was certainly better than an attempted coup, Ellina thought.
I ought to feel glad, she thought. Kikbax is falling into line and now I know I’m safe.
But of course, this meant that Ty could go. That his mission here was done.
I wonder if I’ll ever hear from him again? she thought as she watched him from the corner of her eye. Or if he’ll leave and never return?
The latter seemed much more likely, she couldn’t help thinking. And as they all marched back up the stairs, out of the dungeon, she felt as though she had left her heart behind in that dark, damp, cold place—felt like she had left it behind and it would never see light again.
Chapter Thirty-six
“Your Majesty, thank you for granting me an audience.”
Ty stood there awkwardly before the golden throne where Ellina was sitting in state. He supposed after their fight he couldn’t blame her for wanting to keep things formal between them,
