Volume Two: The Mask's Weight
Chapter 186: Death Flag #09: Valdrake Summons
The Valdrake carriage returned at dawn.
No horses this time.
That was worse.
The absence was the message.
An envoy could be questioned. A driver could be ordered away. Horses could be tracked, tested, threatened, or pitied. A writ could be refused before enough witnesses to make refusal procedural instead of emotional.
An empty carriage offered none of that.
It was not an invitation.
It was a question placed in public: who here has the courage to call silence hostile before silence kills someone?
The black carriage stood beneath the academy's central arch as if the night had grown wheels and forgotten to leave. No driver. No envoy. No void-thread horses. No Maeron Vale with white gloves and careful cruelty.
Just lacquered wood, silver wheels, drawn curtains, and the Valdrake crest on the door.
Closed eye.
Downward blade.
Crescent flame.
Waiting.
