Page 96 of The Mercy of Dawn

The palace was in an unusual amount of disarray when Mikael pulled his slightly less hungover ass out of bed for the second time that day.

Not that he was usually one for naps, but when he realized the feisty nymph that he spent the night with made a departure during his mid-morning absence…well, he didn’t think twice about crawling right back into bed.

Just like he hadn’t thought twice about running after Cyril like a fucking lost puppy while another woman was asleep and naked in his bed. The overabundance of lockmead he put back at the barracks was easy to blame for any of his questionable decisions.

Mikael was halfway down the main stairs when the noise and commotion of the foyer hit him—guards and councilors everywhere. Mumbling and arguing, exchanging worried glances.

Something happened while he was asleep.

His mother’s tired eyes caught him from the base of the stairs, where she was standing and talking with Dion, and she waved him down.

Mikael only caught the last few words of their conversation.

“…days and we’ll be back,” Dion said as he leaned down and kissed Runa’s cheek, giving Mikael a curt nod as he skirted around him and headed up the stairs. Mikael empathized immensely with the dark circles framing the Rogue Master’s eyes.

Runa looked up at Mikael with a weak smile.

It looked like a strong breeze might knock her clean off her feet.

“Did you have a late night, Mother?” he asked, slightly scandalized, with a raised brow.

“Not as late as you did, my boy.” Her voice was full of that sarcastic, scolding tone she was so damn good at. “I went to the barracks looking for you this morning, but Ari seemed convinced you wouldn’t be coming up for air for a few days.”

Mikael rubbed his brow.

Hopefully, that was all they saw fit to tell her about last night’s activities.

“Were you drowning your sorrows?”

“Something like that.” He opened his mouth and glanced around the foyer’s chaos before he turned back to his mother. “What in the hells did I miss?”

Runa’s sigh was palpable.

“Another body in Brynnhold. Just like the others. And it was…public.”

Well, fuck.

“Someone important, I take it, with all of this?” He jerked his chin towards the councilmen, all grouped up together near the hall that led back to the royal offices.

“A merchant, apparently, that maintained some rather prosperous trade routes. Someone your father and the others knew.” Runa shook her head and sighed again. “His family didn’t even realize he’d gone missing last night, and his daughter found him when she went to open the shop this morning. The poor girl, I…I can’t imagine.”

Mikael couldn’t either.

“The markets must have been a shitshow.”

His mother scoffed. “Mayhem. And word traveled quickly, too. A few councilors knew before General Ezra even did.”

Oh, that didn’t bode well for anyone.

“How pissed was he?”

“Furious. I thought he was going to kill the poor city commander when she got here, truthfully. It’s all under control now, though. They were just thin on manpower in the city, so Ari sent a few of your King's Guard out to help.” She paused for just a second, giving him a look that he knew said, You would have known if you had been awake. “The rogues from Helia were already there, so they’ve started working. Dion and Cyril will head there as well to join them. Ah, speaking of which…”

He followed his mother’s eyes across the foyer to where Cyril wove through groups of people. Judging by the leather satchel in her arms, she was coming from the archives. The scribes almost always had one on their person.

They just looked a bit less…frazzled.

Her braid was in pieces, with half of her blouse untucked and wrinkled, but she wore windswept and disheveled remarkably well. Almost better than she’d worn the mask of a well-dressed, highborn lady the night before.