Stronger Together chapter 192

After the dinner was the first part of the conclave. Apparently  everyone had just assumed I would know political functions were long and  boring and hadn't bothered mentioning that the damn thing would last  days. Still spilled milk and all, I ended up sitting with my own group  plus Joe and Ebenezar so at least I wasn't too bored as people started  going through their grievances and business.

Some of the  business was pretty interesting honestly, these were monsters and beings  of power, and more than a few of them were using the time to air old  grudges. The Lachaise clan had a complaint against the white court about  hunting rights in certain territories, which sounded mundane until you  remembered they were hunting people it was literally an argument between  beings that wanted to eat their bodies or eat their souls. I was  incredibly glad we hadn't bought Kara, she would have lost it.

Raven  didn't seem too happy with some of the worst of it but she was  practical and capable of looking at the bigger picture. She knew we  wouldn't survive turning on the governing body that rules the  supernatural world, as tough as I was the forces of Winter along would  bury me in bodies, not to mention all the powerful individuals that  would join in. Cinder, for all her progress towards caring about others,  was a pretty family centric person, she didn't actually care about a  bunch of strangers so she wasn't bothered by all the cannibalism talk in  any case.

Harry had a fairly distasteful look on his  face, but like Raven knew we couldn't fight the whole world. I imagined  he was looking at this like a natural disaster of sorts, still I was  glad the Lachaise clan hadn't gone into any detail on their prey, this  was not a place where we could handle the fallout from another calamity  like Bianca's masquerade. I leaned over to speak to him in a low voice  "Cool it boss, I know it sucks to listen to but this isn't the place for  a throw down, not to mention you're here as River's advisor. Any mess  you start reflects on him and his tribe."

That actually  brought him up short. Harry was willful and belligerent enough to throw  down with everyone in this room if he got angry enough, even if he knew  it would kill him. He wouldn't think about how it would effect anyone  else because it would just be his own actions. I couldn't bring up the  girls and I wasn't willing to mention his daughter in a room full of  monsters but reminding him he was representing River's people should be  more than enough to shut down any suicidal urges.

He grit  his teeth and glared at the Lachaise clan representative, but he forced  himself not to do anything stupid, for which I was grateful. Aside from  my friends though I was worried about other things too. Drakul showing  up behind my chair wasn't an accident. Guy's like that didn't do  anything without ten different meanings. He'd literally put me between  himself and Qin during that little pissing contest and that was a  message. I wasn't sure what kind of message but it was a message all the  same.

The conclave was being held in the same room but  the long dining tables had been moved away and replaced with a frankly  ridiculous round table made of dark polished wood. I wanted to say it  was honduran rosewood, but I barely know anything about wood and was  basing that on a picture I saw somewhere. The table was so huge that the  dozens of attendees were all able to have a seat and they weren't even  packed too closely together. Through either magic or some acoustic  tricks with the shape of the chamber though we could hear every word  everyone spoke perfectly.

I really wished Henry could see  this place. His earth magic was much cleaner and better quality in it's  creations, but all this open space and stone to work with would be  enough for him to build a damn underground palace. I made a mental note  to at least talk to Inari about the possibility of having Lara hire  Henry to  change things up down here. If done right it could give him  the resources to help a great many of his residents and potentially open  up supply lines he normally wouldn't be able to get in touch with while  in hiding.

Of course that meant actually trusting Lara,  but there were ways to make sure she didn't betray us. Lara had her own  kind of honor, and as long as her family benefited she would be willing  to play ball. Even if she wasn't we could always use some binding oaths  to make things a bit safer, though I was much less willing to trust  that. Henry's safety was a top priority to me, he was one of my first  friends here and was one of the genuinely kindest people I had ever met.  If there was a way to help him I'd take it.

Then I  remembered the way Mab had stood up to the council for Harry. I wasn't  the Winter Queen by any means but I had some muscle and a few good  friends. Judging by the way Cristos dithered when they were meeting with  the Red Court the white council preferred prudence to aggression, even  if he really was Black Council and trying to work an angle too many had  been happy to play along for him to have been acting too far outside the  norm. I leaned over to whisper to River "Can I bring Henry under my  protection as a freeholding lord so he doesn't have to hide from the  Council?"

River knew who Henry was, the two of them had  met several times and got along well. They were kindred spirits and the  idea seemed to intrigue him. "It depends if the Council is willing to  accept you as enough of a threat to be worth letting him go. With your  current reputation and Odin's implicit backing I'd say there's a good  chance, even better since Ebenezar and Joseph are here as the Council  Representatives and they like both yourself and Henry. Even if you can't  it'll come down to a fight, most likely a duel under the code duello."

