Sweep of the Heart (Innkeeper Chronicles #5)(75)

Technically nothing she said was a lie so far. She just didn’t specify when exactly the deception had been discovered.

Vercia was frowning. Yes, I had no idea where Orata was going with this either, but apparently this was a cue because the guards started marching down the bridge to the central section, Vercia between them.

“However, one courageous member of our team, the one who was responsible for vetting his candidacy, made the decision to permit him to continue. She felt she had a duty to take this chance to expose his atrocities to the entire galaxy at just the right time, when everyone’s attention would be on the event, so all would be aware of exactly what he has done.”

Again, not a lie.

“Dominion, that public servant is Vercia Denoma. She is our hero.”

I directed the nearest spotlight onto the platform. It caught Vercia in its radiance. I zoomed the screens on her face. She was doing a stunning impression of a deer in headlights. The guards around her snapped to attention. I had seen them do this exact move in Kosandion’s presence. They were her “honor guard.”

“It is thanks to her tireless efforts that we can now stand here, see these crimes for ourselves, and witness justice being done. I brought this to you today to remind you to be vigilant. Evil is insidious. It can worm its way into your inner circle and stab you in the back.”

Oh wow.

“If it wasn’t for Vercia’s efforts, we might have been unaware of the evil that is Cumbr Adgi. She is the reason he has reached this moment and the reason I can now expose him to all of you. Everything that follows is thanks to her. Today we honor you, Vercia Denoma. The Dominion owes you a great debt.”

Orata bowed. Behind her Resven and Miralitt bowed as well.

Pivor’s father indulged his children. He spoiled them, and he was in the business where a terrible reputation was an asset. He couldn’t afford to look weak or suffer disrespect. If anything happened to his offspring, he would retaliate. It was simply good business, and Orata had just told him exactly who was responsible for his son’s downfall. Orata hadn’t just thrown Vercia under the bus. She’d picked the bus up and dropped it on Vercia’s head.

The fear in Vercia’s wide-open eyes told me that she understood exactly what had happened.

Kosandion’s voice echoed through the arena. “Cumbr Adgi ar’Muterzen.”

I spun the stone pillar, so Pivor faced the throne.

“Do you have anything to say?” Kosandion asked.

Pivor grinned and this time it looked psychotic. “Fuck off, you dumb prick. You want a piece of me, be a man and get it yourself.”

Kosandion’s face was glacial, as if carved out of an iceberg. “Cumbr Adgi ar’Muterzen, you are hereby expelled from the selection. Your sponsor is disqualified. Their asks will not be honored.”

“I have something to say,” the largest Murder Beak shrieked.

Kosandion nodded.

I moved the lights onto the Murder Beak section and slid Pivor’s pillar toward it, far enough to stay out of reach. The largest bird rose. She was huge with rust and crimson plumage. Her enormous beak could crack a cow’s femur in half. I had seen it happen, because Orro served them bovine bones when they felt peckish and wanted a fun snack.

The leader of the Murder Beaks took a step forward and stepped onto the rail bordering their section. The wicked spurs on her legs were sheathed in razor-sharp metal, and they glinted in the light of the arena. Her talons gripped the stone and squeezed, chipping it. She glared at Pivor with the unblinking focus of a predator.

“Go back to your father, pirate. Give him my message. Your skulls are soft. Your brains are delicious. We are coming.”

She opened her beak and let out a deafening shriek. Every feather on her body stood erect. Pivor was thirty feet away from her, but he jerked back in his seat.

“The Dominion acknowledges the vow of vengeance,” Kosandion said. “We do not bear the Murder Beaks any ill will and hold them blameless in this affair.”

“Fight me, you fucking asshole!” Pivor howled, twisting in his seat. “Fight me.”

“Sadly, someone else has a prior claim,” Kosandion said. “Innkeeper, we are finished.”

Sean raised his hand and his voice whispered through the arena, quiet but heard by every creature there.

“Your welcome is withdrawn.”

The architecture of the inn folded above the doorway, spinning, collapsing, and a door rushed at us and flung itself wide open, revealing Baha-char’s sunshine. The roots of the inn spilled from the ceiling, yanked Pivor off his chair, and hurled him through the door. It slammed shut.

The feed on the screen showed Pivor landing on the big stone tiles paving the alley. He rolled, stopped, spat into the dirt, and got up, his chin jutting into the air. He adjusted his clothes…

A familiar woman dropped from the upper balcony, wrapped in a shawl.

He squinted at her.

She pulled her shawl back, revealing the faint outline of scales on her face.

“Do you remember me, Cumbr Adgi?”

He laughed.

“You beheaded my father.” Long orange blades slipped into her hand from within the shawl’s folds.

“You starved my mother to death.”

She started toward him.

“You butchered my sister.”

He kept laughing.