It was not possible to fall asleep, I just lay there, embracing the Light, peacefully snuffling at my side and thinking. The brain over and over again chased away the events of the past evening in an attempt to find flaws, shortcomings, minor mistakes and serious miscalculations, but nothing went to mind. No matter how you look, everything went very smoothly: they went in and left without tangible difficulties, none of my people were injured, there were no casualties, they didn’t show their faces, but what a noisy alarm they did. Almost certainly the Council will try to keep silent about this incident, of course, the general public does not need to know that a group of unknown people easily came to the Imperial Palace as if they were at home, executed the two princes, and just as calmly left, taking the beautiful part of the Imperial family. It will not work, my good ones, not this time, I will not allow twice to swallow me and force me to stick with a stick on the water. Two hours before dawn, I got out of bed, carefully covered Sveta and quietly left the bedroom, deciding to control the whole process personally.

It was dark and quiet in the house, only in the living room a light was on, Turbert and Walding imposingly collapsed on one of the sofas and quietly talked about something, continually applying to the circles.

- Good morning, guys. - Silently coming up from the back, I grinned.

- Good morning, your grace! - Immediately both jumped up, stretched to the edge and froze.

- Relax, sit down and rest. - Good-naturedly patted the crossbowmen on the shoulders, I myself sat opposite, took a glass from the stand, and splashed some wine from an opened bottle.

- Acris with Borms there? - Bearing in mind the basement-prison, I asked.

- Yes, we divided by shifts, the four of them are uncomfortable. Turding sounded businesslike, Walding nodded, silently supporting his comrade. As if to confirm their words, footsteps were heard from behind the doors and Acris with the detachment captain entered the living room.

- Guys, it's your turn. - Not immediately noticing me, Borms laughed with satisfied fatigue in his voice, both arrows got up, bowed shortly to me, and almost ran off to have fun.

- Good morning, Lucas. Why not sleep? - Finally noticed with a modest view of me sitting Borms, Acris also looked interested.

- Sleep well already. - I waved it off and, pulling a napkin from the far table with an energetic thread, stretched it to the wetted Borms, who nodded his thanks and wiped his flushed face.

- How are you doing? In terms of fit? - Having thrown one leg over to the other, I leaned back on the sofa’s back, looked inquiringly into the rather bright eyes of a warrior.

- The case is simple, and the woman is gorgeous, really kicking at first, but ... - Bormes advised, showing a wide, wiry and covered with calluses from the sword hilt, eloquently clenched her into a fist.

- I hope you cover your guesses guessed? - I'm a little wary.

- Insult your mercy. - Acris reproachfully tilted his head to the side, with his beard and a brutal scattering of scars on his cheek, this gesture turned out to be somewhat comical.

- Okay, okay, I see that you are a pro, I suppose not the first trophy women to use? - I kindly raised my palms.

- Not without it, but this ... Can we leave it to ourselves? - With hope asked Borms.

- No, we will get rid of the Empress in a couple of hours, but do not be sad, you will soon have both women and wine, I promise. - Feeling the father of a small but very great nation, I said seriously.

- Two hours? So once more have time. - With a smirk looked at each other friends.Yeah, mercenaries, they are mercenaries, or is it an oath so acted upon them? It’s unlikely that Molai-Ha won under an oath too, but I wasn’t very happy when I made him lick out Sorianna, so the men themselves are not angels, which in our case is more likely than a disadvantage.

Leaving the soldiers to rest before the new martyrdom of the Empress, I quickly scanned the house with magic eyes and, seeing Horial in one of the rooms of the manor, confidently went to the former, yes, already former member of the Council of Mages. The door to the guest apartment turned out to be tightly locked, also stuck on something from the other side, and this is in my own house, just the height of insolence. He concentrated and felt sticky horror, coming from the man on the other side of the barricades in waves, extinguished the irritation that flared up and held his hand, which he wanted to disperse the barrier into pieces. The energy charge in the palm of the hand was transformed into several tentacles, they slid through the sash tree and removed the chest of drawers to its rightful place, shifted the bolt, the loops creaked quietly, and I entered the room.

“Horial, are you so afraid of the wrath of the Emperor?” - I wondered when I found the magician, who was cowardly clinging to the wall behind the high headboard of the bed, stood over him like a rock unshakable. He was clearly shaken, cold sweat was streaming down his temples, lips were trembling, and in the eyes of the fear and despair of the mouse, driven into the far corner of the mousetrap.

I was distracted by his emotions and I realized that now it does not make sense to talk to him, almost does not understand anything and is ready to put in his pants from the first rustle or hint at people from the Council, an idea came to mind.

“Baron Horial, stand up.” - I gave a strict order and the magician complied, something like he rose to his feet, but he did not stop shaking.

“As your lord and sovereign, I order you to calm down immediately and stop being afraid of the Emperor, the Council of Mages, and others like them.” - So, you will not trample against the oath, whether you want to or not, but you have to do it. The baron did not succeed in getting back to normal instantly, but after five minutes he finally looked at me straight, meaningfulness appeared in his eyes.

- So much better. Now go and clean up. Make it so that I was not disgusted to look at you and continue to behave with dignity, as befits a Baron and not a cowardly filth. “I could not resist, yet I switched to rudeness, but Horial merely nodded and, without saying a word, ran out of the room.

I do not know where Xa-Aran took this amulet, but it works just fine. The oath firmly holds its victims, forcing them to loyalty and obedience, very convenient, I just do not know what I would do without this wonderful magical thing. Yeah, go everywhere with active energy shields, waiting for a backstab, it's just br-rr-r ... I gratefully stroked the amulet under my shirt and went out into the corridor, a new idea appeared in my head, it's time to cook another dirty trick to his Imperial Majesty. In my laboratory, I have one more whole drive and many small pieces of scrap from the second one, which Eva now carries in her backpack. Pulling up a stool to the table, I sat down and began to turn one of the pieces of the artifact into a smooth ball, no more than the phalanx of the little finger. The drive is an artifact of its kind, universal, can be used not only as a battery, but also as a carrier of ready-made weaves. A lot of different patterns are stored in my memory, and here I began to draw one of them, grinning and imagining how surprised the Emperor would be when his faithful went berserk up to the foam on his lips.

“Furious madness”, an interesting and rather complicated weaving, when activated, it makes its victim lose his mind and, in an attack of uncontrollable malice, kill all those who turn up his arm, cannot be removed, the allies can only kill the unfortunate, because even if it is immobilized, it will break in spite of the harm done to oneself. So, the weaving is finished, I hung the finished pattern over the table, began to gently fold it and immerse it in the finished pea of ​​the drive.I like to tinker with such toys, it is very soothing and helps to concentrate, and now, having saturated the resulting artifact with dark force, I quite smiled and put the craft down to the side, moved to the corner to my bag.

Not sparing easily the money received, he folded his hands in a boat and brought a double handful of gold coins, dumped the ringing rings on the table. It is impossible for the Empress to appear before the people without a symbol of royal power, and I didn’t grab her own crown from the palace, but didn’t I do it myself, did I leave the wizard or take a walk? Longer chose the design, now and then changing the layout ...