Page 214 of Sunsplitter

This wasn’t just fear burning Antal from the inside out. It was rage. Two and a half centuries of building fury.

He looked up to the gallery.

Fionamara wieldedherrage like the keenest blade. She was no mere mortal looking down upon him, not with that Void-black sclera, the silver iris blazing. Gasps sounded as other daeyari followed Antal’s gaze, finally noticing this creature in their midst.

Avroz looked as well.

There, another uncharacteristic break in his facade. His eyes widened on the human he’d cast aside, on the inconceivable thing she’d woven—that Void-hewn eye Antal had hidden during their last encounter. Avroz bared his fangs, as if already contemplating her throat.

Fionamara paid none of them any heed. A force of destruction, this woman. She’d entered Antal’s life by demolishing half his capitol building onaccident. Now, raw and intentional spite settled in her glower as she drew back her arm.

Then hurled the metal box across the council floor.

Antal caught it. Such a small, simple thing. The metal was warm from Fionamara’s touch, a mote of her strength passed on to him. He unlatched it. The antler tip sat inside. Gold no longer glowed against the lacquer black, the magician who’d cast it dead. The glyphs were still burned into the surface. A scent of sand and sunlight drifted out the open box.

Qirza’s nose twitched.

“Avroz is missing an antler tip,” Antal said. “The aedari placed a marker on his antler. He escaped and severed the piece, but left it where the aedari could track it, on the Winter Plane.”

Qirza took the box. Her nose wrinkled as she plucked the antler tip between her claws. Another crack showed through Avroz’s mask, a mortified flash when he saw the evidence he thought the aedari had stolen.

Heat sparked in Antal’s chest. Avroz hadn’t prepared for this.

They might have a chance.

“Do you have witnesses?” Qirza asked. “Any who can confirm these claims?”

As soon as hope dared swell, it swiftly extinguished.

“No, councilor,” Antal admitted. “Besides the slain aedari—”

A shout came from above.

“I’ll speak as witness!”

Antal reeled, looking up to see Syvr at the rail, no longer trying to drag Fionamara away. They stood with eyes bright, tail high and lashing. Antal watched, dumbfounded.

Avroz, equally so, his tail betraying an agitated flick.

“This isn’t proper procedure,” Qirza warned. “Counciltestimonials must be officially logged in advance—”

“I traveled with Avroz to the Contested Planes.” Syvr spokeoverQirza, either brave or reckless. “To track an aedari sighting. We caught the scent. Avroz suggested we split apart.”

Ixli stepped forward on Fionamara’s other side, an angry beast—and a wall against the restless daeyari of the gallery.

“Avroz missed our agreed meeting point,” she called down to the council. “We found him back home, with his antler broken. He claimed he’d killed the aedari, alone.”

“But he never sent us to retrieve the body,” Syvr said. “He claimed the territory lord would handle it, but I never heard anything more. AndIusually know these things!”

Antal had no words. He stared up at Fionamara, Syvr, Ixli, all standing at his defense. Suddenly, he wasn’t drowning anymore. Avroz’s ire wasn’t so debilitating, no longer levied at Antal alone, eyes flicking between his son and two traitorous kezri.

Voices roared through the gallery, daeyari speaking too loud for even Qirza’s shouts to silence. On the main floor, several other council members were on their feet. The chamber guards emerged from their shadowed posts, normally invisible in their black silviamesh and dark metal armor, forming a protective ring around the council.

“This is absurd,” Avroz said. “Nothing but unfounded claims, the delusions of young daeyari. Stressful circumstances invite fanciful tales.”

He stepped closer, teeth bared like an admonishing father. That jolt through Antal was fear. Guilt. The reflexive pain that came from disappointing Avroz.

Qirza stepped between them.