The Signet on the Chancellor's Hand
Chapter 04 - The Signet on the Chancellor's Hand
King Aldren questioned Elara before sunrise.
He dismissed the council and received her alone in the map room, where generations of kings had planned wars beneath painted borders. He had removed his crown, and without it he looked older than he had in the cathedral.
Tired, not weak.
There was a difference.
“Did Varrick threaten you?” he asked.
Elara studied him. “Would it matter?”
“It matters if my chancellor acted without my authority.”
“You ordered the wooden mask.”
“I approved a public symbol of repentance. I was told it would conceal your face, not injure you.”
“You held my hand while I could barely breathe.”
Aldren looked away.
On the table lay the original marriage contract. Elara saw her name, the king’s name, and twelve council seals. Her signature line was empty.
“I needed the marriage to prevent civil war,” Aldren said. “Your family still commands loyalty in the western counties. If I executed you, those counties would rise. If I married you, they would accept the crown again.”
“You did not ask me.”
“I asked three times.”
“You asked whether I preferred marriage or the gallows.”
The king’s jaw tightened. “A ruler rarely chooses between good and evil. Usually he chooses between two disasters and prays he has recognized the smaller one.”
“That sounds noble when you are not the disaster being chosen.”
Aldren walked to the window.
“Your father admitted plotting against me.”
“Did you hear him confess?”
“I saw the statement.”
“With his seal?”
“With his blood on the page.”
Elara felt cold. “And you never wondered why the only witness was Varrick?”
The king turned.
For twelve years, Chancellor Varrick had controlled the royal records, the court messengers, and the investigations into treason. He had been Aldren’s closest adviser since the queen’s death.
Elara lifted her chin. “He wears my father’s signet.”
Aldren’s expression changed.
Not surprise.
Recognition.
“You have seen it,” she said.
“Varrick told me the ring was recovered after the execution.”
“There was no execution.”
The king paced once across the map room, then stopped beside the table.
“Captain Ashford made the same accusation three years ago,” he said.
Elara’s heartbeat stumbled. “Rowan knew?”
“He claimed your father had been removed from his cell. He had no proof.”
“So you banished him.”
“I offered him exile instead of death because the queen once trusted his family.”
“You let me believe he betrayed us.”
“He signed a confession.”
“Show it to me.”
Aldren did not answer.
Another forged confession. Another missing document.
Before Elara could press him, the door opened. Varrick entered without waiting to be announced.
“Your Majesty, the city gates have been attacked. We found one of Ashford’s old insignias on the body of a captured man.”
The chancellor placed a blue-and-gold badge on the table.
Rowan’s badge.
Aldren stared at it.
Elara looked at Varrick’s sleeve. The gray stone dust was gone, but a thin red thread clung near his wrist.
The same thread used in Agnes’s message.
Varrick had not merely discovered the warning.
He had sent it.
And suddenly Elara understood.
May you like
He wanted her to search beneath the cathedral.
He was setting a trap.
