The Duelist 11, page 25
“Thank you,” I said to him. “All of you. This is a bright day for Aventoll.”
None of the still-seated Councilmen said anything. They were at least matched by the ones standing, if not outnumbered.
“If I may, Councilman Brightwood,” Erys then said, and since he was sitting on the bottom-most row of seats, he was easily able to step forward.
Up close, I saw he didn’t look entirely human. His pupils were slightly rectangular, like a goat or a sheep.
“As the winner of the Duel against the former Councilman Crane, it is at your discretion what would be done with Crane’s body,” Erys continued.
“What would be customary?” I asked.
“Well… there’s not exactly much precedent for a Duel within the Chamber,” Erys admitted. “You could have his body mounted on a spike outside, if you prefer. To warn others of what happens if you are defied.”
That seemed a bit bloodthirsty. And a good way to make more enemies.
“Have his body returned to his family,” I told Erys. “Ensure he receives full funeral rites, in accordance with his family’s traditions.”
The almost-human man nodded and waved down the raven Councilman who’d pledged himself to me. Between the pair of them, they picked up Crane’s body and carried it out to the hallway, and I heard them call for servants before the door closed.
“Thank you all for answering my summons,” Sha-Kane said to the remaining Councilmen. “The Council is dismissed.”
Once again, there was a rush as everyone clamored to not be the last one to leave, the one who would be stuck until the Council regained session. I was amused to see that, once again, that responsibility fell to Councilman Sar, who glared daggers at me as the door closed between us.
“Holy shit,” I muttered when we were out of the Chamber. “That… actually worked. They might actually be willing to implement something more democratic.”
I knew we weren’t out of the woods yet. There was still Kavo to deal with, but I’d just significantly undermined the power he’d been building for decades, so it would probably take him a moment to figure out how to retaliate.
“It will take time to shift from a bloodline system to an elected one, but I’m confident,” Sinopa said with a nod. “Since many of them agreed change is necessary, I think we may have enough votes to enact a new system.”
“That’s good,” I said. “Thank you, Sinopa. I’m glad I can call you an ally.”
“A friend,” the fox-man corrected me with a smile. “And likewise. I’m sure my grandfather would be pleased to see that Aventoll is finally breaking free of the chains of corruption.”
Sinopa clapped me amicably on the shoulder and then headed off out of the hall. A moment later, Sha-Kane and I followed suit and made our way back to the Tas estate.
“They will have to be dealt with,” Sha-Kane advised me in a grave tone as we walked past the fountain statue of Mercedes and Bhraya. “The Councilmen who did not agree that changes need to be made.”
“Dealt with how?” I asked.
“Ideally, they would be quietly removed from their positions of power,” the osprey-man replied. “But more… extreme measures may be necessary.”
I caught Sha-Kane’s meaning, but I hoped it didn’t come to that. For one thing, I didn’t want to execute potentially thirty people just on principle, and I definitely didn’t want to risk them turning into martyrs.
“I’m sure we can coerce them into not threatening war,” I said. “They can keep their ancestral homes or whatever. We’re just going to undo all the laws that meant they could rule the world without any sort of democracy.”
I knew some of them would resist even that. They wouldn’t accept the slightest dip in their luxury, or the insult of having less money than they did right now. But if Kavo Alda and Councilman Crane had been able to intimidate the Council into controlling demons and Red Skies, then surely Sha-Kane and I could intimidate them into democratic equality.
“We’ll need to organize the placement of Ashers,” Sha-Kane said. “They are unevenly distributed across the Islands. Many live on Alem or Leen, so the other Islands, like Nata, are at a higher risk of casualties if there’s an attack.”
“With the Heart of Aventoll being healed, I don’t think we need to worry about that too much,” I pointed out. “People would object to being forced to move-- that’s basically what the Council did to Gavlain when he wouldn’t get with their program. Power is the thing to focus on. If we can restore balance, hopefully no one will need to worry about demons ever again.”
