Chapter 925 - Back at the Castle

Alfred's vessel came down through the snow with its six wings spread wide around the black hull. The landing platform under Morgain Castle could take several ships at once, and most of that ground was already occupied.

Two smaller vessels stood at the far edge while soldiers carried crates toward the fortress entrance. Servants crossed the stone with luggage and sealed containers, and Morgain soldiers stood in groups near the walls as more of the family came home for the Council.

Trafalgar watched it through the forward windows until Alfred brought the ship down. The struts hit the stone with a heavy shudder, the mana engines wound down, the wings folded against the hull, and the bridge began lowering toward the platform.

"Delivered alive," Alfred said behind him. "My record holds."

Trafalgar turned toward the old captain. "You've come near enough to throwing me into a mountain often enough that I wouldn't boast about it."

"Near is doing a great deal of work in that sentence."

Trafalgar gave him a last look and started for the bridge. "Are you staying?"

"Not this time. I've people to carry before everyone vanishes to the Council, and somebody decided an old man with a ship isn't allowed to rest."

Alfred walked him as far as the entrance. The usual look stayed on his face, and his voice came down before Trafalgar stepped out.

"Good luck in there. You've collected enough trouble without picking another fight with that family of yours."

"I'll try to survive a few days."

"I'd take it kindly. Makes my work easier."

Trafalgar went out onto the bridge, then stopped and looked back. "I'll see you after the Council."

That was enough for the both of them. Trafalgar came down onto the platform and the cold went straight through his coat, while behind him Alfred's crew began readying the ship for another run.

The castle looked as it always had. Dark stone rose out of the mountain itself, vast walls cutting up through the falling snow while the towers went out of sight into the cloud. He had spent most of his childhood inside them, and every return sat differently with him now.

This time, at least, he was not coming back because Valttair had sent him somewhere.

He had barely crossed half the platform when another party came in through the outer gates. Twenty soldiers entered first, all of them in the black armour of House Morgain, their gear carrying the road on it in snow and dirt across the lower plates. The formation had not slipped an inch on the way in.

The man walking behind them was impossible to miss.

Moses stood a head and shoulders above everyone near him. Long black hair pulled back, two horns rising above it, heavy Morgain armour over that enormous frame. His purple eyes went across the platform until they found Trafalgar, and the captain changed course.

"Young Master Trafalgar. I heard you were coming back today."

"And I heard you'd gone out again."

"Only a few weeks." Moses stopped in front of him. "Inspection work through the northern territories. Some of the military posts wanted looking at, and the First Squadron had been idle longer than I liked."

Trafalgar glanced at the soldiers filing past. "Anything worth hearing?"

"Nothing worth carrying to the Patriarch. Monsters too near a settlement, a captain whose reports read better than his defences, and a few roads that will want more men before the winter turns."

By Morgain standards, that came close to peaceful.

Behind them Alfred's vessel moved again. Wind swept the platform as the wings opened, and servants grabbed at whatever they were carrying while the ship lifted off the stone and went into the snow.

"Alfred still flying that thing everywhere?"

"He'd refuse to retire if somebody tried to make him."

"I believe that."

They started toward the castle entrance. Moses walked easily despite his size while several of the First Squadron went ahead toward the military wing. Trafalgar had fought beside the captain long enough that walking next to him no longer carried the weight it had the first time.

Moses had tested him back then. The mine had answered most of what he wanted to know.

"I heard Myrrhvale finally chose a new head," Moses said. "Nerith di Myrrhvale."

"That's right."

"And you happened to be inside their territory when the whole succession ended."

Trafalgar glanced at him. "I was invited."

"I know. What interests me is that every time you're gone a few weeks, you come back with another Great Family tangled up in you."

There was no joke in it. He sounded curious more than anything.

"This one wasn't planned. I went as an observer. It grew complicated after I got there."

"I assumed as much. Caelum said very little, and when that man gives me very little, I've learned not to take it for very little."

That was accurate enough.

They went through the first enormous doors into the outer halls, where heat off the enchanted stone replaced the cold, though Morgain Castle had never run warm.

"So what have I missed here?" Trafalgar asked.

Moses took a few seconds over it. "Nothing dangerous out in the open."

"Explain."

"Your siblings have been coming back one after another. Some were called, some were expected for the Council. Commanders through the castle more often than usual, servants opening rooms that haven't been used in months, and everyone of consequence finding a reason to be here at the same time."

"That doesn't have to mean anything."

"No. I've served this house long enough to know when too many people are watching each other."

That caught Trafalgar's attention.

"Nobody has drawn a blade," Moses went on as they passed another guarded junction. "Nobody has accused anyone. From the outside, this place is preparing for a Council exactly as it ought to."

"You don't think that's all of it?"

"I think House Morgain has too many people with their own interests under one roof."

Trafalgar said nothing for a moment. After everything Caelum had told him about Maeron, that answer carried more weight than Moses knew.

They reached the main inner corridor, where a figure waited near the entrance. Caelum stood beside one of the stone pillars, dressed as plainly as ever, and Moses saw him at almost the same instant Trafalgar did.

"Caelum."

"Moses."

Neither man offered anything past the greeting. There had always been an odd balance between them.

Moses was the stronger of the two in a straight fight and held the First Squadron. Caelum stood far nearer to Valttair and handled information Moses was seldom permitted to see.

They had served the same man for years and respected each other's work, and neither had ever shown much interest in going further than that.

Caelum turned to Trafalgar. "Young Master, I was on my way to find you."

"I've only just landed."

"Lord Valttair was told the moment Alfred's vessel crossed into Morgain airspace."

Trafalgar looked down the corridor toward the central part of the castle. "So I don't get as far as my own room."

"I'm afraid not. The Patriarch asked to see you at once."

Moses looked over at Trafalgar and said nothing.

Trafalgar pulled his coat straight and started forward. "Then I shouldn't keep him waiting."