Fantasy of Fire (The Tainted Accords #3)(69)
Whatever happens today, at least Sanjay and Fiona will be okay. I breathe a sigh of relief that something has gone right.
“Thank you,” I murmur, moving away. I stop at the delegates’ table, sitting next to Sanjay. When Fiona is distracted, talking to Greta, I swoop in.
“I tried, I swear!” He cuts me off before I can begin. “Every time I asked to speak to him, he waved me off.”
Damn it, Jovan! He knew Sanjay was one of my witnesses. I knew this pig-headedness stemmed from his desperation not to lose yet another person from his life, but it was getting beyond ridiculous. If only Macy had told him the truth. One of my witnesses was too scared to confess and Jovan was avoiding Sanjay. He’d heard Ice’s reports from the man’s own lips. He knew Blaine had been in the pits and talking to dodgy criminals. I’d told him I had written proof.
I was officially at a loss as to how I could get Jovan to listen. He’d left me with no other choice. Every instinct in my body was telling me Blaine had to be taken down as quickly as possible. I had to do this now. Today.
I remember I have good tidings for Sanjay and quietly relate the news after giving him instructions for the afternoon. His joy is so blatant that I scold him to tone it down. He still turns to Fiona and kisses her long and hard. She sits stunned afterward, looking at him uncertainly. Kissing her like that is something the old Sanjay would’ve done. Fiona doesn’t know what to make of his action and turns away.
Everyone has their orders. My witnesses will be waiting in the small room behind the meeting chamber for me to call them forward.
“Has anyone seen Rhone?” I ask.
Adnan looks up from the object he’s working with. “I haven’t seen him in several days,” he says.
“Three, I think,” Roman says. It must be hard for him. Things between Roman and Jacquiline appear to still be unresolved. They’ve been sitting at separate tables since I revealed my secret.
I debate whether there’s time to check the kennels again before the next session.
“The king’s finished eating,” Sanjay whispers. My stomach flips and I stand, walking up to the throne platform.
“King Jovan. Would you mind if my brother sat in on a council session? I think the experience will serve him well.”
Jovan immediately approves my request. His expression is blank. Perhaps he’s just recalling my words last night, my warning. He knows I’m up to something. It’s only a slight reassurance. He moves to turn away.
“Jovan!” I call. He pauses to look back over his shoulder. “Enter through the back room,” I say softly.
Olandon steps into place beside me as we leave the food hall. I’ve already given him his instructions, which is lucky, because I’m too nervous to speak right now. We’re the first to reach the room, my anxiety making me punctual. I fidget, preoccupied with controlling my emotion as the room fills. Blaine takes his seat – hopefully unaware of what is to befall him.
Ten minutes go by and Jovan hasn’t entered. At first the advisors talk amongst themselves, but soon, when twenty minutes go by, they begin to speculate on Jovan’s whereabouts.
His tardiness is answered a second later as he enters, not through the hall entrance, but through the door behind his throne. He listened to me, but my nervousness doesn’t abate, because I still don’t know if he’ll be letting me speak today. An ultimatum is before him; will he choose to remain loyal to Blaine? Or to trust in me?
He’s just walked into a room full of my witnesses. But has he sent them away? Has he destroyed all my hard work? Or has he opened his eyes? Is he willing to give me a chance?
“Veni!” I curse under my breath.
“The king is pale,” Landon wonders. “I’ve never seen him so unsettled.”
I’m shaking inside. What was he going to do? I’d worked so hard to orchestrate this! I half-rise from my chair, on my way to demand an audience with him.
“We were to discuss strategies for food distribution to the Outer Rings,” Jovan booms. Olandon pulls me back down to the hard stone of my chair. I tense, ready to jump back up.
“But there has been a change of plan,” he continues.
My mouth dries as I look up.
“Tatuma Olina, I believe you have a matter you wish to bring to my advisors’ attention,” he says softly.
Hot relief floods through me and I slump in my chair from the weight of it. He’s going to let me speak. Jovan chose me. For a minute, I can’t think past his words. Unfortunately, when I do, his tone of voice raises more questions. Jovan is allowing me to speak, but he’s not convinced.
Olandon prods me in the side. I stand, hoping no one can see me trembling as I make my way around the table. This is it. I just hope my legs don’t give way underneath me.
I clear my mind of everything: Jovan’s discovery of the truth, the advisors’ confusion, my own worry. Calm.
I straighten my shoulders and begin.
“Why are the Outer Rings rebelling? It’s a question I’ve heard a hundredfold since joining you in council. We have some of those answers now … but I believe the real question has been lost. The question we should be asking is, why now?” I clasp my hands behind my back and pace in measured steps.
“The Outer Rings have always been full of poverty – according to your own accounts – so why has the rebellion come just as the Tatum’s army hovers on the edge of Glacium? Especially as the poor here are typically unaware of the interworld problems Glacium faces, having to focus all their strength on surviving one day to the next. Could this timing just be coincidence?”