The Law of Spoken Consent
Chapter 05 - The Law of Spoken Consent
Rowan woke on the dungeon floor with blood drying at the corner of his mouth and someone whispering his name through the wall.
“Captain.”
He pushed himself upright. “Who’s there?”
“Someone who remembers when that title meant something.”
A loose stone shifted near the floor. Behind it appeared the weathered face of Tomas Reed, once a palace guard under Rowan’s command.
“You let them lock you up?” Tomas asked.
“There were forty of them.”
“You used to be more ambitious.”
Tomas slid a narrow iron key through the opening.
Rowan unlocked the cell and found the corridor empty. “Why are you helping me?”
“Because Varrick ordered six guards transferred to the east gate last night. This morning, three came back dead and one carried your badge.”
Rowan’s stomach tightened. “He is building a rebellion and putting my name on it.”
“He has been doing worse than that.”
They moved through the lower passages until Tomas led him into an abandoned records chamber. Archbishop Corren waited beside a table piled with law books.
Rowan stopped. “You?”
The archbishop looked offended. “I objected to the marriage. That is nearly treason these days.”
He opened a cracked volume to a passage written in faded ink.
“No royal marriage is valid unless both parties speak their consent before clergy and witnesses,” Corren said. “The law was created after a duke forced a mute heiress into marriage by holding her hand at the altar.”
“The mask made it impossible for Elara to speak.”
“Exactly.”
“Then the ceremony was never legal.”
“It was suspended before the vows. But Varrick will try again, perhaps privately, with witnesses he controls.”
Rowan leaned over the book. “Can the council stop him?”
“The council can challenge the crown if three members demand an open hearing. Two already agreed. We need a third.”
“Who?”
“Lord Lucian Ashford.”
Rowan’s older brother.
The man who inherited their family estate after Rowan’s exile and never once answered his letters.
Tomas watched Rowan’s face. “You think he will refuse?”
“I think he will ask what he gets in return.”
The hidden door opened. Nurse Agnes entered, breathless.
“Elara knows Varrick wants her in the tunnels,” she said. “She believes it is a trap.”
“Then she must stay away.”
Agnes shook her head. “Her father may be down there.”
Rowan closed the law book.
Three years earlier, he had failed to reach Lord Vale before the prisoner vanished. He had followed the transport cart to the cathedral, but Varrick’s men caught him at the north bridge.
He had never told Elara how close he had come.
Or what he had heard from inside the cart.
One sentence, spoken in her father’s voice.
Protect Elara from the king, but protect her from the truth even more.
Rowan had obeyed half of that command.
The half that had destroyed them both.
“We go below the bells,” he said.
The archbishop caught his arm. “If Varrick expects you there, he will be waiting.”
May you like
Rowan looked toward the dark passage.
“Then for once,” he said, “he won’t be disappointed.”
