Mated to My Hunter

Chapter 69: Roderick's Hidden Room

We came into the capital at dusk with the warriors behind us and the coach ahead of us and the snow coming down out of a sky the colour of wet slate.

The house by the water was a narrow building of brick at the end of a lane that ran down to the river, with a lamp in the window and smoke from the chimney and a wolf on the step.

The wolf was old and grey and had a scar on his jaw. He looked at the coach and then at Maren and his face changed.

"Warden," he said. "Your father is inside."

Maren went past him without a word and through the door and into the room where the fire was.

Roderick was in a chair by the fire with a blanket over his knees and a book in his hands and his grey hair washed and combed and his green eyes clear. He looked up when the door opened and the book fell out of his hands.

"Maren," he said.

She crossed the room and knelt in front of the chair and put her arms around him and held him and did not say anything for a long moment. Roderick put his hand on her copper hair and closed his eyes.

"You are out," she said.

"I am out." His voice was rough. "The jailer came to the cell at midnight with a deed in his hand and a lantern and a key. He said a ferryman had bought my freedom and he said the ferryman was a fool and the ferryman was the best man he had ever met."

Maren lifted her head.

"The jailer is on his way to the north shore," she said. "The ferry is his."

"The ferry is his and I am free and my daughter is kneeling on the floor of a room by the water." Roderick put his hands on her face. "You are thin. You have been wearing the chain again."

"I took it off."

"You took it off and you came to get me." He looked past her at me. "Ferryman."

"Roderick."

"You paid for my freedom."

"I paid for it with a boat and a dock and a shed and a lane and the debt on it." I came into the room. "It was worth the price."

Roderick looked at me for a long moment. Then he nodded.

"Sit down," he said. "All of you. There is a map on the table and the map is the reason I asked you to come."

The map was on the table by the fire. It was a large sheet of heavy paper and it had been drawn in ink and it showed the capital and the river and the hall and the lanes and the houses and the docks.

"The silver network," Roderick said. "I drew it in the cell over eight years. Every name I heard from the guards and every place I saw from the window and every payment I remembered from the years when I was the Silver Warden." He put his finger on the map. "The network has a room under the hall. The room has a door of iron and a lock of bronze and the lock is a Council lock. The room is where the pack council keeps the Council's silver and the Council's papers and the Council's proof."

"The pack council's names are in the network," Maren said.

"The pack council's names are in the network and the pack council's names are in the book of notes and the pack council's names are in the founding papers." Roderick looked at the fire. "The pack council has been the Council's creature for thirty years. It has signed the notes and taken the silver and kept the room."

"The room under the hall," Isla said. "Where is it?"

Roderick put his finger on the map. "Under the east wing. There is a stair behind the buttery and the stair goes down to a corridor and the corridor has a door of iron and the door of iron is the room."

"The hall is watched," I said.

"The hall is watched by the Council's guard and the Council's guard has the Council's order and the Council's order says the warden is a rogue." Roderick looked at Maren. "But the guard has not heard that the Silver Warden is out of his cell and the Silver Warden is a warden and a warden can walk into the hall."

"The Silver Warden can walk into the hall and the guard will not stop him," Maren said.

"The Silver Warden can walk into the hall and the guard will not stop him and the Silver Warden can walk into the buttery and down the stair and to the door of iron." Roderick put his hand on the map. "But the door of iron has a lock of bronze and the lock of bronze has a key and the key is on a chain around the neck of the pack council's clerk."

"The pack council's clerk," Isla said.

"His name is Osric and he has been the pack council's clerk for twenty years and he sleeps in a room above the buttery and he keeps the key on a chain around his neck and he does not take it off." Roderick looked at the fire. "Osric is a small man with a large appetite and he drinks a bottle of wine every night before he sleeps."

"He drinks a bottle of wine every night," Maren said.

"He drinks a bottle of wine every night and he sleeps like a stone and he does not wake until the bell rings for the morning." Roderick looked at her. "The bell rings at six. The pack council meets at nine. The key is on his neck from six until nine."

"Then we go into the room between six and nine," Isla said.

"We go into the room between six and nine and we take the Council's silver and the Council's papers and the Council's proof." Maren looked at the map. "And we put them on the table in front of the Alphas."

The fire popped. The wind came off the river and pushed at the window.

"The proof," I said. "What is the proof?"

Roderick looked at me for a long moment.

"The proof is the Council's own record of the silver trade," he said. "The record the Council kept before the clerk Fenn kept the book of notes. The old record. The record that names the men who paid and the men who took and the men who kept the secret." He looked at the fire. "The record names the first Ostrander and the first Ostrander's father and the first Ostrander's son. And it names the men who were in the pack house on the night the founding Alpha died."

"The founding papers are in the box," Maren said.

"The founding papers are in the box and the box is on a cutter and the cutter is a day away." Roderick looked at her. "The record in the room under the hall is the record the Council kept for its own use. It is the record of the men who paid. It is not the founding papers. It is better."

"Better," Isla said.

