The Omega's Reflex novel · Chapter 6 of 6
Chapter 6: The Dead Man's Mouth
They took the body out on a board.
Ilsa covered his face with a cloth before they carried him past the tables.
Nobody ate.
Nobody left either.
Two hundred people sat in the great hall and looked at me.
I stayed where I was, next to the tray, with bread on the floor around my feet.
Rodrick came in from the east door.
He walked to the body and pulled the cloth back and looked at the steward's face.
Then he put the cloth back himself, gently, like a man who'd known him thirty years.
He had.
He turned around.
"Who found him?"
"I did," I said.
"You spoke to him."
"Yes."
"What did you say to him?"
"I asked him where he bought the redmouth."
"The redmouth," Rodrick said.
"The herb you told the pack about this morning."
"Yes."
"The same herb you say was burned in the Alpha's chambers on your wedding night."
"Yes."
"And you asked him about it in front of the whole hall."
"Yes."
"And he denied it."
"He did."
"And then he died."
"Yes."
Rodrick spread his hands and turned to the room.
The room looked back at him.
"Pack of Wanderich," he said.
"Yesterday this omega told you he has a gift out of the old books."
"Today he accused a man who's served this court for thirty-one years of poisoning the Alpha's bed."
"Then that man dropped dead on the floor before he could answer."
A woman near the front put her hand over her mouth again.
"The healer says it was bitter almond," Rodrick said.
"Does anyone know where a man gets bitter almond?"
Nobody answered.
"I'll tell you," he said.
"Any kitchen in this court. It's in the stores."
"So is bread. So is salt."
"Anybody could have done it."
He turned and looked at me.
"Anybody who wanted him quiet."
The hall made a sound.
It started low and went up.
I had heard it once before, in a different hall, when I was a boy.
It was the sound a room makes when it has decided what it thinks.
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