“What a world that would be,” the osprey-man sighed. “It’s heartening to think I could live to see it.”
“More than that, you’ll help to create it.” I smiled.
“I would like that,” Sha-Kane said in a wistful tone. “I spent so many seasons fighting for change, and now we’re on the precipice.”
“Then do it,” I said. “We have no plans to leave Alem just yet, not until we stop Kavo and deal with the Order, and even afterward, when we return to Ithaca on Nata, you don’t have to follow us. You could stay here and oversee the new Council. You could be its leader.”
“Leader?” Sha-Kane asked as he glanced at me. “But you spoke of a democratic process.”
“Yeah, but they still need someone to preside over the process of voting and organizing,” I said. “Plus, I think it’s a bad idea to have an even number of representatives. As leader, you’d have the power to cast tie-breaking votes, if that was necessary. And the more traditional people on Aventoll might be more open to a shift in government if a Councilman is still the one in charge.”
“I… hadn’t thought of it like that,” the osprey-man said with a thoughtful frown. “But I’m not a legacy.”
“You’re still a Councilman,” I said, and I stopped walking to place a hand on Sha-Kane’s shoulder. “You’re respected. You didn’t ‘cheat’ your way into your seat, the way Sinopa and I did. You were groomed as Aras’ protégé, and you’ve traveled all over Aventoll-- seen the Peoples’ struggles for yourself. Seriously. I can’t think of anyone who’d be better-suited to it than you.”
“Well, I… thank you, Alex,” Sha-Kane said earnestly. “I’m flattered. And… yes. I think I would be suited to that. I would like to continue serving Aventoll, and I much prefer your idea than the structure of the Council.”
When we arrived back at the manor, I wasn’t surprised to see everyone was pacing nervously around the family room despite the late hour. As Sha-Kane and I walked in, Shay was the first to descend upon us. Literally. She launched herself up into the air with her wings and almost dropped down on top of Sha-Kane and me while she hugged us both at once.
“Thank Mercedes, you’re alright!” she cried, and she let go of her father to cup my face in her hands and press quick kisses over my cheeks and nose until I started laughing and had to gently push her away.
“Of course,” I promised, and I kissed her back, on the tip of her nose.
She grinned at me before she stepped aside and allowed me to hug Zoie, Amaya, and Nova.
“Glad you’re safe,” Zoie murmured as she nuzzled into my chest, and I kissed the top of her head.
“As if I would ever leave you alone,” I said.
Since the day I’d arrived in Aventoll, we’d been bound together. That wasn’t going to change now.
“So, what happened over there?” Horus asked from where he was sprawled across one of the couches. His clothes were rumpled, and he was a little red in the face.
“Better question, what happened over here?” I said, and I gestured to the falcon-man, who slanted a grin at me.
“Well, we did as you said,” he answered. “Destroyed Teivel’s research. The machine, the notes, all of it.”
“Auntie Sera helped!” Nova said brightly, and I looked over at the older Lakuna woman, who was perched neatly on one of the plush chairs.
I was worried she would look disturbed, or faraway, but her teal eyes were clear and determined when she met my gaze.
“I destroyed the cage I was kept in,” she said. “It wasn’t a great deal, but…”
“It was,” I said with understanding. I was glad for her, that she’d had the chance to come to terms with her imprisonment and could begin to heal from her ordeal.
The Lakuna woman smiled at me. It was a small smile, but it was real.
“And the Council?” Horus prompted.
This was the second time, so I knew he was eager for details, and I recounted the arguments with the Councilmen, the Duel with Crane, and the machine in the memorial chamber. By the time I had finished filling them in, they were all staring at Sha-Kane and me.
“A Council where the members are… elected?” Shay asked. “That sounds so peculiar.”
“It’s new, for Aventoll,” I admitted. “But that’s how most governments function where I come from. They serve terms of four or five seasons, then there are other elections. It keeps pressure on the representatives to actually do important things and to keep their promises-- or they’ll be voted out.”
