Damian FINUCANE's Arc

Chapter 45 of 57

The man in the doorway had given a name and a city to the south. Now he sat on his step with his shoulders low. Damian held the ledger tight. But the man knew too much to leave alive in the open, and too much to lose. The gray cat slipped back out through the door and sat between them, its green eyes bright in the dawn. "You have what you came for," the man said. "Let me ride. I'll leave the country by nightfall." His hand trembled worse than Damian's. "You don't understand. The men above me watch each other. If they learn I talked, they'll cut my throat before your horse clears the fence." Damian's stomach turned cold. The man was his only living thread to the boss in the south. If he ran, he'd hide or die. If he died, the last road south died with him. Damian needed him alive and talking, and the man needed to stay hidden from his own people. "Then don't ride," Damian said. "Write." He set the ledger on the step. "Everything. The name, the house, the guards, the way in. Put it on paper while you still can." The man stared at him. "And after?" "After, you vanish. You saw no one. I was never here." Damian's voice held, though his hands shook on his sword. "Your people won't hunt a man they think stayed loyal. But I need what's in your head first." Rolo moved from the frame, knife still ready. "He could lie in the writing," she said. "Send us to the wrong door." "He could." Damian looked at the man. "But Tom Clarke Parker was a name once. I chased it to the end and found it true. I know how these chains hang together now. I'll test every word you write." The man's jaw tightened. He knew the name too. Damian saw it cross his face like a shadow. The cat pressed against the man's leg and the man reached down without thinking, resting a hand on the soft fur. Then he nodded. He wrote for a long time. Damian watched each line. The man named the boss in the south, the walled house, the two gates, the hour the guards changed. He drew the road with a shaking finger. When he finished, Damian read it twice and found no crack. "Now go," Damian said. He took the pages and closed the ledger over them. "Ride the other way. Don't stop." The man rose. He looked once at the cat, then walked to his horse and rode north into the trees. Rolo watched him shrink and vanish. "He's out of the chain now," she said. Damian pressed the pages to his chest. His hands had stopped shaking. He had the road to the boss in the south, drawn by a man who feared him more than death. "One name left," he said. "Then it ends."