Chapter 197: Thokas’ Curiosity

"Yes. I hear myself perfectly." Milda met her gaze. "You went down to the council floor, Dessa. You saw what remained of the chamber. Tell me honestly. If he came to this room tomorrow, and you stood against him, how long would you last?"

Dessa’s lip curled. She opened her mouth, and then she closed it.

"Exactly," said Milda.

"That is not an answer."

"It is the only one that matters."

"It is cowardice."

"Then I am a coward," Milda said, "who is still alive, and who has kept the Association standing. I think that is a better thing to be than a brave woman who is dead."

Nobody spoke. Hollin was staring at his own hands. Ruvan Ashgrove had opened his eyes at last, and he was studying her with a thoughtful and unreadable look.

"You made terms," the old man said.

"I did."

"What were they?"

"The hunt ends. The bounty is lifted. He joins the Association as an SSS-rank, in public, with a ceremony." She counted them off on her fingers.

"In exchange he will not move against us. He will not destroy the tower. And he will answer to the Association in time of war."

"Did he agree to that last one?"

"He said that he would think about it."

"So he did not agree."

"No," Milda admitted. "But he did not refuse."

Dessa gave a harsh laugh. "You have invited a wolf to dinner and promised it that it need not eat the guests."

"Perhaps."

"And you expect us to sit here and applaud."

"I expect you to vote," said Milda.

She laid her palms flat on the stone.

"That is why I have called you. There will be a ceremony in a few days. It must be public, because he has insisted on it, and because the country needs to see him standing beside us and not against us."

"I will make the announcement myself. But I cannot hold it without the council. I need nine more voices, and I need them to say yes."

"And if they say no?"

"Then I will announce it anyway."

The room went quiet again. It was a different quiet this time. It was the quiet of ten very powerful people discovering that one of them meant exactly what she had said.

"You would defy the table," Dessa breathed.

"I would defy a great many things to keep this world from burning," said Milda. "I would rather not have to. Please do not make me."

Thokas stirred.

He had not spoken for some time. He sat with his chin on his hand and his black eyes half hooded, and the dry smile had not left his lips.

Now he straightened in his chair, and the whole room seemed to turn toward him without meaning to, the way iron turns toward a lodestone.

"I have a question," he said softly.

"Of course you do," said Milda.

"You say that he is level twenty."

"Yes."

"And that he beat ten S-ranks without a scratch."

"Yes."

"And that he looked at you... and saw you."

"Yes."

"Then I wonder," said Thokas, "how a boy who is so strong could have been so afraid of me, the last time that we met."

Milda said nothing.

"He ran," Thokas said, almost fondly. "I tore the sky open above the Roaring Lions, and he fell on his face and then he ran. I saw him do it. He was gone before the dust had settled. He was frightened, Milda. I could smell it on him."

"He was," she said.

"And now he walks into the council hall and tells ten S-ranks to stop being cowards."

"It was not quite..."

"I would like to see that," Thokas said. "I would like to see how much of him is the boy who ran, and how much is the boy who stayed."

"No."

"I have not said anything yet."

"You are about to ask me to let you test him."

"I am only curious."

"No," said Milda. "Not for any reason. You will not touch him."

"You are very certain."

"I am. If you strike that shield, whatever you send comes back at ten times the force. I don’t think I need to spell it out for all of you... that something like that is a legendary item." Her voice was steady, though she was holding her hands very still on the stone so that no one would see them.

"I will not have the first act of the new SSS-rank be the death of a Head."

"You flatter me."

"I am being precise."

Thokas laughed, a dry and papery sound like leaves being crushed. "Is there something you are not telling us, Milda?"

"No."

"You have a look."

"I have always had a look."

"You are afraid."

She turned her head and looked at him for a long moment. Her face did not change. The golden light did not waver, and not a single strand of her hair moved.

"I am not afraid," said Milda. "I am cautious. There is a difference, and I would think that you of all people would know it."

It was a lie. She knew it, and she thought that he did too. But he only smiled and tilted his head, and after a moment he sat back in his chair.

"Very well," he said. "I will not touch him."

"Thank you."

"I will not touch him until he gives me a reason."

"Thokas..."

"That is all that I will promise."

It was all that she could ask. She knew that, and she let it go.

"Then we vote," she said.

Ruvan Ashgrove raised his hand first. He did it slowly, with a faint sigh, as if he were lifting something heavier than an arm.

"I would rather this had not happened," he said. "But I am old, and I have learned not to argue with the weather. Aye."

Hollin raised his hand, and then lowered it, and then raised it again. "Aye," he whispered. "Please. Aye."

One by one the others followed. There was a grunt, and a muttered curse, and a quiet "I suppose so."

A heavy woman at the middle of the table said "Aye" in a flat voice and did not look up.

Dessa Kyrn was the last but one. She kept her hand on the stone until it seemed that she would not lift it at all. Then she raised it, very slowly, with her eyes burning.

"Aye," she said through her teeth. "And I will remember this, Milda."

"I would expect nothing less."

That left one.

Thokas had not lifted his hand. He sat with his fingers laced and his cracked lips pressed together, looking at Milda across the length of the table.

"Thokas," she said. "Your vote."

"You have nine."

"I would like ten."

"Why?"

"Because I would like to know that you are with me."

"Hm." He turned his head, slowly, and looked toward the door, as if he could see through the stone to the boy somewhere in the city above. His black eyes glittered. Then he looked back at her, and raised his hand an inch from the table.

"Aye," said Thokas. "Hold your ceremony."

"Thank you."

"Do not thank me yet." He rose from his chair, and the shadows gathered around him like a cloak. "I have a great curiosity about your new SSS-rank. I think that I will attend."

"As what?"

"As a guest." His smile widened, thin and dry. "I will be watching him very closely,