Chapter 48: Stay

Chapter 48: Stay
The gathering was emptying out slowly, delegations peeling away in groups, carriages being loaded outside, farewells being exchanged with the particular efficiency of people who had a long journey ahead of them.

Olivia found Cassandra near the eastern wall, standing with her bag over her shoulder and watching the room empty with the expression of someone who was in no hurry because hurry required a destination.

"How far?" Olivia asked.

Cassandra looked at her. "What do you mean?"

"Where are you going from here? After now."

Cassandra was quiet for a moment. Then she shrugged, and it was the kind of shrug that carried more weight than it looked like.

"No place in particular," she said. "I have been moving around since Silverline. Here and there. Working for a few days somewhere, moving on before anyone asks too many questions." She adjusted the strap of her bag. "I am fine, Liv. Do not look at me like that."

"Like what?"

"Like that."

Olivia looked at her best friend. The bag that held everything she owned. The careful lightness she wore over something that was not light at all.

"Stay here," Olivia said.

Cassandra blinked. "What?"

"Wait here. I will be right back."

"Olivia…"

"I said do not move, Cass."

She left before Cassandra could argue.

++++

Josh was near the main entrance with Dan, already in his coat, and oriented toward the door.

Olivia approached him with the particular step she used when she had decided to do something and had not yet figured out if it was a good idea.

"Your majesty." She stopped in front of him. "A moment please."

Josh looked at her. Dan looked at his papers.

"My friend," Olivia said. "Cassandra. The one I mentioned to you before. She has no pack and no fixed place to stay. She has been moving around since she left Silverline." She kept her voice very steady. "I know it is a large request and I would not ask if there were another way. But please, your majesty, is there any possibility you could employ her temporarily at the Dark Howlers Pack?"

Josh looked at her.

"She is a good worker," Olivia continued. "She is not afraid of hard work and she is trustworthy and…"

"Olivia," Josh said.

She stopped.

"Yes," he said.

She blinked. "Your majesty?"

"Yes," he said again. "Tell her to join the delegation."

He turned back to Dan.

Olivia stood there for just a moment.

Then she turned and walked back across the room to where Cassandra was standing exactly where she had left her, arms folded, pretending she had not been watching the entire exchange from across the hall.

"Well?" Cassandra said.

"You are coming with us," Olivia said.

Cassandra stared at her. "Just like that?"

"Just like that."

"He said yes just like that?"

"He said yes just like that."

Cassandra looked across the room at Josh who had already turned back to his conversation with Dan and was paying no visible attention to either of them.

"Huh," Cassandra said.

"I told you he was not a troublesome person," Olivia said.

Cassandra picked up her bag slowly. "He said yes very fast. Even though he does not know me that well."

"I have told him about you before," Olivia said with a small laugh. "He knows who you are. Now pick up your bag and let us go."

Cassandra picked up her bag and followed, still shaking her head.

++++

The journey back was three hours, the same as before.

Josh and Olivia in the Alpha's carriage. Cassandra in the staff carriage two behind. Harris riding with the outriders at the front.

The forest moved past the window in the dark. Someone had lit the carriage lantern and it cast a warm low light across the interior.

Josh had the same document from the morning journey. This time he folded it on his lap and looked out at the dark trees without pretending to read it.

Olivia watched the trees on her side and said nothing and let the silence be what it was.

Then Josh spoke.

"The alpha who stopped me," he said. "After the speech."

"Yes, your majesty."

"He was not wrong."

Olivia turned to look at him. "I do not understand what you mean, your majesty."

"I owe you an apology," he said.

Olivia looked at him carefully. "Did something happen, your majesty?"

"For letting you serve," he said. "Knowing what I know. Knowing what you are." He set the document on the seat beside him. "I should not have allowed you to serve at the gathering today. Not in front of all those people."

Olivia was quiet for a moment.

"I did not mind the work," she said.

"That is not the point."

"I know it is not the point," she said. "But it is true. The work gave me something to do while I figured out where I stood." She looked at her hands. "I needed that time, your majesty. Even if you did not realise you were giving it to me."

Josh looked at her.

She met his eyes steadily.

Something shifted in his face. That particular shift she had learned to recognise, the one that meant something had landed somewhere deep and he was deciding whether to acknowledge it.

He said nothing.

But he did not look away either.

They rode the rest of the way in a silence that was the most honest thing either of them had managed all day.

++++

The Dark Howlers palace appeared through the trees.

The carriages came through the gate one by one.

Dan was standing in the courtyard. Waiting the way a person waited when they had news and had been holding it for hours and needed to deliver it the moment they could.

Josh stepped out of the carriage.

Dan came to him immediately.

"Your majesty," he said quietly. "Forgive the timing."

"Speak," Josh said.

"The survivor," Dan said. "The woman from Yesmar who agreed to come forward." He paused. "She arrived this evening. Three days early."

Josh went very still.

"She is here?" he said.

"She is here," Dan confirmed. "And your majesty…" another pause, choosing his words carefully. "She brought someone with her. Another survivor. A woman who was in the same raid."

Josh looked at him steadily.

"They are asking to speak with you tonight," Dan said. "Both of them."

Across the courtyard Harris had dismounted and was helping direct the staff carriages. He had not heard the conversation. He was laughing at something Cassandra had said from the carriage window, that full, unguarded laugh that Olivia had never heard from him before tonight.

He did not know yet.

Josh looked at Dan.

"Tonight," Josh said. "One hour. My study."

He walked inside.