Page 40 of Bonded To The Arena Master

Korgath intended both.

He attacked House Obsidius.

He tried to kill Beatrix.

My claws close around the edge of the nearest worktable. Metal folds beneath them.

Zog watches the damage. "I need that table."

I release it.

"Can you prove the caster's origin?"

"Not yet. The pulse residue is tangled with the regulator discharge. Give me a day, two assistants who can still see straight, and authority to inspect the eastern wards."

"Granted. Preserve every fragment. Speak of the caster only to me and Grolm."

"Secrecy will not repair the core."

"No. It will prevent Korgath from learning what evidence survived."

Zog's yellow eyes narrow. He looks again at the white scar.

"Korgath," he says.

"You heard no name."

"I hear very little when repairs are expensive."

I leave him shouting measurements at his assistants.

Grolm meets me outside the chamber. His armor has been changed, but dust remains in the seams of his bone-white carapace.

"Beatrix is secured on the upper western level," he reports. "The physician found bruising and vapor irritation, nothing broken. She dismissed him after he suggested a sleeping draught."

"Wise."

"She demanded access to her salvaged medicines."

"Give it to her after the jars are examined for contamination."

"And her guard?"

The question carries the weight of our previous arguments. Before today, I confined her to upper levels and called it protection. She answered by building value inside the space I granted. Grolm warned that her influence divided loyalty. I ruled that strength she brought into House Obsidius belonged to the house.

Now a rival has turned that strength into a target.

"Two guards outside her quarters at all times," I say. "Direct watch. Rotate them every four hours. Anyone seeking entry is searched and named in the record."

"She will object."

"She may object while alive."

"Does the order extend to her apothecary?"

"It extends wherever she goes. No unscheduled route. No unguarded market contact. No alteration without my authority."

Grolm studies me with the caution of a captain deciding whether protection has become instability.