The council doors banged open, the thud of the prisoner’s body against the hard oak, echoing throughout the room. It startled everyone. Because of the sudden island fires, members of the council, in their panic, had almost forgotten about the arrested suspect.

Rows of granite pillars with fire-lit sconces lined the path to the judgment table. Ikarus watchmen escorted the man to the council desk to be tried. He was large and grizzly and thrashing about. The night guard captain handled him with a tired step.

Montague La-Rose recognized his dreadful face: big teeth and large ‘gums’. Except he no longer wore that old, Illyrium-forged armor like he did at the gates of Illyrium when he’d sent Montague away, days before the Great Flood. It was best, Montague thought, not to mention his previous encounter with Gums to the queen, not yet; not until he knew more about what was happening. He couldn’t present theories. He needed proof.

Olivia leaned and whispered to Montague, “Where is Demitri?”

“I’m not sure,” Montague said. “I just ran into him as I was leaving the library. He should have been here by now.”

The night guard captain addressed the council. “Forgive me, your majesty, my lords and ladies. We caught this man attempting to flee the kingdom with five children tied in the back of a carriage. He also tried to set fire to a hay barrel covered in oil. We sent the little ones back to their families.”

Gums now wore a draping, gray gown that was covered in blood and smelled of horse manure. His hands were like mittens and his fingers like plump sausages; the perfect glove to silence any outcry from a small mouth.

“Who are you? Do you have a name? Where do you come from?” Olivia demanded. But the man’s lips remained firmly closed. “Where were you taking the children?”

Still not a word.

“Time is not something we are willing to waste,” Olivia said. She waited a moment for an answer, but again, there was only silence.

Olivia clutched her throne’s armrest. “Take his tongue!” she said. “He obviously doesn’t need it. I see that you had a parchment and pen with you. You can write out your response.” She looked to Montague for confirmation.

Montague nodded, appreciating her dependence on him for guidance and healing. The queen was still young and new to politics. Leading the world of Men required knowledge and truth. That was why Montague had begun to brief Olivia on his sensei’s alternate theory of creation. Although disheartened, knowing that she was equivalent to cattle in the eyes of this dark enemy from above, she had taken the news about magic and the existence of four other realms well. Olivia was bright and open-minded. But it wasn’t until Montague showed her the letters of light lifting from the pages in Gabriel’s Diary that her belief became absolute.

Lord Alexandal stomped down the council stairs. He pulled out a long knife then kicked the abductor of children behind the knees, knocking him to the floor. With a firm grip, Alexandal locked the man’s head around his right arm then gripped the prisoner’s lower jaw to expose his tongue. Before the lord’s dagger touched his lips, Gums jerked away.

“I am a man of the Eire Mountains! I live near the coast of the southern sea,” he cried.

“So you can speak. Forget the tongue. Take his hands if he refuses to cooperate again,” Olivia ordered.

The guards forced the prisoner’s hands over the edge of a table, awaiting the order to take them off.

Alexandal continued the interrogation. “Where were you taking the children, man of the southern sea?”

The man Montague knew as ‘Gums’ spoke facing his feet. “My name is Bolo. I was taking them to the caves where I reside; not to be harmed, but to be studied,” he said.

“You clearly don’t look like someone who studies anything. Are you sure that someone didn’t pay you?” Olivia pressed.

“On the contrary, I am a man of literature and forever a student of words,” Bolo said.

“I have a hard time believing that you were the mastermind behind this attempted sabotage,” Alexandal said. “Who hired you?”

Bolo looked away. He was silent once again.

“You took children against their will. The price is your hands so that you won’t be able to hold anyone against their will ever again,” Olivia said. “But I will be glad to take more than that if you don’t cooperate.”

Without an answer, Olivia gave the order. “Take his hands!”

The guard’s axe came hammering down fast, slicing straight through Bolo’s wrists. His throat strained through a long scream. Blood gushed from his arms and sprayed across the floor, his thick hands falling to the red puddle below. While another guard held out his torch, Alexandal forced Bolo’s wrists into the flame to cauterize the wounds. The fetid smell of the sizzling flesh spoiled the room.

“Don’t get too comfortable. Like the queen said, there are many other body parts we can take until you talk, and trust me you will talk,” Alexandal threatened. “So you’d better start. Who hired you?”

It took a few moments for Bolo to gain back the strength to speak again.

“Despite what you all think of me, I am a man of my word and I promised my master I would never repeat his name. But I will tell you this; he is a very high lord. One of you, yet I don’t see him here with you at this hour,” Bolo said, holding back tears.

Montague swallowed hard. His gut felt like it had spikes. The speaker immediately thought Bolo was referring to Demitri, even though Ikarus’s master mason, the new head farmer, and the two priests from The Temple were also absent from the council. But they were not required to attend emergency meetings.

“Who? Tell us!” Alexandal screamed. He held the sharp end of his blade against the man’s groin.

“He is not one to do manual labor. This lord wouldn’t dare lower himself to work the fields, or hammer wood and stack stone, or pray at the altars of temples,” Bolo said.

There was a gasping choir of shock. Now everyone knew he was referring to Demitri.

Montague’s suspicion was confirmed. He knew his old friend was the host of the Nekrums and it was time to tell the queen everything. But how and when the possession of Von Cobb took place, he didn’t know.

“Take him away to the dungeons,” Alexandal ordered. “He will never touch another child again.”

Olivia’s eyes were lidless. Montague could tell that the queen was distraught.

Ikarus guards bound the prisoner’s feet then dragged Bolo out of the room by his chains. A trail of blood and tears followed.

