They Called My Father a Traitor, So I Learned Every Secret They Buried novel · Chapter 5 of 24

Chapter 5: The Wounds That Outlived the Lie

Hadley planted the signed claim board across the stairwell and stopped Oswin with one boot on the bottom step.

'You can read the notice from there,' she said. 'You are not taking a damn thing out of this clinic unless Wynn decides it leaves.'

Oswin stood below her with two witnesses from the pack office. One was Elder Prewitt, wrapped in a dark wool coat that still carried the white cord of his office. The other was a kennel overseer I knew by sight and never by name.

The overseer held a ring of keys. Oswin held a written seizure order.

Neither man looked at the claim board for long.

That told me enough.

Kestrel sat at the worktable with his injured arm braced against his ribs. The fever had left his face drawn, but his attention remained exact. Old Marta stood beside the stove with a cup of mint water between both hands. Three patrol wolves filled the benches along the wall, each one wearing the stiff posture of someone who had come to hear whether his name would be used against him.

I kept the report Breda had carried back from the table. The broken red wax lay in my palm.

Oswin lifted the seizure order. 'By authority of the pack office, the medical ledger is to be collected for review. It contains reports belonging to the territory.'

'It contains my work,' I said.

'The distinction has no bearing on custody.'

'It does if you are asking me to hand over evidence.'

His mouth tightened. He had sealed my mother's protected-dependent registration with his own hand. He had placed his mark beneath the words that should have kept our cottage ours.

Now he held a paper saying the file no longer mattered.

'The ledger is subject to inspection,' he said. 'Its removal is authorized under the same standing order used to review all border medical records.'

Hadley leaned over the board. 'Then review it here.'

'The order specifies transfer.'

'The board specifies witnesses,' Hadley said. 'You want to argue with twelve patrol wolves, go ahead. They have been waiting all winter for something entertaining.'

One of the wolves coughed into his sleeve. Another looked at the floor to hide a smile.

Marta sipped her mint water.

'Clerks dislike witnesses,' she said. 'They make paper nervous.'

The kennel overseer stared at her. Marta did not look back.

Oswin climbed one step. Hadley shifted her weight, and the claim board moved with her. The twelve names remained between them, signed in ink, bone dust, and red wax.

'You are obstructing a lawful collection,' Oswin said.

'No,' Hadley answered. 'I am standing in a stairwell. You are trying to make that sound more important than it is.'

His eyes moved past her to me. 'Wynn Sablewood, will you produce the ledger for inspection?'

He said my name because the order required a subject. He said it as if saying it made me smaller.

I set the broken seal beside the report and opened the hollowed medical text on the table. The royal record remained behind the sewn pages. The ledger lay beneath it, wrapped in oilcloth.

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