“And non-Ashers could sit on this new Council?” Zoie asked. “And women?”
“Of course,” I said. “There are far more non-Ashers and women in Aventoll than there have ever been Ashers. They should get a say in how it’s governed.”
“That’s going to be a lot of work,” Horus remarked. “You’ll need a lot of sway in the Council.”
“We already have some who are sympathetic to our ideas,” I said. “Change will be slow, but it’ll happen. And… that actually brings me to something I wanted to ask you.”
The falcon-man peered at me curiously, and I reached under my shirt to pull out my Duelist Stone and show it to him.
“When I beat Crane in the Duel, I got his seat,” I said. “I don’t want two seats, and I don’t think it would be a good idea for one person to have two, anyway. So… do you want it?”
“You… you would give me a seat on the Council?” Horus asked as he blinked at me. “That… that’s a big thing to give away.”
“I know,” I said. “But I trust you with it, H. You’re fair, and you’re open to the idea of an elected Council. We’ll need all the allies we can get to make this stick.”
“But if Horus takes a seat, what happens to Sha-Kane’s?” Amaya asked with a glance over at the osprey-man. “Horus is already in line to inherit a Council seat. It wouldn’t look good to have two seats in the same family. People will object.”
I reckoned it would be a bit hypocritical of the Council to object to two seats in one family, when the Ousting of the Lycaen Ashers had resulted in that happening eight times, but Amaya was right that it would look like I was just grabbing for power by giving seats to all my friends.
“We can keep quiet about our shared blood,” Sha-Kane said. “It will do something to lessen accusations of corruption-- and believe me, there will be many. Your critics will look for any reason to discredit you. But if Horus is bequeathed a seat as ‘Councilman Doler,’ it might do something to make people think you still respect the old families. Even the ones whose members once tried to kill you. It speaks of you understanding the bigger picture, and being willing to forgive.”
“I guess.” I frowned as I thought this over and looked over at the three Natavians. “But it could be seasons before we sort out a new elected Council. You may never be able to go public with the truth.”
“I never needed to go public,” Sha-Kane said. “I just wanted my children to know.”
“Likewise,” Shay said with a smile, and she reached out to take Sha-Kane and Horus’ hands. “We’re a family, no matter what the rest of Aventoll knows. I’m fine with it.”
“And me,” Horus agreed.
“Of course, there’s still the matter of succession,” Sha-Kane admitted. “But I’m not that old, so I think we have a few decades yet. By then, hopefully this elected Council will be in place.”
I hoped so, too, but from how Sha-Kane looked at Sera, and how Sera looked at him, a part of me suspected it wouldn’t be too much of a problem either way.
“There is still the matter of the Order,” Anwaar interjected. “But I’m glad you’ve solved the problem of the Council.”
“I think it’ll be easier to deal with the Order once Jenner and the others arrive with the records,” I said to the ibex-woman. “They’ll have the confirmation that Vel-Rala is the true Prophetess, and maybe Esta’s diary will be able to provide some insight into what Kavo Alda was planning to do with the Prophetess, or the prophecies.”
“If his previous actions are any indication, he’d put himself in a seat of absolute power with a puppet to take all the blame,” Horus said dryly, and I snickered a little, because he was right.
Just then, there was a knock at the door, and I turned to see Bonnie had walked in with a tray of little cakes and sandwiches. Probably Shay or Amaya had asked for them to make sure Zoie was eating properly. It always warmed my heart to see my wives caring for one another, especially when Zoie was in a more delicate condition than normal.
“Oh, Asher Brightwood,” Bonnie said cheerfully when she noticed me. “You’re back again!”
“Yeah, I-- wait,” I cut myself off. “Again? What do you mean?”
“Um… you were here a short while ago, weren’t you?” Bonnie said. “While everyone else was in the basement, I saw you heading up to the master bedroom. You said you forgot something you needed for the Council session.”
