Chapter 17: Perrin's Ledger

Perrin came to the keep gate at first light, on foot, and asked the guard for Linus by his old name.

"Tell him it's Perrin," he said. "Tell him I'm not armed."

He had a split lip and a yellowing bruise under one eye.

He carried a bundle in oilcloth against his chest with both arms.

Linus came down alone.

He had slept two hours, and his palms were still bound in white linen from the stair.

The guard opened the small gate.

The two of them stood and looked at each other across the cobbles.

"You look terrible," Perrin said.

"You look worse."

"The men on your wall last night," Perrin said. "The ward says they were the Duke's."

"They weren't."

"No?"

"The dead one wore the Empress's seal under his collar."

Perrin's face went still.

"Then you need what I brought more than I thought."

"The Duke's steward found out where I was hiding. He's had men on me for a week."

Perrin tried to laugh and it came out thin.

"I slept in a bakery oven."

Linus did not smile.

"Why are you here?"

"Because I watched Victory Day on a screen in a bar."

Perrin swallowed.

"Lin, I watched you say it to him in front of a hundred thousand people. And I thought, he got up. He actually got up. And I sold him."

"Yes."

"I told myself it was a formality."

"I know what you told yourself."

Perrin's face crumpled for a moment, and he put it back together with his hands.

"I signed the guardian's paper for you when you were seventeen," he said. "I thought I was hiding you from collectors."

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