Trey discreetly pointed to seats to our left. “Who do you think?”
Jamson. I guess that was no surprise given he was heir. “Did Kiro discover who murdered Marcus?”
“It was Lida, as you suspected. She also planned to kill Saska.”
Because Saska had been pregnant with a child who, if gifted, would replace Lida’s son as heir. “I know Jamson had nothing to do with the murder, but it still stinks that he benefits—” I cut the rest of the comment off as Kiro began to speak. In a calm, emotionless voice, he told the assembly everything we’d uncovered, including the duplicity of the three women and exactly what they’d done. But he didn’t mention the Irkallan, instead calling Trey to join him on the platform and recount his part of the story. Trey did so, but again, he made no mention of the Irkallan. That task was obviously mine.
Kiro called me to the dais. I took a deep, shaky breath that did little to calm the rush of nerves, and then picked up the wrapped head and walked down. A gentle murmur followed me to the platform, but I couldn’t tell if it was due to some of the lords and ladies here recognizing me from the masque, or if it was simply because I very obviously had no right to be in such a place. I stepped onto the platform; Trey moved to one side, giving me room to stand between the two of them.
“Tell them everything distinctly and without embellishment,” Kiro murmured, as he took the Irkallan’s head from me. “From the moment the beacon was spotted to what Saska told you up on the water tower.”
I took another deep breath and did exactly that, only omitting the fact I was Nightwatch rather than a Blacklake soldier. It took forever because there was so much to tell, and by the time I’d finished my throat was dry and my skin so cold it was beginning to leech inward, forming a thick pit of ice in my stomach.
“Do you truly expect us to believe the Irkallan have been active for centuries?” a pale-skinned man sitting to the right of Trey’s brother said, “and that we’ve caught absolutely no sign of it until now?”
“Indeed,” Kiro said. “In fact, if not for the actions of both Officer March and Commander Stone, we’d still be dangerously unaware of said activity.”
“But what evidence of this do you have?” a woman at the rear said, “aside from the testimony of someone who abandoned his family and his position, and a stained soldier?”
“You’d do well to hold both your tongue and your animosity, Lia,” Trey said, voice clipped. “Especially given it was the actions of your sister that led to my leaving.”
The woman snorted. “I believe it takes two—”
“Enough,” the arbitrator said, in a voice so loud it echoed through the chamber. “We’re not here to discuss old grievances, but rather a future threat. Kiro, if you have proof, present it.”
He did so, unwrapping the Irkallan’s head and then holding it high so all could see. Once again, a murmur filled the room, but this time it was a weird mix of unease and disbelief. But then, this was the first time anyone here would have seen an Irkallan outside the pages of a history book.
“As Officer March has already said, the Irkallan’s body was found in a tunnel not far from the Blacklake outpost. The body of a child lay with it—that child was Lady Saska’s, one of many born to the witches stolen from Winterborne. This insidious plan has been in operation for centuries, my lords, and it’s now coming to fruition. The Irkallan are using their half-breeds to mine the earth and create tunnels—tunnels that not only bypass our outposts, but have, in fact, made a beeline directly to our door. The end of one such tunnel lies no more than half a mile from Winterborne’s gates—and you can thank Commander Stone for uncovering its existence this afternoon. Otherwise, we mightn’t have known about it until they were murdering us in our sleep.”
“I hardly think that possible,” another man from the front row said. “Their witches surely could not be as strong as any here.”
“If their plan to eradicate the Upper Reaches witches via poisoning had been fully successful,” Kiro noted, “they wouldn’t have needed to be.”
“There’s also the point that they’ve managed to bring a tunnel to the very feet of our wall, and none here detected it,” Trey said. “None of you have even noticed the uneasiness of the Tenterra earth, or the fact there are now large areas of deadness—a deadness that bleeds out from the Blacksaw Mountains itself.”
“You’re well aware our focus has been on the Gallion farmlands on which this place survives,” another bit back. “We can’t be blamed—”
“No one is blaming anyone,” Kiro said. “We’re merely stating unpalatable facts.”
“It seems to me we have two major problems right now,” a new voice said. I glanced to the left and saw it was Karl, Trey’s brother. “The first being how do we stop them at our gates if their tunneling deadens the earth and prevents us interacting with it. The second is whether we even have enough firepower to dig them out from under their mountains.”
“According to Lady Saska,” I said. “We do not.”
His gaze came to me; the green depths were so familiar and yet so foreign it sent a shiver down my spine. “And are we to believe the words of a woman who was in thrall to the Irkallan queen? A woman who is responsible for an attempted mass poisoning, and who might yet be responsible for the deaths of hundreds of people?”
“Don’t forget she did tell me about the toxin, even against the queen’s orders,” I countered. “And she’s also the only reason we know about the tunnels.”
A small smile tugged at his lips, and again it was familiar and yet not.
“What exactly did Lady Saska tell you about any attack on the Blacksaw Mountains?” Kiro asked.
I glanced at him; in his pale eyes, I saw the awareness of secrets being kept. I drew in a deep breath and released it slowly. Now was not the time to hold back—at least not on something that would have major implications for any action taken. “She said that you can attack the mountains for all you’re worth, but you won’t destroy the Irkallan. The apiary lies too deep underground to be affected by weapons, and any attempt to invade on foot would be similarly doomed, not just because of the tunnels’ close quarters, but because of their sheer numbers.”
“But she would say that,” Karl said, even as Kiro asked, “Did she offer any solution to that problem.”
“She did.” And he knew it. I could see the knowledge in his eyes, and the determination that lay underneath it. He might not know what she’d said, but he was well aware there was more to her warning than what I’d already admitted.
“And?” he asked, when I didn’t immediately go on.
I crossed my arms, but it did little against the invading cold or the deep sense of inevitability that was beginning to flow through me. The air stirred around me, offering me comfort, offering me strength, but never once offering me hope.
“She said if we wished to destroy them, there was only one way to do so.” I hesitated, well aware of tension gathering in the man standing to my left. It was a tension that flowed through me, heated and angry—not at me, but at the situation and fate. At what he obviously guessed might be coming. “She said the only way to avoid detection was to send one person—and only one—into the apiary.”
“No.” Trey’s response was immediate and explosive.
“And is that person you?” Kiro said.
“Yes,” I said. “Because it turns out that Saska and I were not only sisters, but twins. The fact that my DNA is so similar to both hers and Hedra’s—our mother—will me to give me the chance to slip inside when they will scent all others.”
“That is madness—”
“Indeed, it is.” I met Trey’s furious gaze evenly. “But it’s a madness Saska believed, and one I also do. There is no other option. Not if we wish to keep Winterborne and all we hold dear safe.”