Damian FINUCANE's Arc

Chapter 44 of 57

The man in the coat named one man above all the others. He gave a town, a road, and a house past a fence line. Then Damian and Rolo rode. The night was long. Damian had not slept. He kept the ledger in his coat and one hand on the reins. His hands began to shake near dawn. He gripped harder and held the horse straight. The road climbed and fell for hours. Rolo watched him from her own saddle. "Your hands," she said. He looked down. His fingers trembled on the leather. "I'll manage." She frowned but said nothing. He needed to reach the man before word spread. He counted his breaths the way his teacher taught him and rode on. They found the house at first light. Smoke rose from one chimney. A fluffy gray cat sat on the low wall, its coat dark and its eyes bright green. The eyes caught the dawn and seemed to glow. The cat watched them come and did not run. Damian slid down. His legs nearly buckled under him. He steadied himself against the wall. The cat stretched and stepped along the stones beside him, quiet as smoke. Rolo tied the horses. "You can barely stand," she said. "Let me go first." "No," Damian said. "He's mine to face." He drew a slow breath and forced his hands still. The door opened before he reached it. A man stepped out, gray at the temples, a cup of tea in his hand. He looked at Damian's sword, then at his shaking fingers. "You rode all night," the man said. "You can hardly hold that blade." The cat wound around the man's boots and purred. Damian raised the ledger. "Your name is in this. So are the men you paid." The man's face went still. He set the cup down slow. "I could take that sword from you now. Look at your hands." Damian did not lower the book. "Try." The man moved for the door. Rolo was faster. She flipped over the wall and landed between him and the frame. A knife flashed in her hand. "Sit down," she said. The man froze. The cat darted inside through the open gap. Damian closed the last steps. His hands still trembled, but his voice held. "You don't need my sword. You need my silence. I have the names of everyone above you." The man sank onto the step. His shoulders dropped. "What do you want?" "Who signs your orders," Damian said. "The one man you fear." The man wet his lips. He gave a name and a city far to the south. Rolo repeated it under her breath to hold it. Damian felt the ground shift under him. He had ridden all night and found this man. But the man was not the top of the chain. Someone still sat above him, and now Damian knew where.