Lindsay Buroker - The Emperor's edge

Trog hopped onto the desk and swished his cobweb-draped tail.

“Yes, I know I look silly.” Sespian smeared another glop on his burned skin, sat in the chair, and patted the cat. A couple of papers rested beneath Trog’s paws. “You’re just in time to help me with a decision.”

Trog sniffed Sespian’s chin, and the sandpaper tongue darted out to sample the lotion.

“I guess that answers the edible question,” Sespian murmured. “We’re here to decide something a little more momentous though.”

He slid the wanted posters for Amaranthe and Sicarius out from beneath the cat. He picked up a pencil and sighed at the fresh feline tooth marks decorating it.

“Money alone doesn’t seem to be enough of an incentive for someone to get rid of Sicarius.” Sespian tapped the pen against his chin and then added the promise of a title and land to the reward money.

Next he considered Amaranthe’s poster. Or at least he tried to. Trog flopped down and stretched out across it, inviting a belly rub.

“Don’t worry, boy. I’m not going to upgrade her bounty.” Sespian wished he remembered more of what happened in the smelter. The guards said Amaranthe had been there at the end, but he had no memory of anything after Sicarius demanding his head. No one had seen who killed Dunn. Sespian tapped the pencil thoughtfully. “I still have no idea what Lokdon has done and whether she’s been acting of her own volition.”

Trog meowed.

“Yes, yes, and I suppose there’s the hope that maybe she…” He finished with a silly shrug.

On her poster, he crossed out the line about her being a magic user and simply wrote: “Wanted Alive – 10,000 ranmyas.”

• • • • •

A young officer in the Imperial Intelligence Network intercepted the emperor’s revisions before they could go to Enforcer Headquarters. The officer left Sicarius’s poster alone, but he amended the one for Amaranthe Lokdon. “Wanted Dead – 10,000 ranmyas.” Those with knowledge of Forge could not be allowed to walk the streets or contact the emperor.