The Cerberus Rebellion (A Griffins & Gunpowder Novel) by Joshua Johnson Page B

being made official. One of Beldane’s eastern districts had become Crown Lands when the territory’s last duke had died without heir. Those lands would be granted to Magnus as soon as his daughter was married.
    Magnus had not decided to whom he was going to grant those lands, though he had several options and more would present themselves when the fight for their independence began. If only—
    A knock on the large oak door interrupted Magnus’ thoughts. He rolled up the map and shoved it into a drawer.
    “ Enter!”
    Rorik stepped back through the door. “Your Grace. The council has been summoned. They will be assembled by the time we reach the chamber.”
    “ Very well.” Magnus stood and pulled his cloak off of its hook.
    Agilard was so far north that its winters were brutal. Even the stones of Hellhound Castle, nearly ten feet at their thickest, could not keep the brisk winds and biting cold at bay. The city was not yet covered in snow, but it was only a matter of time before it was drowned in a thick white sea.
    The council chamber was at the base of the tower behind a pair of massive oak doors bound with steel and studded with iron. With its high ceiling and painted glass windows, the room felt like a temple. The fireplace at the end of the hall was large enough for half a dozen men to stand in; a fire blazed to warm the spacious room.
    A dozen and a half men sat in luxurious armchairs around a long table in the center of the room. Most of them were brothers or second sons of the nobles that ruled the other territories of Kerberos. Some had books and papers stacked neatly before them, others had mugs of beer or porcelain cups of coffee.
    “ Please, don’t rise,” Magnus instructed as he swept around the table and took his seat. “We have much to discuss, and very little time.”
    “ Your Grace, have you come to a decision on how to handle King Garrard’s demands?”
    “ I have indeed, Derrick” Magnus confirmed. The gathered lords seemed to sit up a bit straighter. “We will satisfy His Majesty’s request for levies. They will be called up immediately and transported to Aetheston.”
    “ Your Grace, the King’s demands are absurd. My father—”
    “ If your father wanted to make his case to my court, he should have attended himself.”
    The Earl of Forest Glen was represented by his youngest son, Kreiger Mallory, a boy of average height and no more than twenty years. Magnus’ sharp rebuke caused the boy to sink into his chair.
    “ We have suffered under the rule of the Ansgari king for one hundred years,” Magnus continued. “We have married our daughters and our sisters to their nobles. We have watched as the King has abused our existence and taken advantage of our lands. But the time is not yet right for us to make our stand for independence.”
    An uproar of disapproval surged from the gathered lords. Some of the elder representatives made a show of their disapproval by pounding the butts of their staffs on the stone floor.
    “ Your Grace, this is the perfect opportunity!” cried Larsen Frisch, representing his nephew Stefan, Baron Ethelinde. Having just celebrated his sixty-seventh year, Larsen was the oldest man in the room. “ The King is sending his most experienced soldiers and commanders thousands of miles away. The other nobles will be hesitant to call more soldiers to battle. Especially the nobles in the west.”
    “ The nobles in the west will indeed be hesitant to call up more levies against us,” Magnus allowed.
    He was disappointed with the lack of foresight amongst the noble representatives. Their families had waited as long as his for the chance to wrench themselves free of Ansgari rule, but they had not born the risk of planning for the inevitable battle. He would have told them all of the plans that he had made with Beldane and Steimor or of his secret advisor in Nordahr, but they were not ready. And those plans could still be foiled if the wrong person learned of