The Shattered Way (Champions of the Crystal Book 7)

Chapter 14.2

Pissed off didn't even begin to cover it. Ford was nearly hysterical in her head, his emotion overpowering his ability to put his thoughts in words. Sabrina had to block off the link to deal with the aftermath of Steyrian's assassination attempt. She tried her best to keep everything quiet, but she realized she had failed to do so when Commander Kimta's arrival was followed closely by Mukryilla's. Steyrian sat in a chair, his hands bound, looking resigned as the Praxatillians all glared at him.

"Who hired you?" Sabrina asked.

"The name isn't important; you don't know him."

"Is it the same man who wants to kill Ford?"

"I don't know. No one would ever ask me to take a contract against Ford," Steyrian said. "The guild rules protect us from being required to kill a friend. Spouses aren't part of the rule, however. I didn't take this contract willingly—it's not a paid job. It was an assignment. If I fail at it, I'll lose my place in the guild and become the next target for the journeymen wanting their shot at a full membership."

"You have failed at it. And you won't be seeing Draxon again in any case," Mukryilla said coldly. "You'll spend the rest of your hopefully short life in a prison cell in the worse place I can find. And I expect one of your fellow prisoners will quickly finish you off for trying to rob this planet of one of its most loved heroes."

Sabrina looked at her, surprised. She had seen Mukryilla angry before, but not venomous. That was nothing compared to Ranja's expression, though. If looks could kill, Steyrian would certainly be in the throes of an agonizing death. "Steyrian," she said, "this is important. I can plead leniency for you if you help me understand what I'm up against."

He gave her a rueful grin. "If your friends here don't arrange an accident for me in prison, Ford will probably kill me with his bare hands the first chance he gets. My only hope was that I would be getting him out of a political arrangement he didn't want, but I know now that's not true."

"Don't underestimate the help I can give you," Sabrina said. "What happens to the assignment now that you've botched it? Does it get assigned to someone else?"

He sighed. "That's up to the guild boss. She may decide it's too dangerous and cancel the contract. I think she only assigned it to me because she's working on eliminating those of us who might challenge her for the top slot in the next round of elections."

"Let's execute him and launch an attack on Draxon," Mukryilla said.

Sabrina gave her an incredulous look and murmured under her breath, "Are you playing the bad cop? Because you're scaring me."

Mukryilla rolled her eyes. "I'm not playing at anything. We have to retaliate for an action like this. It's not acceptable. Draxon cannot be allowed to continue behaving like this."

"I agree," Kimta said.

"We are not starting a war on my watch," Sabrina said. "Look. We all need to calm down." Ford, that means you! Stop yelling! I can't think! "If it's any comfort to you all, I don't think he was trying very hard. If he hadn't taken the time to apologize, I wouldn't have had time to stop him."

Ranja snorted, and the others looked skeptical. Sabrina sighed. "Here's what we'll do, for now. First—"

She blinked out of sight.

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"—let's get back to the—" Sabrina stopped, looking around at Khediva's control deck. "Oh. Mara, Treva's going to shoot somebody if I don't get back immediately!"

"Don't worry," Mara said. "I will put you back immediately after you left. Are you all right?"

"Yes, I'm fine. Not a scratch. Miah taught me a few good tactics in my sleep," Sabrina said as her friend came forward to hug her.