Much as Rori suspected, they headed back to the same room that they had been in the last time he was here. Only when they reached the doorway, there was a page of the court waiting outside. He explained that Lady Ulbricht had moved the meeting and then he guided them down several more hallways to the new location.

  They were clearly in an area of the building that was generally not open to the public. After passing through a doorway, the plain, white stone walls had ended and now the walls were wooden and the floor carpeted. There were also benches, tapestries and other artwork lining the narrower hallways as well.

  None of the doors had anything to distinguish them from one another, but eventually the page stopped in front of one and opened the door. After they had all filed in, he stood inside the open door.

  The room was probably used in much the same manner as the meeting room they had just left. It too had a large table surrounded by chairs. Only this table was made of a dark wood and looked like it was probably worth more than all of the furniture that had been in the last room combined. The chairs had leather seats and actually looked comfortable. There was another narrow table on either side of the room, both of which were empty, save for a vase in the middle of one, and a small tray with four glasses and a fancy bottle with what Rori assumed was some type of alcohol in it on the other. There were two large potted plants, and the wall was adorned with pictures of people who Rori supposed must be famous, though he could identify none of them. There was also a large map of the Lorenthian Empire taking up most of one of the walls.

  Rori realized it was probably the fanciest room he had ever been in.

  Lady Ulbricht was sitting at one end of the table. There was a large book on her left, two partially unrolled scrolls on her right and several loose papers scattered over everything on that end of the table. She scratched something down on one of the papers with a quill and looked up as they entered.

  “Thank you, Morrin. I think that will be all for now,” she said to the page.

  “Yes, Senator,” he said, closing the door as he backed out of the room.

  “Everyone, please sit down.”

  “Well, this place is nice,” said Sean as they all took seats around the table.

  “I do tend to favor this room,” said Lady Ulbricht looking around. “Since both Ewedith and Fainsworth won’t be here, I didn’t see any reason not to relocate to a more comfortable spot.”

  “Why isn’t Ewedith here?” asked Dade. “He never misses a chance to make me miserable.”

  “It’s my understanding that he is the one who is quite miserable at the moment. He has come down with some sort of illness. Evidently it is unwise for him to venture far from a chamber pot at the moment.”

  Nolan nearly managed to suppress most of a snort.

  “And Fainsworth?” asked Dade.

  “I’m sure I couldn’t say,” said Ulbricht.

  “Couldn’t or shouldn’t?” asked Nolan.

  “Hmm. One moment please,” was the only response she gave. She wrote another word or two on the paper in front of her and then gathered everything into a pile and set it to the side.

  “Now, I believe Ewedith’s stated purpose for this meeting was to ‘discover how you had failed at your mission’, but instead why don’t we just chat about what you’ve found out so far and possible future courses of action. Perhaps we can start with someone giving a summary of events since you left last time.”

  Dade, with a few sparse comments added in by the others, gave a recounting of everything that had happened. Though Rori noted that it was definitely an edited version. Dade never lied but unless something was directly related to the mission of investigating the Cunāe, he either didn’t mention it all or he glossed over it. For instance, there was no mention of anything involving Rori and Meredith, and the fight between Rori and Yoska for control of the clan was described in a sentence.

  Dade did include the kidnapping of Kedra. It wasn’t related to the Cunāe, but it did explain why their investigation had stopped progressing. Eventually Dade’s retelling reached the point where the sword was taken by the phren and Kedra was saved. He finished with a statement that everyone had returned to their respective homes to regroup for a new effort in the coming year.

  “And what plans do you have moving forward?” asked Ulbricht.

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  “We are pursuing several leads in the two cities for the next several days,” said Dade. “Then we hope, with the proper approval of course, to try and pursue several leads we have outside the city. Most importantly, there is a possibility of a Cunāe conclave happening later in the year. If we can find out where and when it will occur, it will present us with an excellent opportunity to encounter a variety of Cunāe clans all in one location. The possible information we could gather could be extremely beneficial to our inquiries.”

  “I believe you are right, and I would like to fully endorse your plan. I would, however, like to hear what your Cunāe advisor has to say on the matter. Only it is my experience that advisors give different answers when they are not in the same room as their advisees. So, if you have no objection, I would like to talk with Rori alone.”

  Dade looked over at Nolan and Kedra. Other than Nolan giving an almost imperceptible shrug, neither said anything. He then turned to Rori and said, “If it is okay with Rori, I see only one thing that would prevent that from happening.”

