At Christmas, I'd won back every supporter who'd been stolen from me. But my work was not yet done.
By now, Moonstar had made it onto my inner council, and I asked her opinion about a public meeting with her father in her new persona.
"I think it's a good idea," she said. "It's either going to shock him or get him to realise even his immediate family doesn't think the world of him like the general populace does."
"Or it's going to drive him insane and go spare," I added dryly.
"We've got to take the risk," Loud Sword insisted. "He's already scrambling, now that half his available funding has fallen by the wayside. Sly's father is the only lifeline keeping him afloat, and he's considering asking for Gwendolen Jeffries' hand. She's old man Derwyn's only daughter, and he won't let her marry just anyone."
"He won't want her to marry a man who's suddenly out on a limb," I predicted grimly. "He knows he's in dire straits now." I tapped my lips thoughtfully. "Can anyone get a handle on why he never responded to my request for parley?"
"No," Candycane said crossly. "But not for lack of trying. We do seem to get the impression, however, he's not willing to talk unless Moonstar's 'returned safely' to him. Like she's a possession he can just give away willy-nilly." Her derisive snort showed what she thought of that idea.
Moonstar sighed. "I knew this would come up sooner or later," she said crossly.
"You don't have to go back to him if you don't want to," I assured her. "In fact, you can make your own path. I'll let my rule of no independent contractors who've trained under me slide just this one time. You're skilled and smart enough to make your own way in the world, if you so wish."
"I'd rather stay," Moonstar told me firmly. "You've shown me more kindness and freedom than Father ever would."
I nodded, secretly relieved she preferred being here rather than being under her father's thumb. "So how do we get around his directive?" I asked.
"Public meeting," Moonstar said. "I disown him, tell him this is my choice, and let him decide if he's going to accept my decision. If he wants to fight, then I fight on my own." Her tone made it clear she'd brook no interference, covert or otherwise, and though I ached inside, I granted her the freedom she desired.
"You do as you wish," I told her. "You're skilled enough to outsmart him with both hands tied behind your back. I have faith in you." I took a deep breath. "Very well. Name the time and place, and I can let him know you're willing to talk."
"Trafalgar Square," Moonstar decided. "That seems the best place. And let's make it the day before Christmas Eve."
I had to smile. "Good choice," I said. "I'll be watching on the comms, just to make sure he's willing to talk, or at the very least, fight fair. If he's ready to go spare on you, no hold's-barred and the like, I'm going to pull you out. Otherwise, he's all yours to throw around the square a few times."
Moonstar grinned. "Sounds like a plan," she said.
"Then let's get to it," I said firmly. "We've only a week or so to prepare."
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The 23rd dawned grey and cold, and my heart was in my mouth as we watched Moonstar on the comms. She was dressed in costume, but had left her face unmarked, and the shock on Mister Impossible Sentinel's face almost erased the pain of my sister's and Sly's deaths.
"How?!" he demanded, horrified. "I knew she'd cozened you to her side, but I never dreamed she'd brainwashed you that far!"
Moonstar lifted her chin, eyes glittering in the chill morning light. "This was my choice, Father," she said calmly. "No one cozened or brainwashed me. I joined her ranks in free will, and in her ranks I'll stay. She won't make me feel I have to follow a path I don't wish to follow."
Mister Impossible Sentinel clenched his fists, and I tensed. That gesture was usually prelude to his Frostfire Rain, a move that was always fatal, and I almost pressed the recall button, only for Moonstar to deliver stark challenge to her father. "Will you kill me in cold blood?" she demanded. "Just like Uncle Donal did to Mother? Or like Nicholas did to Rodric?"
Again, Mister Impossible Sentinel clenched his fists. "They were villains," he said coldly. "They got what they deserved."
"What about Owen Bethel?" Moonstar shot back. "Or Gwylan Llewellyn? Donn Crellin? Doona Sharpe and Isabell Moughtin?"
Tears slid slowly down my cheeks as she recited the names of all my friends, family, and associates, who'd died at the hands of Mister Impossible Sentinel and his cohorts, all in the name of justice. Each name Moonstar recited had been the name of someone who'd never lived to see trial, who'd been killed outright, all because Mister Impossible Sentinel and his cohorts believed them too dangerous to live. And as Moonstar finished her list, her father seemed as if he'd had all the life drained out of him. He dropped to his knees, tears streaming down his cheeks, arms wrapped around himself as he sobbed, struck mute.
For long moments he knelt there, and eventually, Moonstar delivered her final blow. "Is that why you don't want to apologise to Eva? Because you don't want to admit you were secretly relieved by Uncle Donal's action? Because you believed that, deep down, Mother didn't deserve to live out her days in exile?"
"I loved your mother!" Mister Impossible Sentinel screamed. "But she stabbed me in the back! What choice did I have but to send her away? That choice killed me, but I made it because I didn't want to kill her in cold blood, as she damn well deserved!"
"You bastard," I whispered, horrified.
Moonstar had gone white to the lips. "Then you're as guilty of her death as Uncle Donal is," she said coldly. "So much for the man who sobbed the night he sentenced her to exile, the man who swore his heart was being torn out of his chest! Or did I mishear you that night I snuck down the stairs after I heard you crying like you'd just seen your best friend die in front of you?"
"That's enough!" Mister Impossible Sentinel shoved to his feet. "Your mother is dead, and good bloody riddance! Do I have to do the same to you?"
"That's torn it," Candycane said grimly, but I put a hand over hers, stopping her from pressing the recall button.
"Let him damn himself out of his own mouth," I said.
Candycane huffed, but let her hand drop.
Moonstar gave her father glare for glare. "Is this what it comes down to?" she said. "You're ready to murder me in cold blood, all because I'm telling the truth about you and your so-called vaunted justice?"
"One more word," Mister Impossible Sentinel said angrily. "Just one more bloody word, and so help me god, I will blot you from the face of the earth! Then I'll hunt that bitch down and wring her like a wet rag! After that, wiping out all her misguided minions will be a cakewalk! So just keep on talking, girl!"
"Then do it!" Moonstar flung her arms out. "Kill me, and be damned! Show the world how cold-hearted you really are! DO IT! Or are you a coward as well as a murderer?"
The last of Mister Impossible Sentinel's control finally snapped, and he called down his Frostfire Rain.
By the time the dust settled, only a charred mark on the ground showed where Moonstar had stood. Mister Impossible Sentinel stood before that mark, his face pale, his eyes on fire as he glared at the spot where his daughter had stood. "Mark my words, Eva," he snarled to the empty air. "You're next."
He snapped his fingers and disappeared, and I shut the comms off, tears running freely down my cheeks. Candycane and the others were equally as devastated, and it showed in their faces. "I'm calling an end to this farce," I said angrily. "Mister Impossible Sentinel is going to get a sharp lesson in what it means to become persona non grata to a formerly adoring public."
For of course, horrified civilians had been witness to today's confrontation.
And unless Mister Impossible Sentinel wanted to stain his hands with the blood of innocent people, the word would spread. By nightfall, I wagered not a soul in the United Kingdom would remain ignorant of today's happenings.
Mister Impossible Sentinel's day was going to get a whole lot worse.
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