“No…” I said slowly, and I frowned. “I didn’t. I was at the Council the entire--”
I stopped in the middle of the sentence, right when the realization hit.
Without saying anything to any of the others, I tore past Bonnie, into the hallway, and up the stairs to the master bedroom. Then I wrenched open the door and there, lying in the center of the perfectly-made bed, was a note.
Looking forward to meeting you in person.
--K
P.S. Maybe do something about your security.
I stared at the handwriting, but even though it was unfamiliar, there was only one person to whom it could have belonged.
‘K’ was obviously Kavo Alda. He’d donned my face and used it to just stroll right into my home and leave this note.
I remembered when I’d first come to Aventoll, and I’d looked around the crowds that had gathered when Dagmar demanded I Duel him. I’d thought to myself how some of the crowd looked human, but most had animal traits. Since then, I’d come to realize that just because an Aventollian’s animal traits weren’t obviously visible, didn’t mean they weren’t there. Councilman Erys, for example, was Alemic, but he didn’t have horns or antlers like most of Alem. The only clue to the fact that he was not human had been his pupils.
Over my time in Aventoll, I’d only encountered two people who, up close, looked entirely human. The first was Rylan, but since he was half-human himself, that wasn’t surprising. The second was the memory woman.
When I’d first met Jenner, Zoie tried to pass me off as a nomad from West Alem, which suggested there were more very-human-looking people in Aventoll. Possibly, between the fact the Council and the Order were also based on Alem, and the fact he had been able to walk into my fucking house, that was where Kavo Alda was hiding.
If his ability to face-shift was anything like my time-trance ability, it would be exhausting to maintain over a long period of time, and the more different the face, the more difficult it would be to hold. If he was hiding out in West Alem with mostly-human-looking Aventollians, Kavo Alda might even be able to get away with his own face.
It wasn’t like many people knew what his real face looked like, after all.
But I did. I’d seen Krev’s face. I’d seen Rylan’s. I knew what I was looking for. And I suspected Kavo knew that, which was why he’d left the note to try and scare me off.
“Alex?”
I turned at the sound of Shay’s voice, and I saw the phoenix-woman was standing in the doorway of the room looking worried.
“Is everything alright?” she asked.
In answer, I showed her the note, and her expression hardened.
“That bastard,” she muttered as she handed the note back to me. “None of us even noticed. We were too busy down in the basement.”
“That’s probably the only reason he got as far as he did,” I said. “You all would have recognized him for who he really was in an instant-- especially you and Amaya. And Anwaar, probably, too. You three can sense magic.”
I was honestly relieved none of them had seen him, because I didn’t want to think about what he might have done, who he might have hurt.
“What do you think he was trying to do?” she asked.
“Psych me out, probably,” I said. “But it’s not going to work. The fact that he’s resorting to this at all means he’s scared, means he knows we’re closing in on him. We’ve taken the Council from him, we’ve stolen his chance to take control of the Heart. All he has left is the Order.”
“And we’ll take that from him, too,” Shay swore, and she kissed me softly. “You promise you’re alright?”
“You kidding?” I asked with a grin. “We’re well on the way to reforming the Council, Aventoll is demon-free for the first time since the Scourge even started, and now we have Kavo ‘the Nightmare’ Alda running scared? I don’t think I could be doing any better!”
“Well…” Shay smiled at me very coyly. “I think you could be doing a little better.”
I expected her to kiss me again, but instead she took one of my hands in both of her own and pressed it flat against her abdomen.
It took a moment for me to understand what she was saying, but when I did, my eyes went wide.
“No…” I breathed. “You… You’re really…?”
“I didn’t want to say until I was sure, but yes,” the phoenix-woman told me. “I think… I think when I regained my wings… it was so soon after you and I had made love. Mercedes must have blessed me there, too-- made sure the pregnancy took.”
