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No one else had entered.
“Where’s Adrian?” I asked.
“He pulled every guard still loyal to him into the formal court and sealed the doors,” Lenora said. “I got these four here first. Their blood opened the room and sent the witness call to every house tied to Harrowmere. The room will hold their account even if Adrian stops them reaching the formal court.”
The swordsman with the broken ribs braced one hand on the ledge. “Commander Cade said you could remove the regent’s mark and that the Blood King wouldn’t kill us afterwards. Both claims sounded fucking unlikely, but she was right.”
“Lenora,” she corrected.
He glanced at the commander’s seal on her shoulder. “You still have the rank.”
“Adrian gave me that rank. Use my name while we prove what he did with it.”
Stellan’s hand settled at the back of my waist. He stayed on the inner side of the room and watched the sealed outer door.
“What does the room need from me?” I asked.
Lenora pointed to the silver raven in the floor. “Blood and a clear accusation. It’ll test your right to bring the charge before it accepts their memories.”
“And if it rejects me?”
“The door opens and Adrian keeps calling you an intruder.”
I stepped onto the raven.
The silver warmed under my shoes. A narrow point rose from the bird’s beak, sharp enough to draw blood without the sword. I pressed my thumb against it.
One drop struck the raven’s head.
White light spread around my feet and climbed the walls. A woman’s voice filled the room, calm and empty of emotion.
“Edith Ellison carried the recognised line. Her daughter died before the claim passed. On Edith Ellison’s death, her granddaughter Bryony Ellison became the direct successor.”
My breath caught despite knowing the words were coming.
Mum had died with Dad when I was eight. Edith still carried the claim then. She’d raised me, protected the truth and left me the choice she’d refused Adrian.
The light tightened around my thumb.
“State the charge.”
I looked across the dividing line. “Adrian Rook used his authority as regent to put blood commands into Harrowmere’s guards and force them to attack the recognised heir and Blood King. He murdered one of those guards when the man resisted. I’m asking the court to hold the complete memory and remove Adrian’s right to command Stellan’s restraints while the charge is heard.”
The red bands around Stellan’s wrists brightened. He didn’t move.
“Witnesses may answer,” the room said.
The woman guard placed both hands on the first bowl. The mark over her heart began to glow.
“Adrian ordered us to the service gate and said the heir had freed a violent prisoner,” she said. “When Lenora questioned the order, he opened his wrist and marked us. I fought him. He held my face against the wall until I swallowed his blood, then ordered me to kill Bryony Ellison. The command remained active until Stellan Varen cut it from my heart.”
Her blood rose from the shallow bowl and spread across the wall.
The garden appeared in red and white light. We watched Adrian mark the guards, throw Lenora through the damaged gate and drive a blade into the man who tried to stop him. The memory continued after Adrian left. It showed Stellan cutting the marks from the survivors and Harrowmere releasing them.
The image ended with the dead guard striking the ground.
The swordsman stepped to the second bowl. “The Blood King had every chance to kill us. He killed the first guard because that man was attacking him and the heir. He kept the rest of us alive after we tried to do the same.”
