Lion looked around the table again. “If any of you take issue with how I’ve dealt with this, speak up now. I don’t want the bother of people whining at me later.”
Leisenheimer, his arms tightly folded, spoke up at once. “It was a high-handed way of doing it, but I’m not complaining. I’ve no use for a pack of cowards who want to bend the knee to the empire.”
“That being said,” a voice broke in lightly, “after observing that brilliant performance, one wonders if you had already anticipated this turn of events, Lord Lion.”
Lion turned, his eyes meeting those of Diana, who rested her elbows on the table with her chin in her hands. The fact was, he had anticipated all of it, and so he answered plainly.
“Yes, that’s right.”
“In my opinion, you made just the right decision.” As Diana spoke, she looked down the table to where Cassandra was held bent double against the table, the chill in her eyes so bitter she looked like a different person.
“Lord Lion. We will be losing eighty thousand soldiers by arresting those four. How, may I ask, do you plan on making up for that?”
He had spoken not a word up until then, but now Cassael, lord of the Seventh City, fixed his gaze on Lion. Rather than showing fear over the major reduction in their military strength, his eyes were ever-watchful, as though probing for something. Lion would have liked to spit in his face.
He had been sure beyond a doubt that Cassael would never submit to the empire, but even now, Lion couldn’t help but think how much easier this would be if he had voted for submission.
“Yes, we will lose eighty thousand soldiers, but here, I have readied a weapon to match if not surpass that loss. Let that be answer enough for now.” Even without turning around, Lion knew the look of shock that would be on Julius’s face. Feeling the penetrating stares of the other lords and ladies on him, he observed the mysterious glint that lit up Cassael’s eyes.
“My, my...” the lord of the Seventh City murmured. “A weapon worth more than eighty thousand soldiers, you say. I know you, Lord Lion, are not a man to throw around empty words. Truly, this is most intriguing.”
“I imagine it is, especially to you, Lord Cassael,” Lion replied acidly with a mirthless smile. Cassael kept silent, but a cunning smirk slid momentarily across his face. That was the moment Lion knew with renewed conviction that he hated the man.
“Whatever could this weapon be, I wonder?” Diana mused, looking at him with eyes alight with interest.
Lion registered Julius giving orders for the four they had restrained to be placed under house arrest as he spread his hands in mock apology. “The truth is, it still isn’t finished,” he admitted.
A mix of disbelief and unease filled the eyes of the others. Diana, meanwhile, pressed her index finger to the corner of her mouth and said lightly, “Will it be ready before the ghouls resume their march, pray tell?”
“I am hastening its completion to see that it is.”
Of course, if the ghouls started moving again that very moment, it would not be ready in time. But Lion did not think he needed to worry about that. The fact that even after they had openly refused vassalage, Darmés had tacitly presented them with the choice a second time, suggested that he wanted Sutherland’s unconditional surrender. If not, he would not have pointedly left his army of ghouls in Rue Shalla to encourage them to reconsider. The other side of this was that he would not think it mattered if he gave them more time.
I’m sure I can only push it so far, of course. But when he gave me time, he made a fatal mistake. Lion felt his eagerness for battle growing.
Diana smiled at him. “Well, then, I look forward to the finished product. And,” she added significantly, “what is to come.”
Lion only raised his eyebrows a fraction, then went on to describe to them his military policies as their supreme commander going forward. “That is all,” he concluded. “Our basic objective is unchanged. Return to your lands and mobilize your armies.”
Not long after, the council concluded. The lords and ladies emptied from the room, each of their faces reflecting their different thoughts. Leisenheimer stopped abruptly in front of Lion, fixing him with a sharp glare.
Such an easy man to read, Lion thought wryly. At the same time, he arranged his face into a polite expression and said, “Yes?”
“The blow of losing eighty thousand soldiers is beyond words. Will this so-called weapon of yours really be up to the task of filling that gap?”
“Can it be that even you fear what will happen without my weapon, Lord Leisenheimer?”
“Nonsense. With this weapon or without, I will not back down.” For a few moments, they held one another’s gaze. It was Leisenheimer who looked away first, then he left the room without another word.
Julius waited until all the other lords and ladies were gone before he spoke up. “That was not when I expected you to reveal it.”
“The way things were going, if I hadn’t revealed something, more might have voted to surrender. Are you displeased?”
“I think it was a wise move.” Julius smiled.
“If we can show our strength against the ghouls as anticipated, it will enable us to drive a powerful wedge between the other cities.”
Julius nodded in strong agreement, then added, “Incidentally, though, it appeared to me that Lady Diana is aware of our true intentions.”
“You thought so too?”
“I did, my lord.”
“Lady Diana isn’t like Her Majesty, after all. She has more intelligence than any one person needs. That she went out of her way to drop a hint then during the council, well, that can’t mean anything else. We can make good use of a woman like that. If she joins me of her own volition, I’ll make sure she is very well taken care of.”
He pictured Diana’s smile, so full of meaning, but a moment later, the image disappeared off into oblivion as Cassael’s repellent face pushed its way into his thoughts.
“Did the Bat look like he realized?”
“I expect we will have an easier time fighting the ghouls than deciphering the inner thoughts of that gentleman. However...” Julius paused. “I think it better to proceed on the assumption he knows.”
“Agreed. Can’t be too careful with that one, after all.”
Julius regarded him. “Lord Lion, you seem to be getting excited.”
Lion responded by flashing him a steely grin. The battle between the empire’s ghouls and Sutherland was nigh...