Chapter Forty-One

 

Niran was led into a room to the sounds of a knife and fork scraping against a plate and the noisy smacking of lips. He felt the sun on his back and knew he was in a high place. The elevator ride had been long.

After he was seated, the blindfold was removed, revealing Gregor enjoying a steak dinner at a long table with no one else. Niran checked behind him to see the glint of windows from the Spire, the tallest building in the city, reflecting the afternoon sun. He was somewhere in the first ward.

"I know you want to ask the question," said Gregor, greedily shoving another bite into his mouth. The plate had a small lake of pink blood that had leaked out of the near-rare steak.

"And what question is that?" asked Niran simply.

"Why I did it," said Gregor around the bloody meat in his mouth.

"It won't be a particularly interesting answer," said Niran drolly.

Gregor slammed his fist on the table, rattling the plate and his glass of red wine.

"It was your fucking arrogance," said Gregor, spittle flying from his lips. "Your fucking stones, your honor, your waku." He made a gesture. "You never saw me as a threat. I aimed to teach you a lesson."

Niran examined the entirety of the dining room: the exquisite cabinetry, the heavy marble table, even the height of the room in comparison to the other skyscrapers. He smoothed the coarse hairs of his white goatee that had grown messy during his transport.

"This isn't your home. This is your master's place. Don't tell me you made any decision on your own because we both know that isn't true. You're merely a servant, easily discarded when you're no longer useful."

Gregor pointed the steak knife at him. "I'll cut your fucking heart out."

A sliding door at the end of the room revealed darkness. Niran's heart grew cold even before he saw who was about to step out. It was the same feeling one got in the deepest places of the Undercity, staring into the shadows, wondering what sort of danger they were hiding.

The man—no, maetrie—that stepped into the room looked like he'd come from a corporate board meeting. He smiled, a parting of his thin lips that could wilt a flower at a hundred paces. The chalky-gray skin and gaunt cheeks gave him a haunted quality.

"Do not dare to insult my guests, Gregor," said the maetrie as he strode around the table to stand at the leader of the Crows' side. He placed a hand on his shoulder. "Apologize."

Gregor bristled, his hands squeezing to fists around his utensils until a second figure stepped into the room. A hulking maetrie in body armor. His appearance broke the standoff, leaving Gregor's chin drifting towards his chest.

"My apologies, Niran. I guess my blood still burns from the fight. I shouldn't have spoken out of turn."

"Thank you, Gregor."

The well-dressed maetrie circled the table until he took a spot next to Niran. The maetrie's dizzying presence made it hard to gather his thoughts. It wasn't the first time he'd met a city fae, but his aura was more powerful than any other.

"Niran Santos. My name is Dominion Thule."

Dominion held out his hand, which Niran shook. His skin was cool and his breath smelled like coal smoke.

"It was not my intention to reveal myself this early, but recent events have required it. As we speak, my representatives are putting the final touches on my relationship with the clans you know as the Alliance. Soon enough those scattered allegiances will no longer exist. They will come together under a single banner. My banner. And along with the might of the Crows, we will crush the feeble resistance that is now in the hands of the Drops alone.

"Oh, yes, you're not aware, but you no longer have a clan, Niran Santos. They left everything and ran with tail tucked to pledge their oaths to Daraja. You're a man without a clan."

"I would have done the same in their place," he said.

Dominion rose and started circling the table again. He moved like a shark, without blinking, the ever-present danger evident in his smallish frame.

"You might be wondering why you're still alive. It's certainly not so Gregor has a chance to gloat for the petty slights he's endured. As you can well guess, it is my intention to take control of the Undercity and make the faez crystals the focus of my organization. These little wars you've been having. Scraps, you call them. They've interfered with the commerce of trade.

"The rest of the world is still reeling with the aftereffects of the Invasion. The Hundred Halls are coming to grips with their loss of power and the mistrust they now enjoy because of their mistakes. Replacing their head patron did nothing to assuage those fears. Rival schools are popping up across the world. They're so busy seeing the external threats they do not see the gold mine beneath their very noses."

Dominion stopped across from Niran. The city fae steepled his fingers on the table. The smirk on his lips felt like salt in a paper cut.

"What do you want from me?"

"Simply everything. Any kernel of knowledge you have in that head of yours. Which stones each of your waku wear, the locations of your mines, anything you know about the Drops. I know you, Niran Santos. You are a man of keen intelligence, of meticulous planning, and brutal execution. I've been admiring you from afar for quite some time."

"And I know nothing of you."

Dominion straightened. "This city has been my home for a long time. I see what my arrogant brethren do not. They do not think much of this world, seeing it as the failed enterprise of humans. They're blinded by their own views that the Eternal City is the pinnacle of existence and that our kind are so far above humans that it would be an insult to ourselves to even consider them a threat.

"But I see you for what you are. Opportunity. Properly molded and motivated, you can become a force unto yourself. Consolidating the Undercity under my control will be the first step."

The second maetrie, the one wearing body armor and an array of military-grade weaponry, circled around the table to take a position a few feet behind Niran.

"And if I don't?"

"Titus will cut your flesh away, bit by bit, until there's only enough left to speak the words I want to here."

Niran nodded slowly. He knew the position he was in. As leader of the clan, he wasn’t surprised by this end. He'd hoped to delay it, push it back to days beyond the horizon, while getting to watch his son grow up and become the great waku he always knew he could be.

But the Undercity was unforgiving, and he'd made too many mistakes in leading the clan. He let the clan's precarious position blind him to the dangers that the Black Crows presented. From the first meeting with Gregor, he should have known that he would be betrayed. The man had no honor.

He wished there was another way. That he could see Kuma one last time before his end.

"I will tell you everything you need to know. There is no need to torture me. But I ask a small favor in return."

Dominion pursed his lips.

"You may ask."

Niran relaxed his entire body. His ruse wouldn't work if they saw even the hint of defiance. The maetrie mercenary, Titus Cabone, could likely move like a viper.

And though Niran had never wielded a stone or received the title of waku, he was a warrior. He'd trained his entire life to scrap. To make war under the most brutal of circumstances.

"I offer my absolute obedience in return for Gregor's right ear."

The proclamation brought teased chaos from the calm. Gregor released his knife, reaching for his ear as if to protect it from his maetrie master. Dominion responded, first glancing to Gregor and then, sensing what was about to happen, turning back to Niran.

The last member of Razor clan kicked out his chair, throwing himself across the table. He snatched the blade from where Gregor had dropped it, then spun it around towards his chest, driving it deep into his own heart before anyone could stop him.

"I thwart you."

The words left his lips in a whisper as the world dimmed. Shouts of alarm filled his ears, a pleasing funeral song as he slipped into the shadows of eternity.

###

 

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Season One

The Hundred Halls Series: Trials of Magic

The Reluctant Assassin Series: The Reluctant Assassin

Gamemakers Online Series: The Warped Forest

Animalians Hall Series: Wild Magic

Stone Singers Hall Series: Song of Siren and Blood

The Order of Merlin: The Order of Merlin

 

Season Two

The Crystal Halls Series: Shadows in Amber