  “Oh, and what is that?” asked Ulbrich with something that might have been humor in her voice.

  “He’s under house arrest, of a sort. The court has ordered that he remain with a minimum of two soldiers nearby at all times.”

  “Are you worried about my safety?” asked Ulbricht.

  “As a member of the Lorenthian Army it is my duty to protect all citizens, including Senators. So yes, I am concerned about your safety. But more to the point, I just don’t want to give Ewedith any reason to cause me problems later on.”

  “I’m sure Rori and I will be perfectly safe in this room. As you can see there is only the one doorway. I can have two guards posted outside in the hall. I’m sure that will satisfy the courts and Ewedith. Morrin can show the rest of you to another room. You’ll find him waiting in the hall.”

  “As you wish, Senator,” said Dade standing up.

  Ulbricht stood as the rest of the group left the room. She shook several of their hands and thanked them for coming and in short order she was closing the door leaving her and Rori alone.

  As she was doing this, it occurred to Rori that it was the first time he had ever seen her doing something other than sitting.

  She was wearing a simple white tunic and brown linen pants. Rori realized that while the design was simple, they were clearly well made, and both probably were worth quite a lot of money. After a quick scan he saw that everything she was wearing, from her shoes, to the various pieces of jewelry, to the clasp that was keeping her dark blond hair out of her face, was not ostentatious, but at the same time they were clearly quite valuable.

  Though there was one piece of jewelry that did not seem to go with the rest. She had a choker fashioned to look like a silver rope around her neck, but there was also the thin chain of a second necklace she was wearing under her shirt. The chain was probably silver, but it was thin and plain. Though in truth it was hard to be sure as it was almost completely hidden.

  With the possible exception of that necklace, her entire outfit looked like it had been created to give her an air of authority without being showy. He realized that now that he had started thinking about her as a person and not just a governmental authority figure, he was quite surprised to realize that she was also quite attractive.

  “Why are you staring at me?” she asked as she turned back into the room. “Is there something on my clothes?”

  “What? Oh no. It’s just that you’re quite beautiful,” said Rori before his brain could keep the words from slipping out of his mouth. “I mean . . . it’s because you’re a Senator . . . um . . . not that Senators can’t be pretty . . . it’s just that . . . it’s not . . .”

  “Trying to sweet talk me? Does that mean you have something to hide?” she said interrupting Rori’s floundering as she moved back to her seat. Rori had been momentarily flustered, but not so much so that he didn’t notice that as she went, she turned away from him to hide the blush on her cheeks that matched his own. She picked up her pile of work and moved it all to a side table to give herself more time to get composed. When she turned back, there was no sign she’d ever reacted at all.

  “So how much did Dade leave out?” she asked. “For instance, I have to assume that the battle between you and Yoska was a bit more involved than ‘Rori then defeated Yoska to assume control of his clan’.”

  “A little, but mostly he just left out the blow-by-blow details. Did you want to hear about that?”

  “Only if you think it is important to the investigation of the Cunāe.”

  “Not really. With the exception of the time spent freeing Kedra we were focused in our efforts. And you can’t fault Dade for getting sidetracked at that point.”

  “Tell me more about that. Why do you think the phren wanted that sword?”

  Rori started to respond, but at the same time he opened his mouth a horrendous growl erupted from his stomach.

  “Sorry,” he said blushing anew. “I guess I’m rather hungry. I haven’t eaten anything today except a handful of rolls this morning.”

  “I could have Morrin bring us something,” said Ulbricht. “Better yet, let’s go down the hall to one of the dining rooms. I could stand to eat something as well.”

  “I thought you wanted privacy. Won’t we have to bring whichever two people are guarding the door with us?”

  “Who said we were going out the door?” said Ulbricht with a smile. She picked her pile of books and papers up and moved over to the wall behind the seat at the far side of the table.

  “I suppose I should ask you to look away so I don’t reveal state secrets, but I’ve a feeling I can trust you. I never liked this portrait of Judge Thorpe. It makes him look downright nice and friendly. In truth he was a snake, and I never saw anything like the smile in that picture come anywhere near his face.”

  She reached over behind the ornate frame around the picture and then after an almost imperceptible click, the picture and a good portion of the wall swung inward revealing a hidden passage.

  “If you would just follow me,” she said.

  “Don’t you think we should inform the people in the hall, Senator Ulbricht?” asked Rori.

  “We’ll grab some food and be back before they even know we are gone. Also, don’t call me that. It’s stuffy and reminds me of my late husband. Please, call me Karyn.”