Chapter 24: Mourne

The wrecked freighter by the spring had a roof now.

Bastian had put it on in the first month, with a hammer he had traded a trooper for.

Kit had painted the door red.

He said it was so the storm beasts could find us.

The storm beasts could have found us in a dust storm from the other side of the plain.

I let him have the paint.

I was sitting on the step with a mug of Stellan's terrible seaweed tea when the white shuttle came down on the flat.

The inspector walked up the path with her folder.

She had come twice before.

Both times she had brought good news, and forms for me to sign.

"Guide Rowan."

"Inspector. You look cheerful."

"I am never cheerful."

"Then you look like something."

She almost smiled.

She held out the folder, and I took it.

Rafe was beside me then, because he always read the small print.

He read it standing, with his jaw set.

I watched his eyes go down the page, once, and stop, and go down it again.

"Rafe?"

"They've released us," he said.

His voice was very flat.

"The court sat yesterday. The Dark Sentinels of Cinderhold are free men."

"No sentence, no record, no surveillance. Full pardon for the sinking at the pier, because the beads caused it."

He looked up.

"The Warden is in a cell in the Core Worlds, with no slate."

Behind me, something dropped in the ship with a clatter.

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