I  was willing to fight if I had to under those circumstances but I  decided I would wait and consult the girls tonight. The conclave would  be lasting three days so I could always bring that bit of business  tomorrow. For now I just sat back and listened to the various factions  squabble and bite and backstab. During all this I kept a weather eye on  Drakul because I was sure whatever he was planning wasn't going to  benefit me or mine.

He seemed to be completely  uninterested in the proceedings for most of the night ignoring the  business and flirting with the pretty blonde he brought sitting back  lazily in his seat and swirling a glass of suspiciously thick red wine,  but about two hours into the conclave his attention seemed to snap to  Qin and as if some sort of switch had been flipped he went from  insouciant devil may care noble to intense lord. As soon as the current  speaker finished talking Drakul stood up and tapped against the side of  his wine glass with an unusually sharp nail.

He  raised his cultured, lightly accented voice over the din and everyone  began to quiet as he spoke "Attention, friends. I have a matter I would  like to bring before the conclave." He paused as if to allow everyone to  quiet down, but it was clearly just an affectation. You could have  heard a pin drop in that room before he even started speaking, he just  wanted to make everyone sit in silence for a few moments to prove his  dominance. After his brief pause he resumed his little monologue "As  some of you may know a beloved vassal of mine was recently slain during  an assault on one my operations."

I  knew he was talking about the raid on the Black Court slave farm but I  wasn't sure where this was going. It made no sense for him to start  trouble over that, I hadn't even been a member of the accords at the  time. We had mentioned it to Munin and she had been clear that actions  taken outside of our aegis as an accorded nation would not be subject to  the rules laid down in the accords. It had been added as a sort of  incentive to get formerly aggressive factions to join. Of course if they  were too aggressive the accorded nations would have already wiped them  out so there was a limit, but still.

Daddy  Drak couldn't claim insult on us for things we did before we joined  because our records had been wiped as far as the lords were considered.  Drakul was up to something but I had no clue what. I just knew it  couldn't be good. His expression as he took in the gathering was one of  sorrowful dignity. "After a thorough investigation, I have concluded  that one among our own number was responsible for this heinous action.  Members of our esteemed collective acting in violation of the accords we  all hold dear."

Drakul's  tone was heartbroken, and I had to admit I would have given the guy an  Oscar. "As you all know, only recently our esteemed comrade the Qin  Emperor, has joined our little family. What you may not know is that  contrary to public opinion he did not do so last year, but rather  several years ago, choosing to bide his time and make his announcement  when it would most benefit his cause, as we all would. Our comrade used  his capital well, choosing to show mercy to an endangered member of the  supernatural world and take her in, protecting her from nefarious  influences."

Of  course we all knew who those influences were, but no one was stupid  enough to say it. Drakul was being outrageous on purpose. Munin said it  wasn't uncommon for the powerful beings among the accorded lords to  twist the truth in the most blatant ways, hoping to bait weaker nations  into giving offense so they could respond with force. When no one  reacted Drakul continued. "However, a thorough investigation has shown  many points of extreme suspicion.Though solid evidence of any wrongdoing  is missing, we have managed to cobble together a possible timeline."

His  eyes locked on me vindictively and I saw amusement behind his sorrowful  facade. "It is the opinion of members of my investigation team that the  coincidental timing of the events leading to the death of my subject  Raucus are too suspicious to be matters of chance. Members of my Court  have come to me with concerns that certain factions that are currently  members of these proceedings conspired with active members of the  accorded nations to circumvent the rules that govern us and exploit our  charitable nature."

He  stood, his expression becoming thunderous and pointed at me "I have  reason to believe that Cameron Beddows, with malice of forethought,  acted on behalf of the then member of the accords Emperor Qin Shi Huang  to kill a meber in good standing of my own faction and used his status  as a new member to erase the crime. I hereby accuse Qin Shi Huang and  Cameron Beddows both of breach of charter, conduct unbecoming, and  violence in a time of peace, and request satisfaction from the accorded  nations on my behalf!"

His  voice rolled through the room, amplified by whatever magic or trick of  engineering to crash down around us like thunder. I was stunned. None of  that was true, he was just cullshitting, he couldn't possibly lie in  front of this many supernaturals. But then I went back over what he'd  said. Every word of it was phrased as suspicion and conjecture. He even  mentioned not having evidence. The clever son of a bitch might have just  pulled us into a war and there was no way to refute it.