Chapter 18 · The Monster on Trial

By sunrise, Riftport had built a courtroom out of its market square.

Black iron rails divided the streets. Soldiers stood behind them with crossbows leveled toward the roofs, the alleys, and the crowd. Above the old fountain, a wooden platform had been raised beneath the military banner of the Central Authority—a field of white stitched with a burning red eye.

Xia Lan stared at it from the mouth of a narrow alley, rainwater dripping from the edge of her hood.

The eye on the banner seemed to stare back.

“You said this city was under your command,” she murmured.

Nolan stood beside her, one hand pressed against the bandage beneath his coat. His face had lost the hard, controlled shape he wore in battle. Since the tower, since the recording, he had looked like a man walking beside his own grave.

“It is,” he said.

“Then why are there Central soldiers in your square?”

“Because Ivra arrived before we did.”

Across the square, a procession of armored officers moved through the crowd. At its center walked Ivra Kohn in a charcoal dress trimmed with silver thread. She carried no weapon. She did not need one.