One Crown

Isolde was reading the amended record aloud to the full council, her own voice steady over words that had taken three drafts and one long night to get right. She looked up and found Thane watching her from across the hall, instead of standing his habitual post beside the door.

“Let the record show,” she read, “that King Ellard Marrow died of injuries sustained during a confrontation with General Thane Ashgrove and his officers, who came to secure the succession against Vantor’s advance — not to end his reign by force. Let the record further show that the King had, for the better part of a year, suffered from the wasting affliction later identified as a deliberately cast working. He ordered it concealed himself. After his death, General Ashgrove judged it best to keep it concealed, to preserve the kingdom’s stability in a time of war. This council finds that…