Chapter 91: Deep Conspiracy
In another part of the castle. A young man at the door of a chamber gave two subtle knocks, and the door opened just slightly before he was ushered in without a word.
Inside, the room was dimly lit by a lone brazier casting faint, dancing shadows on the marbled walls. Marquess Scott stood by the window, his arms crossed behind his back, fingers twitching in barely veiled agitation.
"They’re moving too fast," he said in a low voice, sharp and deliberate. "Faster than I anticipated. We may have less time than we thought."
The young man, slender, sharp-eyed, and dressed in the unassuming robes of a palace scribe, closed the door quietly behind him. "Is it the crippled one?" he asked, his voice hushed.
Scott finally turned, his eyes shadowed but alert. "He was captured, yes. And now I hear that he’s begun to talk. I don’t know what they offered him, but it’s enough to make him consider betraying us, or perhaps he already has."
"But...he doesn’t know anything about you," the young man reminded him quickly, stepping closer. "None of us do. That was the entire point of the division. The orders were scattered, veiled, anonymous. Even if he speaks, the most he could give them is speculation."
Scott didn’t look reassured. He moved to a cabinet and poured himself a small cup of wine, he stared at the dark liquid instead, his voice low and cold. "Still. The king will move soon. And Henrietta... she’s not a fool. If she’s broken through to Ascendant, then the scale is shifting faster than we anticipated."
The young man swallowed. "Should we begin the fallback plan?"
"Not yet." Scott’s voice was sharp. "But stay alert. I may need to vanish from this place without warning. If word starts to move in my direction, I won’t wait to see how it ends."
He stepped closer to the young man now, his eyes narrowing. "Remember what I said from the beginning. If one of us is compromised, the others must remain untouched. No trail, no sympathy, no names, no faces."