Nikolai had been watching the hall too long to miss the detail. Rhane was gone.
He wasn't easy to miss in the hall, as he'd stood at an amazing height of six feet with a burly figure that couldn't be swallowed even in the dark. It wasn't just the empty chair or the restless shifting of the councilmen. It was the quiet ripple that moved across the gathering whenever a man like Rhane vanished. People noticed him, even in absence, the way one notices the silence after a storm.
When one of the servants had suddenly started acting strange, making screeching sounds that vexed the soul, Nikolai had almost been distracted by it, waving it off as one of the madnesses that came with liquor.
But something caught the old man's attention in the span of that moment. Rhane had left the room, and his servant remained.
"More wine!" one of the council members cried, resting on the body of a young blushing woman.
