Chapter 42: The Investigation

Chapter 42: The Investigation
The morning was ordinary in all the ways that mattered.

Olivia drew his bath. The temperature was right the first time. Josh said nothing about it, which meant it was acceptable. She set out his clothes, dressed his hair the way he liked it on court days, pulled back, silver brace, neat and went to fetch the breakfast tray from the kitchen.

When she came back he was already at his desk.

She set the tray down and waited for him to gesture toward the tasting plate.

He did not.

"Eat yours first," he said without looking up. "You look like you skipped last night's supper again."

Olivia blinked. "I did not skip supper, your majesty."

"You had half a portion. Debby mentioned it."

Olivia made a mental note to have a word with Debby.

"I was not very hungry," she said.

"Eat," Josh said. Still not looking up.

She sat and ate and did not bother arguing. There was something almost comfortable about it. The quiet of the room. The scratch of his pen. The morning light coming through the east window at the angle that made the dust in the air look like gold.

She had stopped bracing herself every morning for the complaints. They still came sometimes. But they came less. And when they did not come she no longer spent the silence waiting for them.

Lisa had noticed before she did.

You are relaxed, Lisa had said three days ago with enormous satisfaction. I told you.

"Eat your breakfast, Lisa," Olivia had replied.

I do not eat. I am a wolf.

"Then be quiet."

She finished her portion and was clearing the small plate when Josh set his pen down.

"Dan has a development," he said.

Olivia looked up.

"The investigation into the raids," he continued. He was looking at his correspondence, not at her. "A survivor has been speaking to people in the outer settlements. A woman. She has details about the organisation. The carts. The symbol they used." He picked up the pen again. "Dan thinks she may be willing to come forward formally."

The room did not change.

The light was the same. The dust was the same. Josh's pen was moving again across the paper.

Olivia sat very still.

"A survivor," she said carefully. "From which raid?"

"The Yesmar region," Josh said. "Moon Shadow Pack, most likely. The timing fits."

Olivia said nothing.

"It is a significant lead," Josh continued. "The first solid one we have had. If she comes forward it could give us enough to identify who was running the operation."

He glanced up then. Something in her stillness must have registered.

"Are you alright?" he asked.

"Yes, your majesty," she said. "Forgive me. I was just listening carefully."

He looked at her for a moment longer. Then he went back to his correspondence.

Olivia stood, gathered the tray, and left the room.

++++

She stood in the corridor outside his study with the tray in her hands.

The Moon Shadow Pack.

Yesmar region.

A survivor speaking about the carts. The symbol.

Olivia thought about the cart she had been in for three days. The rotten latch on the left side. The symbol burned into the wood beside the door, the howling wolf inside the circle of thorns. The small letter H at the bottom that she had stared at until she had memorised every line of it.

She had told no one about the H.

She had almost told Josh once. In the early days, before everything had shifted between them. She had pulled back at the last moment because she was not sure what it meant or what it would start.

She knew what it would start now.

Olivia, Lisa said softly.

"I know," Olivia said.

Are you going to tell him?

She looked at the study door.

"Yes," she said. "I am going to tell him everything."

She turned back toward the kitchen to drop the tray first. She would go back to the study after. She would knock and ask for a moment and she would tell Josh about the H and the symbol and everything she remembered about those three days in the cart.

She had taken four steps down the corridor when Harris appeared at the far end of it.

He was walking toward her. Calm. Unhurried. The way he always looked when he was anything but.

His eyes met hers and he slowed slightly. He looked at her face. Whatever he saw there made him stop completely.

"Olivia," he said.

"My Lord." She kept walking.

"A moment." He fell into step beside her, matching her pace. His voice was very low. "You have doubled your footsteps this morning. You look like someone in a hurry. What are you up to?"

"Nothing," she said. "Just trying to get through my morning duties."

"Where are you heading after the kitchen?"

Olivia looked at him sideways. "Back to the study."

Something shifted in Harris's face. Just briefly. "To do what?"

She stopped walking. She turned to face him fully.

"My Lord," she said. "Is there something you would like to say to me?"

Harris looked at her. That long, careful look he had that gave nothing away on the surface and was doing a great deal of work underneath.

"The investigation," he said quietly. "Whatever you know or think you know, be careful how you use it. And when."

Olivia studied him.

"Why?" she asked.

"Because information like that has consequences," he said. "And consequences have a way of landing on everyone nearby. Not just the people who deserve them."

The corridor was very quiet.

"Are you asking me not to tell him?" she said.

"I am asking you to think carefully before you do," he said.

Olivia looked at him for a long moment. Something was moving behind his eyes. She could not name it precisely. It was not malice. It was not a threat.

It looked, uncomfortably, like fear.

"I will think about it," she said.

She walked to the kitchen, dropped the tray, and stood at the window for one full minute.

Then she walked back to the study and knocked.

"Come in," Josh said.

She opened the door.

Dan was already there. A large map was spread across the desk, held flat at the corners by small ink pots. Josh was leaning over it with one hand braced on the table.

On the map, circled in dark ink, was the Yesmar territory.

Dan looked up when she entered. Then at Josh.

"Should I…"

"Stay," Josh said. He looked at Olivia. "You wanted to say something."

Olivia stood in the doorway with her hands folded in front of her.

She thought about Harris's face in the corridor. The thing that looked like fear.

She thought about her three days in that cart. The symbol. The H.

She thought about her parents.

"Yes, your majesty," she said. "I have something to tell you."

She stepped into the room and closed the door behind her.