Raving Moon, Lords of the Night Book One

Chapter 16: Magus

Two nights later we received a call while going over the nuances of elven law and how those laws applied under the King's Law. There'd been another savaging in Rat City. It would be the fifth attack we knew of, the third I was called in on. The bodies were piling up. Ariane and I requisitioned a driver and continued our discussion while we rode to Stygia.

"I don't understand the 3rd article of the elven treaties," Ariane said from the passenger seat. "Are Rift Wardens considered thrones or not? The verbiage is a bit confusing on the matter." She'd shouted shotgun as our driver pulled up.

"The treaty allows the elven settlements to police themselves. Rift Wardens are not thrones, but they have a special mandate giving them authority to enforce the King's Law within the elf lands."

"So they're peacekeepers, but not pledged to the throne. Interesting."

"What's that mean for us?" the driver asked.

"It means in the absence of a throne the rift wardens represent The King." I flipped to the relevant pages in the leather bound book Ariane had taken from the library. "We seldom venture into the elf lands, but when we do the wardens act as deputies."

"I didn't know that." The driver took us down 1st Avenue, following the signs towards the river crossing.

A lot of instructors neglected the histories and treaties in favor of practical interactions and current policies. I knew Ariane would need to be twice as good as any other young throne if she wanted to succeed. I handed her the book. She wrote down the page numbers and let the book flip close. From the back, I could see the muscle in her jaw tensing.

"So the elves have been allowed to police themselves for thousands of years. That doesn't seem fair."

"Yeah it does," The driver interjected. "Lycanthropes are inherently aggressive and savage. They need closer supervision."

I shook my head, hearing Captain Hawkins in his words.

"That's not only incorrect, but bigoted. That kind of ignorance is inappropriate."

"Is it, sir? No offense, miss, but I listened to a lecture by Captain Hawkins on this exact topic a few months ago."

A low growl escaped Ariane's throat. She stared out the window, presumably ignoring our driver, but our conversation clearly had her beast's attention.

"How many lycanthropes do you know personally?"

"None, sir, but-"

"No. Listen, and drive," I said. I had to be careful how I worded my rebuttal. I didn't want to challenge the captain in front of the rank and file, sowing dissent was not my intention. "The lycanthropes makeup the same percentage of the community as we do, but we commit nearly double the amount of crimes."

"Isn't that because of the increased policing, sir?"

"There's no correlation to that." I shook my head. I'd had the conversation more times than I cared to count and I still didn't know how to make them understand. "The King's mandate is to police all citizens with equal justice regardless of species and ethnicity. It's what you swore to when you offered up your sword."

"Yes, sir. Sorry, sir."

The van lapsed into silence. I leaned back and watched the nightlights whip past as we crossed over from Tartarus to Stygia. The driver focused on the road, and Ariane read through the text. The skyscraper forest people associated with the name Gorgon City made way for massive apartment buildings, factories, and the occasional sports arena. Gorgon was a collection of urban wasteland, walled off suburban kingdoms, bridges, tunnels, bustling harbors, and mazes of crisscrossing railways. All of it tied together by an everburning string of colored lights. I let my mind wander until the driver said we'd arrived at our destination.