Ivor Mcdool's Arc

Chapter 5 of 5

Ivor reached the old lighthouse ruins as the last light drained from the sky. Ethan had already moved the woman inside and laid her on a blanket near the crumbled stone wall. Her eyes were open now, watching him as he approached. She didn't look afraid. He stopped ten feet from where she lay and waited. She pushed herself upright with her good arm, wincing but steady, and reached for a leather satchel beside the blankets. The clasp opened with a worn click. She pulled out a steel blade first, ornate and recognizable, then set it on the stone between them. The lord's family crest was etched into the pommel. Ivor knew it immediately. The woman said the lord had sent three couriers to the plateau bearing orders signed in his own hand. This blade had belonged to one of them. She said the lord had been funding the occupation for six months before Ivor ever asked for the land. She said she could prove it. Ivor crouched and picked up the blade, turning it over in the fading light. The inscription matched the lord's seal perfectly. He asked what she wanted in exchange. The woman said she wanted safe passage south and enough coin to disappear. She said the force on the plateau would kill her if they learned she'd brought him evidence. Ivor set the blade down and asked why she was offering it now. She said because the lord had betrayed them too, and she'd rather see him exposed than dead. Ivor stood and told her he'd give her what she asked, but only after she testified before the council. The woman's face tightened. She said the council would never believe a courier over a lord. Ivor said they would if he made them listen. He left the blade on the stone and walked back to where Ethan stood guard outside. He told Ethan to keep her here and comfortable until morning, then bring her to the council hall before noon. Ethan asked if she could be trusted. Ivor said it didn't matter. The blade was enough to force a hearing, and the hearing would force the lord to answer questions he'd avoided for months. The fortress still had no ground to stand on, but the lord's silence was about to break, and that was a door Ivor could walk through.