Forgotten Embers

41. Consent

In the chambers of the High Court of the King were gathered nine of the ten ruling sages. They stood each in his place before the judgement seat where Zephyr sat. Kallida stood in the place of the second with Dehnhardt standing close behind him. There was an emptiness to his left.

"Where is Blackridge?" Kallida inquired in the form of a harsh whisper directed toward the young man standing behind him.

"Uh..." Kelvin moved his feet, uneasy.

'I wish I knew. He should have been here by now.'

"Like I said, all he told me was that he had some brief business to attend to that demanded his immediate attention," he reiterated to the Inquisitor for what must have been the fifth time, "and he told me to go on with you."

"I know, but I don't like that," Kallida whispered back again.

"Does the Inquisitor have something he would like to share with the Court?" Almauni's voice boomed from the place of the fourth seat of the Wartime Counsel.

Jasper Almauni was a muscular man, large in stature. He was a beastly man with tanned skin, a grizzly beard, and wild hair like raven's locks.

Kelvin froze. 'Some of these men... give me the creeps, and I don't like it. It's amazing, but... I was quite fortunate with my placement. It's good that I didn't make a request, because I wouldn't have had the audacity to ask to be paired with the Archmage, anyway.' He looked to Kallida, who seemed likewise appalled.

"We were merely discussing the whereabouts of the Lord Archmage, who is missing," Kallida sent back sharply, "as you can well see!"

"Yes, where is Master Blackridge?" Zephyr asked curiously, leaning forward, his chin resting on his knuckles with interest. "Mr. Dehnhardt?"

"Ah," Kelvin squeaked, moving a bit to his left and taking a few steps forward. "My Lord the King... and members of the High Court, I... well, I don't know where he is. He said he had business to attend to briefly. That was all," Kelvin told them, stepping back.

"That is highly unusual," Iphor commented.

"It is," the refined Rosenfelt agreed from the eighth seat, "and much more so for Lord Blackridge. He's always so quick to come!"

'Rosenfelt might not have been a bad man to work for,' he thought as he considered the slender man with the wispy white hair, bushy eyebrows, and handlebar mustache. 'Although, domestic affairs isn't exactly my ideal position.'

He turned his face to the door, longing for Blackridge to walk through it with some over-the-top apology which Zephyr would quickly dismiss out of fondness. He frowned with increasing concern.

'Last night he said there was a personal matter, and the guardsmen said he freaked. I just hope... I mean... because, I really like working for him.'

"Well, gentlemen, I don't kno-" Zephyr began, being interrupted by the sound of the opening of the chamber doors. It wasn't Blackridge. It was two other guards dragging a red headed man behind them.

'What! That man's an intelligence officer!'

"What is the meaning of this?" Zephyr demanded. "Dragging an officer into my court!"

Kallida's eyes widened as the men approached, and he seemed to become uneasy.

'He must know the man.'

"My Lord King Zephyr," one of the soldiers responded, and Kelvin recognized that they, too, were of the intelligence corps, though not officers, "we bring you Marcus Garner of the High Colonels. We discovered him in the KLP and Processing Lab destroying our systems and resources. Being as Captain Zahaynei is otherwise occupied, we weren't sure where else to take him."