Chapter 162 Vision of the Future - A Son Across the Sea

Chapter 162 Vision of the Future - A Son Across the Sea
DOMINIK -

The sea struck the cliffs below the fortress hard enough to shake salt through the open arches.
Dominik stood over the war table with both hands braced against the carved edge, watching lamplight tremble across the map beneath his palms. Red stones marked the ports that had bent to him. Black stones marked the houses, still hoping they could wait him out. Beyond the drawn line of the sea, a thinner piece of parchment showed the kingdom that had taken his father, Landis, and buried the truth with him.
Men waited behind him in armor darkened by rain and travel. None of them spoke unless he allowed it. They'd learned that silence served better than flattery, and Dominik preferred the sound of waves breaking to the restless fear of men who had yet to learn their place.
A monk in grey robes stood nearest the hearth, his hands folded inside his sleeves. Brother Cahlin had been old when Dominik was a child and older still when he first taught him what had happened to his father. His old face was narrow, his scalp bare, and a chain of black beads hung against his chest.
"The report is confirmed, "Cahlin said. "The Alpha and his Goddess-touched Luna have a daughter, and she has begun leaving the inner palace with fewer guards than wisdom would allow."
Dominik didn't look up from the map. "That sounds like opportunity."
"It sounds like arrogance," Cahlin said. "They stole the crown and now their child has mistaken her shelter for strength."
One of the generals shuffled, and Dominik heard the scrape of boot leather before he lifted his eyes. When he did, the man stilled at once.
Cahlin continued, "She is guarded by wolves and whatever power her mother stripped from the dead god."
Dominik's jaw flexed as he looked back at the map. "Choose your words carefully, Cahlin."
The monk bowed his head, but Dominik knew that the submission would never reach his eyes. "Forgive me. Whatever power her mother stole."
The kingdom across the sea was only ink and coastlines from here, but the shape of it had lived in Dominik's mind since boyhood. He knew its mountains, roads, palaces, and the names of those who had murdered his father. They'd made certain that even as a child, he knew that the land across the sea had stolen his father from him. From the entire land. The Alpha of the Shirah kingdom had been executed because of false claims. Cut down in cold blood.
They'd told him the story until it settled into his bones. Alpha Landis had crossed the sea with a claim and a purpose. And Dax had destroyed him.
His own nephew.
The world had called it justice because the world belonged to the victors.
Dominik's fingers pressed into the table until the old wood creaked. He'd been too young to remember his father's hands or voice, but he remembered the first time he understood that every court smile around him carried pity. Landis's son. Useful when the old bloodline needed a banner, and dangerous when it needed a blade.
They'd honed him to a fine edge.
Cahlin stepped closer. "The daughter is the debt made flesh."
Dominik looked at him then, and the monk lowered his gaze this time.
"Her bloodline continued when yours was denied," Cahlin said. "She isn't innocent of what she represents."
"Children are innocent." His words were ice in the air.
"She is no child now," he all but hissed.
"No," Dominik agreed. "But don't confuse blood with guilt so carelessly in my hearing. I may own my father's misdeeds, but I don't expect others to do the same."
The general nearest the door swallowed hard, and Cahlin's fingers clenched around his beads before loosening again. "You have always been merciful where weakness is dressed as innocence."
Dominik moved before the last word cooled.
He crossed the room, seized the monk by the front of his robe, and drove him back against the stone pillar beside the hearth. The beads snapped, and black stones scattered across the floor before rolling beneath the table. The room went completely still, the tapping of the beads the only sound.
Dominik leaned close enough to see the pulse jumping in Cahlin's throat. "Mercy is not weakness. Restraint is not confusion. If you cannot tell the difference, you have mistaken me for the men who raised me." He jerked the man roughly, his fingers clenching the robe even more. “I am Alpha now,” Dominik said. “Do not mistake the boy you shaped for the man who commands you.”
The only sound now was Cahlin's breath as it came in thinly through his nose. "My lord."
Dominik released him and stepped back. The sound of Cahlin striking the stone did not soften him.
Rain swept through the open arches and hissed where it struck the hearthstone as the monk forced himself upright. He cleared his throat and rubbed at the reddening skin.
"The daughter is to be taken alive," Dominik said.
One of the generals nodded. "For ransom?"
"For leverage and for truth." Stories had two sides to them, and he would see both. "For the debt owed to my father's blood."
Cahlin gathered the remains of his chain with shaking fingers. "There are older rites that could bind her. The remnants of Latara's servants still hold knowledge of sacrifice. If her mother carries divine power, the daughter may carry enough to open what was closed."
Dominik's hand stopped over the map.
He turned slowly. "No rites." The monk froze. "No altars or blades that pretend holiness. No prayers spoken over a bound woman while cowards pretend murder becomes clean just because a god's name is placed over it."
Curse the old gods! He thought, as his disdain for them burned through his veins.
Cahlin's mouth pursed. "You speak as if gods have no place in justice."
"I speak as a man who's watched men hide behind them." Dominik picked up a black stone and set it on the enemy capital. "If she is brought across the sea, she arrives breathing. Whole. Unbroken except by the truth she will hear from me."
"And if she fights?"
Dominik looked toward the arches, where the storm had turned the sea black. "Then she fights standing."
The generals lowered their eyes, not from disapproval but because they understood an order when they heard one.
Dominik took the sealed packet from beneath his gauntlet and handed it to the captain of his Eastern fleet. "Three ships leave before dawn. No banners or court boasting. Take men who understand silence and return with the Alpha's daughter. Alive."
The captain pressed the packet to his chest. "Yes, my lord."
Cahlin watched with a guarded expression, but Dominik cared less. He would soon understand that Landis's son would not be any monks knife. He'd be his people's axe.
No more will we hide behind a dead gods name.
Outside, thunder rolled over the cliffs. Below, the harbor bells began ringing as sailors readied the ships.
Dominik looked across the map to the far kingdom and the daughter born under its guarded roof.
"Bring her to me," he said. "Alive."