"The founding papers are the words of a dead man and a clerk who was paid. The record under the hall is the Council's own book with the Council's own seal and the Council's own handwriting." Roderick put his hand flat on the map. "The Alphas will believe the Council's own book before they believe a dead man's letter."

The room was quiet.

"Then we go into the room," Maren said.

"And there is something else." Roderick looked at the map. "The room under the hall has a second door. The second door goes down to the river and comes out at the water line under the east dock."

"The east dock," I said.

"The east dock is where the cutters tie up and the cutters are watched by the Council's guard." Roderick looked at me. "But the water line under the east dock is not watched and the door at the water line has a lock of bronze and the lock of bronze has the same key."

"The same key," Maren said.

"The same key," Roderick said. "Osric's key opens the door of iron and the door at the water line and the lock on the silver chest."

"The silver chest," Isla said.

"The silver chest is in the room and the silver chest is the Council's and the silver chest is what the pack council has been buying its silence with for thirty years." Roderick looked at the fire. "The silver chest is the proof the Alphas will need and the silver chest is the reason the pack council will fight to keep the room."

The room was quiet.

"Then we take the room," Maren said.

We went out of the house at midnight. The snow was coming down and the river was black and the hall stood above the city with its tower and its windows lit and the guard on the steps.

Roderick went first. He walked up the steps with his grey hair and his green eyes and his old coat and the guard on the steps looked at him and did not move.

"The Silver Warden," the guard said. "You are out."

"I am out and I am going to the buttery." Roderick did not stop. "I have been in a cell for eight years and I am going to have a cup of wine in the buttery."

The guard looked at him for a long moment. Then he stepped aside.

Roderick went into the hall. We followed him with the warriors behind us and the guard on the steps did not stop us.

The buttery was a low room off the east wing and the stair was behind the buttery and the stair went down to a corridor and the corridor had a door of iron.

The door of iron was at the end of the corridor and there was a lamp on the wall and a wolf asleep on a stool.

The wolf woke when we came down the stair. He was young and thin and he put his hand on his sword.

"Stop," he said. "The room is the pack council's room."

"The room is the Council's room," Roderick said. "And the Council has voted and the Councilman is a traitor and the pack council is the Councilman's creature."

The young wolf looked at him and then at the warriors behind us and his hand came off the sword.

"I am a guard," he said. "I do not read orders."

"Then stand aside," Roderick said.

The young wolf stood aside. Roderick went to the door of iron and put his hand on the lock of bronze.

"The key is on Osric's neck," he said. "And Osric is asleep in the room above the buttery and the bottle is empty and the bell does not ring until six."

Isla came down the stair with a lantern and a coil of rope.

"I will get the key," she said.

She went up the stair and into the buttery and we waited in the corridor with the young wolf and the lamp.

She came back with a key on a chain and a smile on her face.

"He was asleep," she said. "The bottle was empty and the key was on his neck and he did not wake."

Roderick took the key and put it in the lock of bronze and turned it and the door of iron opened.

The room beyond was small and dry and lit by a lamp and there was a table in the middle and a chest on the table and shelves along the wall.

The shelves were full of papers and the papers were tied in bundles and the bundles were marked with the Council's seal.

Roderick went to the table and opened the chest.

The chest was full of silver. It was full of coins and bars and a chain of silver and iron and the silver was bright in the lamplight.

"The silver chest," he said.

Maren went to the shelves and took down a bundle and untied it.

"The record," she said. "The Council's own record. The record of the silver trade and the names of the men who paid."

She turned the pages. Her green eyes moved down them.

"Here," she said. "The first Ostrander. And the second Ostrander. And the third Ostrander." She turned another page. "And here. The men who were in the pack house on the night the founding Alpha died."

"Read it," Roderick said.

Maren read it.

"The record says the first Ostrander paid a man to put a needle in the founding Alpha's neck." She looked up. "And it names a witness. A woman of the pack house. The woman's name is Voss."

The room was quiet.

"Voss," Roderick said.

"Voss." Maren looked at the page. "And there is a note in the margin. In the Council's hand. The note says the woman Voss was paid and the woman Voss was silenced."

The room was quiet.

"The Council silenced the witness," Maren said.

"The Council silenced the witness and the Council has been silencing the witness for two hundred years." Roderick looked at the page. "And the record names the man who silenced her. The man is the first Ostrander's son."

The room was quiet. The lamp hissed.

And in the corridor behind us the young wolf said, "Someone is coming down the stair."

We turned. The stair was dark and there were boots on the stone and a lantern coming down.

And a voice came down the corridor.

"The room is the pack council's room," the voice said. "And the pack council is here."

The lantern came down and the man behind it was old and thin and wore a black coat with silver braid on the cuff.

"The pack council," he said. "And the Council's guard. And the Alphas' order for the arrest of the warden and the ferryman and the Silver Warden and the impostor."

The corridor was full of wolves in grey.

And Maren looked at me.

"The Alphas' order," she said. "The Alphas have ordered our arrest."

The corridor was quiet.

And in the room behind us the silver chest stood open on the table and the record was in Maren's hands.