Almond read the throne room the way he had read every region of his own trial, and what he found made him lower his voice without meaning to. "The essence here isn't angry. It's loyal. These guardians aren't hunting us. They're doing exactly what they were built to do the day they were built to do it. Guard the crown until someone proves they deserve to take it."
"How does one prove that, exactly," Ainen asked, eyeing the nearest stone guardian with open wariness.
The answer came from the guardians themselves, all twelve turning as one toward the six intruders, coral-crusted spears lowering in unison, and Rudra's shoulders settled into the old easy readiness of a man who had commanded worse odds and walked away from all of them.
"The old way, probably," he said. "Earn it."
---
