The Drone Who Claimed the Marshal novel · Chapter 13 of 32

Chapter 13: The Spark Glass

The guards did not get past the front hall.

Ambrose stood in the doorway in his shirtsleeves with his bare left hand glowing, and forty armoured men found they had stopped on the stairs.

"You may take him to the Empress," the Marshal said. "You may not take him anywhere else."

"The warrant says the examiners' house, Marshal."

"Then the examiners can come to the palace."

Linus put his hand on Ambrose's arm.

"I'll go," he said. "I'd rather say it to her face than have it said behind a door."

They went together, in the Marshal's own car, with Wystan driving and the guards following in a line.

By noon the Empress's court was full.

Linus stood on the black floor with three grey-robed examiners in front of him and the whole nobility packed along the walls.

Cormac Lorne sat in a side chair, with a guard on either side of him and a cup of tea he had not touched.

He looked rested.

"The House of Lorne lays one question before Her Majesty," the senior examiner said. "A drone's body that could not speak for seven years speaks now, and commands, and argues law. What is in it?"

"A man," Linus said.

A few of the nobles laughed.

"Registered as a drone named Linus Garrow, aged twenty-four," the examiner said. "The Empire has no record of any other soul."

"The Empire has no record of the sun coming up this morning either," Ambrose said from behind him. "It came up."

← Chapter 12 · All chapters · Chapter 14 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend