The Bounty Hunter

Chapter Forty One

Chapter Forty One

They were working to undo Lassirus’ work the next morning when Finred emerged, his hair still tousled and his eyes bleary. Suddenly he started as he saw Favia and he hurried over to her, placing his hands on her shoulders as if he was checking that she was real. “I thought you were dead.”

She shook her head. “Surprise?” she tried as he embraced her, clutching her to him tightly. “Why did you think that?”

“Lassirus said… I don’t know why I listened to him,” he mumbled.

“You couldn’t have known any different,” she said with an attempt at a cavalier grin. “But no, I’m not.”

“I’m glad,” he said seriously. He released her and she moved back over to the table they had been sitting round. “Now you’re here you can help us work. We need to… fix whatever Lassirus did.”

“Are my parents helping you?” he asked as he took a seat.

Favia studied a small knot in the wooden table as she replied, “No.”

“Why not?”

“We… can’t find them,” she whispered.

“What?” he exclaimed. “Are you serious?” She pressed her lips together in a thin line and nodded once as Finred’s shoulders slumped. He leapt out of his chair and was at the door before he said, “I… can’t help you at the moment. I have to… go.”

The door banged shut behind him and Favia raised her eyes to the ceiling, taking a number of deep breaths before she returned her gaze to the people sitting opposite her. “Right so we need to recruit people to take the message to the outlying settlements,” she started, massaging her temple as she tried to focus on the task at hand.

“And Lassirus’ head is on show outside,” Hergun continued.

“Technically no laws he implemented can be repealed until we have a King,” Ravina sighed, “but we can just remove them - nobody’s going to complain about it and it hasn’t been very long… We do need a new monarch though. We’re going to have to crown Thannaerus soon or otherwise someone else might try to seize power…”

“He won’t take very kindly to that,” Favia muttered before turning serious, “but the situation with Pallia is still unstable and once Sullniane is safe we’ll have to contact them about Varenna… Hopefully she made it back safely. I guess she must have done or Arthan wouldn’t have returned when Thannaerus sent him away…” She trailed off and stared intently at the table, blinking back tears. “So we’ll have to…”

“Where are all of the old advisers?” Hergun asked. “I know we found a couple of bodies but surely there were more?”

“I suppose most of them went into hiding,” Ravina said. “Hopefully they’ll begin to resurface soon as the news spreads enough and they see that it’s true and not a trick engineered by Lassirus.”

The days passed slowly as they contacted the other cities and hired people to find anyone loyal to Lassirus who would create trouble. Every so often another old friend of the King and Queen would appear and lend their help too and, before too long, there was a makeshift council sitting in the palace and working to remove any evidence of Lassirus’ brief reign. Safita, however, was less than helpful during this period - she had appeared on the third day looking much the same as she had before but had had no idea how to help them. “I’m out of my depth,” she had said when called on to offer her opinion, “sorry. I’m clearly much better at killing people than tidying up after them.” A couple of the advisers had exchanged worried glances and, once she had drifted out of the room, one of them had weakly offered his disapproval. “Usually she would be sent to the Outlands or executed… We can’t have killers here…”