213: Fallout

As they left, there was a silence over the room that was quickly broken by Hari, of all people.

“Who tried to kill Trevor? Where are they?”

Jen was, however, shivering. “Travelling that way was horrible,” she muttered.

Liane quickly explained. “Dead. They killed themselves after they hit him in the hand. I don’t think they realised he is immune to poison.”

Milo was taking a seat, just listening to everything, while Crisplet was creating an ash model of the dead assassin on the ground before it broke down and created a cloud of ash.

“Yeah, Crisplet brings a good point. The body of the assassin itself started to break down and become a poison cloud, which would have been in the middle of the room filled with kingdom nobles,” Liane said.

“So it was an attack on the kingdom, then?” Milo said.

Liane shrugged.

Lily, who had been pacing back and forth, was looking into the distance every now and then, clearly agitated.

“We’ll be okay with everyone here if you want to join Sylverith. You’ll hear and see through the scarf if we need help. Just don’t render everyone unable to speak,” I said, running my hand along her back.

“It might also be worth looking around to see if anyone is not where they should be. It was said that all nobles should be in the throne room and all staff should be collected together as well. If anyone is outside of these two spots, put them there,” Liane commented.

Lily seemed to take this to heart and vanished immediately.

“I feel sorry for anyone not where they should be,” Jen shook her head.

Hari, who still had a very serious look, pulled the conversation back. “Please focus. This isn’t a joking matter.”

Milo nodded. “He’s right. At best, they just wanted to kill Trev for some reason. Could be allies of the nobles who have lost their positions. It could be someone who is seeing you rise too quickly. It could even be the same group who tried to kill you last time.”

“Or it could be someone who wanted to kill you purely to cause Lily and Sylverith to react,” Hari added.

“Why would someone want them to attack the city? Innocent people would die,” I said, not comprehending why anyone would want that to happen.

Hari nodded. “That would be the point, Trev. To many nobles, and especially to kingdoms as a whole, life is cheap. They might have seen you as a way to get rid of a rival, but it also means unless we can work out who did it, it’ll happen again.”

“Won’t they think they got me, though?” I asked.

Hari shook his head. “Whoever it is, even if they have an insider here at the palace who gets caught, it won’t be too hard to find out if it was successful or not, and unless you want to go into hiding and secrecy again, which honestly we were useless at, it’s not worth pretending you’re dead.”

“That wasn’t the only thing to happen, either. Morlin showed up in the middle of the event, though no one could see he was there. Even as we had a conversation, no one reacted,” I commented.

Hari looked concerned. “Do you think he was responsible for the attempt?”

Milo shook his head. “No, not at all. For all the abilities and power he has demonstrated, he wouldn’t need to use an assassin to kill Trevor. He’d just walk up and do it himself. If anything, it’s more surprising he didn’t stop it. Surely he’d have been able to sense it?”

Jen, who was now curled into a ball with her knees to her chest, “It’s possible he knew it wouldn’t work, though, right?”

I shrugged. “He said he was there because it was a great way to get information, and left when Sylverith was on her way.”

There was silence as everyone seemed to be figuring out what happened and what to do moving forward, when Kathrine came through the door.

“Oh, good. You’re all here,” she said with a smile.

“Everything okay out there?” I asked.

Kathrine surprised me when she laughed. “Yes, other than Lily dumping guards into the throne room as well.”

I felt my cheeks turn red. “Sorry about that. She was pacing, so we encouraged her to see if there was anyone where they shouldn’t be and to take them to the throne room or the room holding the staff.”

“Oh, it’s fine. In the end, Father thought it was best anyway, in case it was someone posing as a guard,” she smiled.

Hari sat up. “Are all the guests fine?”

Kathrine nodded. “Yes. A couple were injured when the body fell, but showed no signs of poison. Your parents are also doing fine. They were not near the body and have already been cleared by Sylverith.”

There was a sigh of relief from Hari, though he tried to cover it pretty quickly.

Kathrine fell into a seat, letting out a breath. “There is never a dull moment during one of these dinners, though we’ve not had an assassination attempt this brazen in many years.”

“Who do you think was responsible?” I asked.

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She seemed to think for a moment. “Father is convinced it’s someone from another kingdom. He said he saw red tattoos on their body before they decomposed, and the clothing was not native to this kingdom. The cloak is a rare magical item, so someone put a lot of money into this attempt.”

“That’s concerning,” Milo muttered.

As the conversation went quiet, I couldn’t help but worry. It didn’t matter if I was immune to poison or if Crisplet and Lily could kill my attacker after the fact. Today showed me a weakness, and I would need to figure out how to fix that. Even the phoenix feather would only save me once, but would that even work against someone trying to remove my head?

I was thankful that the first shot they took seemed to bounce off the chest plate I was wearing, but I couldn’t walk around in full dragon scale plate armour. Maybe there was some leather that would be strong enough, though.

The room sat mostly in silence as we all waited. The mood was sombre, and how could it not be? But I finally got to have a good look around the room.

“Wouldn’t these windows pose a safety risk since this is a safe room?” I asked, looking to Kathrine.

“They would, but from the outside they are hidden and appear like regular stone walls. There is always the chance that someone can work out exactly where this room is, but it’s not so easy to scale the wall, then break the barrier and illusion to enter without alerting someone,” Kathrine explained, clearly proud of the security.

“Have you had to use it before?” I couldn’t imagine situations where the royal family would be under threat.

Kathrine nodded. “Twice, outside of today. The first was an attack on the city by an enraged behemoth of a creature around ten years ago.”