The Living Throne (The War of Memory Cycle Book 3) by H. Anthe Davis

allowed to rule.
    And, due to his association with them, neither was Shan Cayer.  Once the city shucked its Shadow allegiance in favor of a broader, secular mercantile worldview, he had been shunted to an advisory position.  Worse, he had been informed by the Regency that the most he could control, as an unblood, was a single kai .
    He'd been an ambitious man once.  A thug, a reformer, a priest.
    According to her mother, he hated shadowbloods now.  Envied their gifts, their afterlives and their authority in the god's absence.  He surrounded himself with unbloods, catered to them—had even declared an unblood newcomer as his successor.  All to spite the 'blooded hierarchy.
    In his face, though, Ardent read a different story.  Anger, yes.  But not envy, and not spite.  No, he looked insulted.
    I am not your enemy , she wanted to say.  I have no intention of keeping your kai.  My job is to analyze the situation and recommend fight or flight—and if I choose fight, to start one.
    But Cayer wasn't stupid.  He would never fight again, and with Bah- kai in shambles it would be an ideal time for the Regency to put its own agents in place.  Ardent didn't consider herself one; she had joined Enforcement to get away from the insular politics of her aunts and cousins, had even taken a shadow-name to disavow her Regent mother's influence.  Alas, she doubted she could convince him of that.
    “I've already been in contact with your surviving lieutenants and the outer cells,” she said instead.  “Only the Shadowland was attacked, and only the block that held your headquarters.  A few levels of basement and sewer were breached, with rubble forced into the goblin entrances, but nothing below was damaged.”
    Not that it made the destruction any more bearable.  She had walked the ruins last night to verify the reports, and found fires still smouldering in the depths—a slow cremation for the Kheri and civilians who had been in the Merry Tom Tavern and its associated block.  A greasy layer of soot covered everything, the air thick with the smell of woodsmoke and charred meat.
    She continued, “The goblins are considering our proposal on open warfare.  The metal elementals have already sided with us because of the magical nature of the attack.”
    “Of course they sided with us.  They're our allies,” Cayer snapped.
    “You may have secured their friendship, but there has never been a military pact between us.  We are negotiating one now.”
    “Get me out of here and I'll have that negotiation done in a twinkling.  Better yet, get Lark on it.  Pull her back.”
    “Lark, your designated successor.”
    “Yes.”
    “She has already been informed of the situation, but we have chosen not to recall her.  She is doing important work with the Guardian vessel—“
    “That idiot boy?  No.  You get her back here immediately—“
    “To do what?”  Ardent stared down at trapped old man.  By the way the muscles jumped in his shoulders and chest, he was trying to pull free from the bed, but its substance gripped him tight and would not release unless she willed it.  “Is this Lark a war-leader?  Because your reports speak of her as a diplomat, a go-between for you and the goblins and the street-level teams.  Have you even introduced her to the governor's council?  No, you're not ready to step down yet, not ready to groom a serious replacement.  We will not recall her; she would be no use to us.”
    A spasm of hate crossed his face.  “That's it, then.  You steal this from me—my kai , my position.  You swoop in like an avenger, as if you didn't stand by and watch the Crimsons kill us!”
    Her eyes narrowed.  She hadn't been one of the responders, but she had reviewed all the reports.  “We had no more warning than you did, but I apologize on behalf of the Regency anyway.  The situation warranted a stronger response than it received, but our prior dealings with the Crimson Army did not lead us to