“Are you certain of your reply?” Ichan asked with an arched brow.
Ichan was typical of his breeding and financial net worth, refined to the point of femininity in spite of his gender, dressed in a coordinated suit and tie with every hair in place. Beside him, Tyhm, the solicitor, was the same only even thinner, as if his considerable mental prowess sapped his caloric intake.
And both of them, as well as the warrior, were prepared to wait for the answer they’d been given to change.
Abalone’s eyes went to an ancient scroll that had been framed and mounted on the wall by the double doors. He couldn’t read the small Old Language characters from across the room, but there was no need to go in for a close-up. He knew each one by heart.
“I was unaware that there was a question posed of me,” Abalone said.
Ichan smiled falsely and strolled around, fingering a sterling silver bowl of red apples, the collection of Cartier desk clocks on a side table, the bronze bust of Napoleon on the desk by the windowed alcove.
“We are, of course, interested in your position.” The aristocrat stopped in front of a pen-and-ink drawing on a stand. “This is your daughter, I believe?”
Abalone’s chest got tight.
“She is about to be presented, is she not?” Ichan looked over his shoulder. “Yes?”
Abalone wanted to shove the male away from the image.
Of all things that were considered “his,” his precious young, the only offspring he and his shellan had had, was the moon in his night sky, the joy that marked the household’s hours, his compass for the future. And he wanted so many things for her—not in glymera terms, though. No, he wished for her what her mahmen and he had found—at least for the years until his female had been called unto the Fade.
He wished for his daughter abiding love with a male of worth who would take care of her.
If she was not allowed to be presented to society? That might never happen.
“I’m sorry,” Ichan drawled. “Did you answer and I missed the reply?”
“She is due to be offered soon, yes.”
“Yes.” The aristocrat smiled again. “I know that you worry appropriately at her prospects. As a father myself, I am in your shoes—with daughters, you need to make sure they are mated well.”
Abalone didn’t release his breath until the male resumed his lazy loop around the room. “Does it not give you a degree of security to think that there are such clear demarcations within our society? Corrective breeding has resulted in a superior group of individuals, and we are required by custom and common sense to preserve our associations with like members of our race. Can you imagine your daughter married to a commoner?”
That last word lingered, carrying the pronunciation of an expletive and the threat of a cocked gun.
“No, you would not,” Ichan answered for himself.
In truth, Abalone wasn’t so certain. If the male loved her enough? But that was not the point of all this, was it.
Ichan paused to glance over the oil paintings that hung in front of the family’s vast collection of shelved first editions. The artwork was, naturally, of ancestors, with the most prominent among them mounted over the marble fireplace’s grand mantel.
A famous male in the history of the race, and of Abalone’s bloodline. The Noble Redeemer, as he was known among the family.
Abalone’s sire.
Ichan waved his hand around, including not just the room, but the house, all of its contents, and all the persons under its roof. “This is worthy of conservation, and the only way that happens is if the Old Ways are respected. The tenets that we, the glymera, seek to uphold are the very basis of what you hope to provide your daughter—without them, who knows where she could end up.”
Abalone closed his eyes briefly.
And didn’t that make the aristocrat assume a kinder, gentler voice. “That King you just spoke of so reverently—he’s mated to a half-breed.”
Abalone’s lids flipped open. As with all members of the Council, he had been informed of the royal union, and that was the extent of it. “I thought he was mated unto Marissa, daughter of Wallen.”
“In fact, not. The ceremony took place just a year before the raids, and the assumption was that the King had followed through on the promise to Havers’s sister—but suspicions arose when Marissa was subsequently unioned with a Brother. Later, it came out to us through Tyhm”—he nodded to the lawyer—“that Wrath had taken another female—who is not of our race.”
There was a pause, as if Abalone were being given the chance to gasp at the revelation. When he didn’t become woozy from shock, Ichan leaned in and spoke slowly—as if to a mental deficient. “If they have offspring, the heir to the throne would be a quarter human.”
“No one is of truly pure blood,” Abalone murmured.
“More’s the pity. Surely you will agree, however, that there is a tremendous difference between distant human relations … and a King who is substantially of that horrid race. But even if you are not offended—and surely that is not the case—the Old Laws provide the dictate. The King is to be a full-bred male—and Wrath, son of Wrath, cannot provide that for us in an heir.”
“Assuming this is true—”
“It is.”
“What do you expect of me?”
“I’m simply making you aware of the situation. I am nothing more than a concerned citizen.”
Then why come with the violent backup? “Well, I appreciate your keeping me informed—”
“The Council is going to have to take action.”
“In what form?”
“There will be a vote. Soon.”
“To disavow any heirs?”
“To remove the King. His authority is such that he could change the laws at any time, eradicating the provision and further weakening the race. He must be taken down lawfully as soon as possible.” The aristocrat glanced over at the drawing of Abalone’s daughter. “I trust that at the Council’s special session, your bloodline will be well represented by your seal and your colors.”
Abalone glanced at the fighter leaning against his wall. The male seemed barely to breathe, but he was far from asleep.
How long until ruination came upon this house if he did not pledge his vote? And what form would it take?
He imagined his daughter mourning the loss of her only parent and being forsaken for the rest of her future. Himself tortured and then killed in some gruesome way.