“Ambassador.” Dukes Dukes’s hoarse voice barely rose above the hysterical sobs of the two-year-old in his arms. “I have failed you.”

Halfway down the stairs, the Ambassador froze, then finished his descent and took his daughter from the Prime.

“How?” He patted the child’s back.

“We were betrayed.” Dukes extended a bracelet with a shattered crystal.

The Ambassador’s half-smile iced over like a pond at midwinter. With a whispered phrase and a kiss pressed to his daughter’s forehead, a spelled sleep silenced the sobs. He took the bracelet with too-gentle fingers, and a drip echoed through the hall.

“How?” The quiet of the Ambassador’s tone belied the fury brewing behind his eyes.

“Ambush.” Kneeling, Dukes bowed his head and pressed his hand to the cool marble floor. “I learned of the betrayal too late, and when my team got there…” He grimaced and coughed, a wet, gurgling sound. “Smasher almost held them off. Terrance — Twinkle…” His eyes fell on the Ambassador’s daughter. “She was beneath him, scared but unhurt.”

“And the traitors? How did they kill my Whisp?”

“She—” Dukes’s eyes closed, and he coughed again. “She fought back, of course. Killed four. But their summoner.” He shook his head. “He overwhelmed Smasher and burned the Regent to ashes.”

“Bring him.”

“Ambassador—” Dukes pushed to his feet. “Your daughter—”

“Stays.” The word hissed through the hall’s thick air, and the Ambassador’s arms tightened around the sleeping girl.

With another gurgling cough, Dukes crossed to the door and spoke with the guard outside. The quiet tick of the hall’s massive clock, accented by a persistent, unseen drip ratcheted the tension upward. The arrival of four guards with a shackled prisoner between them only gave the pressure focus. The gold and diamond L multiplied every bit of light in the entry hall.

“I should have known,” the Ambassador said, meeting Cookie’s glare with his own. “You should have taken the promotion.”

“And miss our leader — our Ambassador, who’s supposed to protect the people’s interests — falling under a beast’s spell?” Cookie hawked and spat, but the enchanted shackles blocked his summoning, and he could do no worse.

The Ambassador pressed another kiss to his daughter’s tousled hair and stared beyond Cookie as if he were night mist.

Bong.

Drip.

Bong.

Drip. 

Bong.

Drip.

Bong.

Drip. Drip.

Bong.

Drip. Drip.

Bong.

Drip drip drip.

Bong.

Drip drip drip.

Bong.

Drip drip drip drip.

Bong.

Drip drip drip drip.

Bong.

Dripdripdripdripdrip.

Bong.

Dripdripdripdripdripdripdripdrip.

Bong.

Dripdripdripdripdripdripdripdripdripdripdrip.

Drip.

“Your family prospers,” the Ambassador breathed into the wet silence.

Cookie shook his head, confusion plain on his face.

“The expanded roads.” The Ambassador refocused on the traitor. “The ones through Clan lands. Leofrick caravans move more goods to those Trade Routes each quarter.”

“Y-yes. So what?”

“By Ambassadorial decree, all Routes outside the Central District are sealed.”

“Rite!” Dukes’s voice overrode the shocked gasps of both prisoner and guards. “As First Rank Ambassador, you can’t—”

“With Whis…” Ambassador Rite swallowed, then continued, “With the Regent gone, a Regency Council will be appointed — just like when my brother died. They won’t gainsay me in this.” A polite half-smile graced Rite’s face as he looked at Dukes. “They can’t — not with the Butterfly Guild already spreading word everywhere. Of what we’ve done. The Trap Neuter Release program’s true purpose. 

“The lives we destroyed.”

“It won’t matter.” Cookie jerked his chin up and cleared his throat. “My family’s too powerful. They won’t be stopped. Not over animals. And when the Council releases me to them—”

“Releases you?” Rite’s polite smile shifted toward Cookie. “What makes you think the Council will do that?”

“Because—” Cookie coughed, raising a hand to muffle it; his chains clattered. “I’ve done nothing—” Coughing interrupted him again, and a peculiar expression crossed his face, eating at the confidence. “She was just a wolf!”

Chains rattling, he fell to his knees, coughing and retching. Water dribbled, then streamed from his mouth and nose, and the guards fell back from the growing pool. Dukes watched the Ambassador with heavy, disappointed eyes.

“Always so sure that a weak water summoner couldn’t compete with a flame summoner of your lineage.” Rite crouched to catch Cookies’ last, frantic gasps, shifting his daughter so her feet didn’t trail in the water. “But I learned from that wolf. 

“Never let a threat live.”

Tick.

Tock.

Drip.

Drop.