The Drunk Wolf novel · Chapter 8 of 32
Chapter 8: Half a Name
Neither of us said anything for a while.
Struan crouched by the bones, careful not to touch them.
"He didn't drown," he said. "Look where he is. On the high side of the rack. He sat down here."
"Waiting for somebody?"
"Or locked in."
Behind us, someone splashed down the stone stairs swearing.
Ailsa came through the gap in the brick with the long rope over her shoulder and her torch in her teeth.
"I go back for one rope," she said, "and you two find a cellar and a dead man. What's next, a dragon?"
Then her light fell on the ring.
She stopped joking.
She crouched beside Struan and turned her torch on the gold.
It was a heavy signet with the Guard's wolf cut into it, and a year under the wolf.
"That's the year of the Rising," she said. "I know this ring."
"How?"
"There's a board in the guardroom with every captain on it back to the Charter. Name, year in, year out." Her voice was very flat. "One of them has no year out. Just a line. We used to tell ghost stories about him on night watch."
"Who was he?"
"The captain who wrote the Grey Rising report. The one your grandfather signed the Edict on." She looked at the bones. "They said he went over the hill to the south after. Took the reward money and ran."
"He didn't run very far," Struan said.
Inside what was left of the Guard coat, against the ribs, there was a flat bundle wrapped in black oilcloth and tied with cord.
Ailsa looked at me.
I nodded.
She cut the cord with her knife.
Inside were three folded sheets of paper, yellow and soft, with the ink gone brown.
I held my torch on them, and Ailsa read.
Her hands weren't quite steady.
Keep reading free with an account. Start The Drunk Wolf from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.
← Chapter 7 · All chapters · Chapter 9 →
Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend