Chapter 22: The Inspector

Selene's POV

I stood in the surf in a wet shirt, with Stellan's arm around my waist.

I tried to look like a person receiving good news.

The inspector watched me with level brown eyes.

She was perhaps fifty, with short iron hair and a plain grey Concord coat.

"I'll be plain," she said. "I read the Warden's slate, and I read your book."

"By the time the troopers had finished reading to each other, your record had no ground left to stand on."

"Who wrote my record?" I asked.

"The Warden. Every complaint against you was filed from Cinderhold, and every one was hers."

Stellan's arm tightened.

"I came because of a report," the inspector said.

"A freight pilot carried it to a Concord post office. It had no return address."

She opened the folder and held out a single sheet.

I knew the handwriting before I read a word.

It was small and tidy, the same nurse's hand as the grey book, with the same odd loops that were not mine.

To the Inspector General. The Dark Sentinels of Cinderhold are being held by a device.

I have the evidence. If I am removed from this post, or if I stop writing, the Warden has found me out.

It was dated the day before I woke.

Underneath it, in the same hand, was a second line.

Please come. I cannot save all four of them by myself.

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