OLIVIA VOLPI stood frozen in light of Bolo’s confession. She felt nauseated, knowing that a dear friend had been plotting against her under her own castle roof. All this time she had been in danger.

These attacks were the first under the rule of the new queen. She began to doubt herself. Am I strong enough to be the leader of men? Would all of this have happened if my father was still alive and king? Would Demitri have been able to fool him too? She missed her father and her mother.

The queen was dazed, but she knew this revelation wasn’t a delusion. Thanks to Montague, her hallucinations and migraines had been held at bay.

She saw Montague leaning in, talking to her, but she couldn’t hear him. The pounding of her heart was too loud. Flashbacks of Demitri’s generosity and kindness consumed her thoughts. His enthusiasm was contagious when he would present new discoveries that could help the world. The fact was Demitri had saved her life and contributed much to society. How could he be the one responsible for all of this? she wondered.

Then, in the middle of a sentence, Montague’s voice reached her ears. He was huddled in close to her, looking concerned. The ambassadors walked around discussing aloud the events on each other’s homelands while Alexandal stood, waiting for new orders. Maids mopped up the bloody pool and spotty trail around him.

“I’ve seen it. We’ve got to find him,” Montague finished in a soft voice.

“Seen it? Seen what?” Olivia was confused.

“His blood, my dear, it was blue. Weren’t you just listening to what I was saying?” Montague asked. “I know Demitri saved your life during the attack on Illyrium, and believe me, I thank him for doing so, but he was playing us just to get close to you. We need to act now.”

The queen was still dizzy from disbelief.

Montague kindly repeated. “At the celebration during Demitri’s speech, his bandage had blue spots. It wasn’t ink splatter or dye. The source of the stain came from inside the wrapping. It was his blood.”

“So what are you saying?” Olivia asked.

“I believe Demitri is the host of the Nekrums. The host has blue blood. Demitri has blue blood. We thought the host was destroyed long ago with farmer Paddett. But it seems as though we were wrong,” Montague muttered.

The scribe came in again and handed Montague another letter.

Olivia studied her appointed speaker’s reaction, but he wore a stoic face.

“Your majesty, a message from Faux Tower. They are holding Von Cobb. Children were found tied to posts in the back of his wagon. He is also with suspicious company,” Montague finished.

“Alexandal!” Olivia impulsively shouted.

Alexandal looked to his guards. “Gather the horses! We’re riding!”

“I’m coming with you,” said the speaker.

“Be at the gates in ten counts,” Alexandal said. The captain and his men rushed out the door.

“This session is closed,” Olivia announced.

The rest of the attending council members left the room.

Montague held Olivia by the arms. But even her own healer’s hands couldn’t comfort her. The truth shook her bones. The queen remembered Demitri always telling her that people were evolving, and science was evolving. In his speech, he even referred to children’s blood.

“Demitri recently told me that children can unlock abilities that adults cannot. He claims that children have a stronger connection to memories of our ancient history,” Olivia said, hoping that Montague would know what that might have meant.

The queen watched Montague’s face flush with realization.

“I don’t know what he wants with the children…but…‘connection to our history’,” he repeated, his brows pinching. “Gabriel’s Diary is like a library that documents every event that ever happened on Naan since Gabriel came to this planet, down to the most precise detail. The diary records only truth,” he said. “But more importantly, we know the Nekrums are after you, your blood. You’re the only Volpi alive.” The speaker turned pale. “You have never given him blood, have you?” Montague asked, almost shouting.

“No,” Olivia confirmed. “You are the only one I trust with my health.”

“Good.” Montague breathed out a sigh of relief. He closed his eyes and dropped his head, then continued, “Burton wrote passages throughout the original document. They can be the key to discovering what the Nekrums want with the children.”

“Those poor, innocent children, they’re probably scared to death,” Olivia said.

“Don’t worry. We’ll find him,” said Montague.

For a reason Olivia couldn’t explain, his words fell short of comforting her.

“The diary!” she suddenly said. “Before you came here, you saw Demitri at the library?”

“Yes,” Montague said. “But I assure you, the contents are safe.”

“Safe? If Demitri is the host, he knows the diary holds great knowledge. You said that retrieving the divine history of Naan chronicled in Gabriel’s Dairy was important to the enemy. They want to remove the information from us.”

“My queen, trust me.”

Olivia couldn’t understand why Montague was so calm. “I must see it for myself.”

Montague silently led her to his chambers below the library. And when they arrived, the diary, like Montague had said so certainly, was safe, sitting on its glowing pedestal.

“It doesn’t make sense. Why wouldn’t he try to take it?” Olivia asked.

“The diary has a protective spell cast upon it. It repels copper. And even if he could take it, the Nekrums can’t read angelic writing. Unable to access the information, the diary is useless without my translations,” Montague said.

“A spell…cast by Burton Lang?” Olivia asked.

The ex-farmer had confessed to her that he was taught by the infamous mage who had been exiled from the kingdoms years ago. “Yes,” he said.

“And where are your translations?”

Montague pulled out three scrolls from his robe. “Let me assure you, my queen. My work is safe. I never let it out of my sight.”

Olivia took a breath.

Montague continued, “My sensei told me that he had one last card against the enemy. That card is hidden in the diary. As soon as I return with Alexandal, I will find it. It is my mission. But first we must interrogate Demitri.”

Even though her confidence in Demitri, the headmaster of science, was shattered, she still trusted Montague with her life.

“Bring him here to me,” she said.

“Your highness,” a maid interrupted, entering the room. A small boy behind her stepped in from the doorway with the queen’s personal handmaid, Gretchen, by his side. He wore a glum expression and held a gnarled travel bag close to his chest.

“Indrid Cole of Grale is here,” said Gretchen.