Chapter 43: The Name

Chapter 43: The Name
Olivia stood in front of the desk with her hands folded in front of her.

Dan had not moved from his position beside the map. Josh had straightened up from leaning over it. Both of them were looking at her with the particular attention of men who had learned to listen carefully to things that did not sound important until they were.

"You had something to tell us," Josh said.

"Yes, your majesty." She took a steady breath. "It is about the raids. About the Yesmar operation specifically."

Dan glanced at Josh.

Josh said nothing. He waited.

"I was in one of the carts," Olivia said. "Three days. I escaped through a rotten latch on the left side before we reached Silverline." She kept her voice even. "I have not spoken about it in detail because I did not know who was investigating or what would be useful."

"And now you do," Josh said quietly.

"Yes, your majesty."

"Tell us everything."

She told them. All of it. The inside of the cart. The smell of it. The other women. The route they took. The sounds at night. She told them about the masked men who loaded them and the ones who rode alongside. She told them about the symbol burned into the wood of the cart door, the howling wolf inside the circle of thorns and how she had stared at it for three days because there was nothing else to look at.

Dan was writing as she spoke. His pen moved quickly across the paper without pausing.

When she finished Josh was quiet for a moment.

"The symbol," he said. "You said there was something else. Beyond the wolf and the thorns."

"Yes, your majesty." She met his eyes. "At the bottom of the circle. A letter. Small. Easy to miss if you were not looking for it." She paused. "The letter H."

The room was very quiet.

Dan's pen had stopped.

Josh looked at her for a long moment. His face was very controlled. Too controlled. The kind of control that meant something significant was happening underneath it.

"Are you certain?" he asked.

"I stared at it for three days, your majesty," she said. "I could draw it right now with my eyes closed."

Josh looked at Dan.

Dan looked at Josh.

One look. That was all. The kind that carried an entire conversation in it.

"Thank you, Olivia," Josh said. "You can go."

She bowed and left.

She pulled the door almost closed behind her. Not all the way. Just enough that stopping to adjust her grip on the handle for a moment did not look deliberate.

She heard Josh's voice. Very quiet.

"Find out everything you can about who used that symbol. Every record, every account, every name connected to it." A pause. "And say nothing to anyone in this palace until I tell you to."

She walked away.

++++

Harris was at his desk when the second note from Drake arrived.

He read it standing up. He did not sit down for it because some things were better received on your feet.

The survivor had agreed to come forward formally. She would arrive at the pack not within a fortnight.

Within the week.

Harris put the note down on the desk.

He stood there for a moment and looked at nothing in particular.

Then he picked up his coat and walked out of his chambers.

++++

Josh looked up when Harris walked into the study without knocking.

That alone was enough to register. Harris always knocked. It was one of his few consistent courtesies. Josh had long suspected it was less about manners and more about giving himself time to compose his face before entering a room.

He was not composed now.

"Harris," Josh said.

Dan was still at the desk. Harris glanced at him briefly and then looked at Josh.

"I need to speak with you," Harris said. "Privately."

"Dan stays," Josh said.

Harris looked at him. Something moved across his face. He pulled out the chair across the desk and sat down.

"Josh," he said. And then he stopped.

Josh waited.

Harris pressed his hands flat on his knees. He opened his mouth.

Three knocks at the study door.

"Your majesty." Dan's assistant stepped in, slightly breathless. "Forgive the interruption. An urgent message has arrived ahead of the survivor's visit."

Josh held out his hand. The boy crossed the room and handed him the sealed letter and left quickly.

Josh broke the seal and read it.

Dan leaned forward slightly.

Harris had gone very still in his chair.

Josh read the letter once. Then he set it down on the desk slowly, the way you set something down when you needed your hands to be empty so you could think.

"The survivor," Josh said. "She has sent word ahead of her arrival." He looked at Dan. "She has a name for the person who ran the operation out of Yesmar."

Dan straightened. "What name?"

Josh looked down at the letter.

Then he looked up at Harris.

The study was completely silent.

Harris did not move. He did not speak. He did not perform any of the things he usually performed in difficult moments, the pleasantness, the deflection, the easy smile that meant nothing.

He just sat there.

And the look on his face in that silence was the most honest thing Josh had ever seen from him.

Josh held his cousin's gaze for a long moment.

"Leave us," he said to Dan.

Dan gathered his papers without a word and left, pulling the door firmly shut behind him.

Josh and Harris sat alone in the quiet study.

The letter sat on the desk between them.

Neither of them looked at it.

They did not need to.