Free Imperial Traitor by Mark Robson

Lord’s question.
    ‘It might be better to wait until we have a quorum, Reavis,’ he said thoughtfully. ‘It wouldn’t look good if we were to break the seal without the other candidates
present. If Surabar has named a successor in that document, then it would be far better for us all to be present at its opening. That way, if the contents are at all contentious, as I suspect they
will be, then we’ll be able to make a considered response. Put it on the desk here with these other parchments. There are more things here of which the Court should be made aware. It seems
Emperor Surabar was a busy man.’
    Lord Reavis reluctantly placed the scroll on the desk. ‘Why are we looking through his things if we’re not going to take advantage of what we find?’ he asked.
    ‘The others will likely be here within the hour. That we have stolen the march on them gives the two of us a momentary advantage. We can control what information is released and in what
fashion, but Marnillus still has the better of us when it comes to supporters in Court. You can bet he will be manipulating the Court before Surabar’s body is put to rest.’
    ‘Marnillus is a fool. He’d be a disastrous Emperor,’ Reavis spat.
    ‘On that we’re agreed, but his voice holds a lot of sway in Court,’ Borchman replied. ‘He’ll be difficult to defeat.’
    ‘Not if he were to have a fatal accident. With Surabar dead, the Guild of Assassins will be looking to re-establish their role in Shandese politics. What if you and I were to demonstrate
our willingness to see the
anaethus drax
declaration lifted by placing a contract jointly? We would win the support of the Guildmaster, dispose of our most influential opponent and save
money into the bargain. What do you think?’
    ‘I think you’re getting ahead of yourself, Lord Reavis – that’s what I think,’ Borchman replied carefully. It was hard to visualise Reavis ordering assassinations.
He did not look the sort of person to even consider it, but appearances were deceptive, as Borchman well knew. ‘Let’s wait until the contents of Surabar’s will have been examined,
shall we?’ he suggested. ‘When I know what the crafty old fox put in there, I might consider your proposal. If I were to gain the Mantle, I’d prefer to do it without too much
bloodshed, if possible.’
    Borchman returned to his scrutiny of the stack of parchments on the Emperor’s desk, but his mind was not on the task. If Reavis were already thinking about assassinating other candidates,
how long would it take for others to have similar thoughts? Not long. He would need to take steps to protect himself from the bloodbath that looked poised to begin.
    Marnillus would have a heavy guard as a matter of course. He had done so for some years. Would it help him, if a contract were placed? Borchman doubted it. One only had to look at what happened
here. The Emperor was in his study with two guards at the door and who knows how many more around the Palace, but an assassin had still penetrated the defences. Someone had killed Surabar and tried
to cover his tracks by making it look as if one of the guards had pulled the trigger.
    If the assassin had not been seen escaping, it would have been hard to deny the evidence. The fact that the killer had also escaped the Palace despite the entire Imperial guard force being
alerted to his presence lent more weight to the argument that the Emperor’s death had been orchestrated by the Guild. If they had abandoned their creed, then the Guild had become more
dangerous than ever before. It was a chilling thought.
    Reavis was a fool in many ways. If it came down to the two of them in the Imperial race, then Borchman did not believe he would have a problem winning the support of the Court. However, by using
the Guild, Reavis became a fool indiscriminately wielding a deadly weapon. As far as he knew, the Guild did not place a filter on their customers other than their ability to pay