Kings Game

Chapter 78 - King's Blood

(1)

Roran started his day as he started most, with breakfast and tea. Then he polished his sword, donned the shimmering robes Vassilian had given him, and headed out for the day. His days had been busy lately. While his primary duty was still guarding Prince Vassilian, he was now dragged into meetings and briefings whenever he visited Sanctuary Tasos. Pelkha was pushing him constantly to be more involved with deciphering intelligence reports and planning responses to the increased number of infiltrators within the city.

Roran, overall, hadn't been too worried about the infiltrators. Partially because he'd been distracted by Kell's bout and their subsequent invasion of the King's archives, and partially because he had trouble fathoming what the infiltrators could do.

The King's Army was contained within the Armory, an arena in King Balaki's section of the city, and the docks that housed the floating ships that circled the city. They were well staffed with etched soldiers and compartmentalized. Attacking the King's Army would be a costly endeavor. Outside of the Army the only other targets were Kings themselves, which didn't warrant any concern, and the civilian population, which was a pointless endeavor in cruelty that Roran discounted as improbable at best.

His biggest concerns were in assassination attempts of political figures—such as Darling and Prince Vassilian—and potential supply chain interruptions. The infiltrators had been slowly stealing blasting powder, a resource needed for mining fairy rock out of the mountains. There were also reports of fairy rock itself going missing. Not enough to affect the empire's bottom line, but enough that it showed up in the manifests. There were reports of strange activities within the Crucible, but Roran didn't think they were connected. The Crucible was a strange place and there was little of value there.

Roran was lost in these thoughts when he boarded the elevator and began the ride up to the inner confines of Sanctuary Tasos. Sarah gave him a quick squeeze on the shoulder before barricading herself within his shadow, hiding from the copious layers of etchings designed to keep creatures like her out.

As soon as the elevator doors opened, Pelkha was there waiting for him, a ledger in hand and her brow furrowed into deep ridges. She looked like she had a headache and that Roran was about to add to it.

"Were you waiting for me?" Roran asked.

"I saw you walking up the street," Pelkha said. "I wanted to talk to you about your theory in the last meeting."

"Theory?"

"About political assets being prime targets. I think you are onto something. Ever since the Queen's Ball, we've noticed an uptick in saboteur activities. This correlates directly with the number of nobles and ambassadors visiting the city. I've decided to take your advice and increase security around them until they leave. Thankfully, they should be heading home by the end of the week."

"That's good to hear. Any new developments around the missing fairy rock?"

Pelkha shrugged. "Nobody is worried about a few tonnes of missing rock. The most harm they could do with it is power a ship or two. I'm more concerned with assigning soldiers to prime assassination targets. That reminds me, I've assigned Orlas to Lady Darlinea."

"Is that necessary? She's already guarded by Kell."

Pelkha raised her eyebrows at Roran. She shifted her stance, propping her hip against the wall. Roran half expected her to roll her eyes.

"The Living Storm is a fine Champion," said Pelkha. "But she's just that, a Champion. You lot are wonderful fighters, but you're not obedient soldiers, as you've so gracelessly reminded me in recent days."