ALPHA LOGAN

Chapter 8

Garrick already had the blade in his hand when Logan entered the throne hall.

He swung it above his head so the whole court would see, the blackened end flashing in the torchlight and his tone echoing beneath the domed ceiling.

Discovered underneath his own bed, " Beckett revealed. "The very same poison that has already murdered 2 assassins, concealed by the very individual in this palace who stands to benefit most from their silence until they're silenced."

Noise fill the hall. Logan remained in the middle of the floor, surrounded by guards, ribs hurting where they'd been shot, stamina still far behind where it should be, not speaking. He'd learned long ago that noise only makes the guilty louder.

Elena stood up from her throne. "A dagger in the bedchamber is nothing but a tool left there by another."

It proves he had been introduced to the same poison on two separate occasions, " defined Garrick. "Once is an accident. Twice is a pattern."

"For twice is someone framing him twice, " says Elena. "You'd be careful with your certainty, uncle. It seems to suit you."

Garrick's jaw clenched at this, but his voice remained steady. "I just want to keep this court safe, Princess. Your father's memory deserves justice. If this man caused his death "

"He doesn't, " snapped Elena.

"You would not be able to know that."

'I know he was the one who tried to save my father's life, not end it, ' said Elena. 'I know two men have been murdered with the poison they were carrying to keep them from disclosing the identity of the person who actually gave the orders. I know none of that leads to Logan holding the blade.'

They were standing in the hall, group by group, since the lens was too big to avoid dividing them, some never having accepted as the will dictated and others who had quietly upraised themselves with Cassius' last word. They could not turn it just because the word was in someone's hand and sheathed where nothing suggested any barrier to catch behind it.

"Imprison him until we can come to the bottom of this, " Garrick declared. "That is all I ask."

"That is not the worst of it, " Elena replied. "You want me to destroy my father's last will with only a suspicion on the day before I have to answer Adrian's proposal. I can't help but wonder who will profit the most from the timing."

Garrick had said nothing to that. Elena swung round to Logan, waiting for him to say something in his own defence, give her a reason to cling to in a hall filled with lords deciding his destiny by the second.

He didn't speak a word.

Logan, she said again, softer this time. Only for you. "Say it."

"What do you want me to say?" Logan asked. "That I did not do it? They've already made up their minds. Words won't change that."

"They might, " said Elena in a tone that carried some frustration. "You, of all people, can tell us how it happened that that sword was in your room. Explain."

I have done nothing wrong. I am not going to plead with a bunch of strangers to believe me.

Elena shot him a look, a mixture of rage and disbelief. "Don't you have any pride left in you? " said Elena.

"It's not pride, " Logan said, "it's shame. Shame that I had to spend my whole life fighting to have my truths revealed to people who never bothered to ask. I refuse to spend the rest of my life proving myself to men who denied me justice before the blade was ever found."

Elena's jaw clenched. Why didn't he argue, why didn't he throw her a bone and defy a judge who was already circling for blood? He looked not like he was with her but leaving her to bear the rucksack of it alone.

"You're making this harder than it needs to be, " she was saying softly.

"I am being honest, " Logan said. "That's the only defence I have left."

'Let me answer, ' a voice shot across the hall from the back of the crowd before Elena had a chance.

I saw him.

Heads turned, as a scrawny man, dressed as a small trader, threw himself past the assembled noblemen with shaking hands, while all the eyes in the hall were upon him.

"Give us a quote on what I just said!""Can you tell me who you're?"said Elena.

Further Reading Bestsellers Jul 14, 2018 Let me read what you read Better World Editing; Resume update David Grummett: Pull off a big change in 30 days Best Books, Jul 4, 2018 'my computer deletes itself' I harry, the words coming out despite his tremulous voice. "I saw him. Weeks before the king died. Meeting with a man at the border road, exchanging some...thing between them. I did not think much of it then. Not until I heard the whispers about poison and assassins."

The hall erupted again into noise, the volume higher and if anything more fragile than before. Garrick's face changed from satisfaction to something dangerously near triumph.

"There, " Garrick said. "A witness. Testimony not guessing."

"I never saw anyone on the border road, " Logan snapped, the first real fire creasing his tone since the charges had been raised. "I don't even know who this fellow is."

"He remembers your face well enough to call you by name before all his witnesses, " Garrick said.

Elena raised her hand to stop the crowd from spiraling into disorder again. "Bertram shall be interrogated in isolation, before we settle on a decision. Escort him to the east chamber within the hour."

Bertram nodded briefly, glad to be distant from the multitude of eyes fixing her with intelligent interest, and footmen moved him from the hall, while the court was theorizing behind them.

Elena faced Logan again, her face unreadable now, floating somewhere between the anger she still felt at his silence and the dread brewing beneath that said that would be a tougher charge to refute than the previous one.

"I shall learn the truth from him myself, " she stated. "No matter what he saw, or what he imagines that he saw, before the hour is over, I shall be able to tell the difference."

****

The eastern chamber was silent when Elena entered, guards at the door as they should be and the room set for the tender interrogation that would never take place.

She threw the door open and paused.

Bertram's arm hung over the little table as he sat propped against the inside wall, his eyes staring wide. He was already beginning to change color: that same hollow grey Elena had seen on two other corpses, both of them men who had spoken to something other than her the way he was. No wound. No blood.

Elena remained rooted to the door frame, said nothing, and stared at the only man who could have proved Logan's innocence or guilt, and who can now never say a word.

Someone within the palace was still one step ahead of them, and this time, they had not even needed to wait until the questioning started.