lieutenant’s rank and pay.”
Sick to his stomach, Talyn stared at him in complete disbelief. “What?”
Lorens nodded. “As further discipline against you, you won’t be eligible for a promotion again for three years, provided you keep your mouth shut over what was done to you.”
Talyn felt like he’d just been punched by Death Warrant. “I didn’t do anything!”
“That’s our point. My brother didn’t do anything, either. He just happened to have married into the wrong lineage. And don’t get me started on Tahrs Nykyrian eton Anatole. His biggest crime was that his mother slept with a human and he happened to look more like his father than his mother. For that matter, Jullien, Merrell, and Chrisen single-handedly drove the entire War Hauk male lineage from Andarion soil because the last thing they want is for any of our beloved heroes to be here to stop them.”
Talyn went silent as old memories stirred.
Lorens sat back. “I knew Keris Hauk – he was one of my best friends from childhood. He rose too fast through the Andarion military ranks for their taste, and they couldn’t stand it. Merrell hooked him on drugs and saw to his execution through the hands of Keris’s wife. It’s a fact I know, but have never been able to prove. Likewise, I know they’re the ones who drove Fain out of his family. And don’t you find it odd that it was Jullien and Chrisen who were in the pod with Dancer Hauk when it crashed? You think that was a coincidence? They escaped unscathed, but he damn near died… and because of that, Dancer was barred from Andarion military service. Forever. They deprived him of his birthright. It’s why he’s working for The Sentella now.”
Talyn’s head swam as he tried to digest all of that. He would call Lorens out, but it strangely made sense. Especially given the insane hatred Jullien, Chrisen, and Merrell bore him personally when he’d done nothing to them, other than try to stay out of their way. And it corroborated a lot of what they’d said to him about his father’s family. “How do you know all that?”
“We’ve been gathering evidence on the royals for a long time. But every time we try to come forward, we’re put down like rabid lorinas.”
Like Rhys, Farina, and Berra.
“Then what’s your agenda?”
“To remove the royal family from power and institute a governing body that the people control. A republic of officials who are reasonable, responsible, and honorable. A governing council that won’t dare abduct our race, and beat, exile, and rape them at their leisure.”
Talyn couldn’t agree more. He wanted blood. Royal blood. Lorens must have smelled it on him.
But if he joined ranks with them, he’d be committing treason. With witnesses. He wasn’t sure if he trusted anyone that much.
One snitch in their group, and everything he loved would be brutalized and lost.
If he didn’t…
They were out to get him, and that wasn’t paranoia. It was fact. His new rank showed that.
Either way, his mother and Felicia were targets. And he had no idea how to protect them from harm on his own. Not with his bastard status and low caste.
Strong alone. Stronger together. That was the motto for The Sentella group his aunt Jayne had helped to found.
One Andarion, alone, couldn’t make much difference. But thirteen War Hauks had saved their entire race from enslavement and extinction.
Lorens rose to his feet. “Look, I know I’ve given you a lot to think about and I blindsided you with it. Just consider what I’ve said. If you decide to join us, call and invite me to a party at your house. I’ll know by that phrase that you’re in. If you decide not to, just leave a message saying the party’s canceled. Since you live with my sister, no one will think anything about either comment. And I know what I’m asking from you. Believe me, I know. It wasn’t an easy decision for me to make either. It goes against everything I was raised to believe. Everything I thought I was. But when I stood over my brother’s closed casket – because of what they’d done to him – and saw my children there… his children, I knew I couldn’t stand by and let them die next. Not when I had the ability to stop it. Andarions don’t live in fear. We fight back.” Lorens placed the file on the bed and left.
Sick to his stomach, Talyn opened the file and read his demotion