Chapter 6 — The Night I Stood Beside Him

"Don't send another request," I told Gideon. "We'll use the time she gave us."

I lowered the receiver and crossed out our schedule.

There would be no leisurely journey from the warehouse to the Council. We needed two teams, separate copies, and a reason for the chamber doors to stay open until the witnesses arrived.

"My protection gives me the right to submit testimony," I said. "Does it cover anyone else?"

"No," Adrian answered. "But once testimony identifies additional witnesses, the chair can admit them under the same inquiry."

"Can refuse, too," Celia said.

"Yes."

We planned for that. Gideon would wait outside with the volunteers until I obtained admission. The others would remain at the warehouse. Nobody would be delivered into Council custody merely because I had trusted Adrian.

On the sixth night, I visited his dispatch office with the signed relief authorization.

The clerks knew I was wanted. One stopped writing when I entered.

I put Adrian's instruction beside the still-valid protection receipt and waited.

At last, the chief dispatcher gave me the route book.

I collected Lenora's approved amendment, copied it, and substituted the junction cards. The forms carried the authorized detour; the warehouse reception instructions traveled separately with Gideon.

Every sheet I changed went into an envelope. I signed the seam.

If someone accused me of altering the route, I intended to show exactly what I had altered, and why.

Afterward, I helped Tessa prepare the warehouse. We set out water, blankets, and chairs. Celia arranged a screened corner for examinations.

"I thought finding you would be the end," I told my sister.

She folded a blanket over a chair.

"It can be the beginning of something else."

I wanted to hug her. Instead, I took the next blanket and worked beside her until she leaned her shoulder against mine.

The seventh evening arrived with rain.

At eight, the first wagon turned into the inspection yard.

I stood beneath the awning with a clipboard. Gideon waited by the weighbridge, his men out of sight behind the gatehouse.

The driver handed me a folded manifest.

"Director's revision," he said. "We're not stopping long."

"Escort verification inside. Driver stays with the team."

The vampire riding beside him climbed down, annoyed rather than suspicious. He stepped into the gatehouse.

Gideon followed. The door shut.

Through its narrow window, I saw him present Adrian's harbor warrant. The escort laughed. Then two guards stepped between him and the bell cord, and Gideon held out a hand for his weapon.

The laughter stopped.

I kept my eyes on the next wagon. If its escort noticed, I would have to close the yard before the last vehicle entered.

A second wagon rolled beneath the arch. Then a third.

I checked the batch numbers before waving each forward. Behind me, the gatehouse bell rang once: the escorts were disarmed and held. No alarm had gone out.

I lifted the first wagon's rear latch.

Faces turned toward the opening.

For a moment I saw Tessa everywhere: hollow cheeks, cropped hair, hands drawn protectively against sleeves.

"You're getting out here," I said.

Nobody moved.

Tessa stepped beside me.

"It's me. Come down. There's water inside."

A woman near the door made a small, broken sound. Then she reached for my sister.

We helped them descend one at a time.

Eighteen people emerged from the three wagons. Celia checked them as they crossed into the warehouse. One man kept apologizing for having lost a shoe.

I found a pair in the caretaker's donated box and knelt to put them beside him.

"You don't have to explain," I said.

He stared at the shoes before pulling them on.

At twenty past eight, Adrian arrived from the Council antechamber. Rain darkened his coat. His left arm was still held too close to his body.

"They've moved your petition to the opening business," he said. "Saye wants the protection revoked first."

Of course she did.

I gave Celia the warehouse's second key. Tessa was speaking quietly to a group near the stove, explaining where we were going and what could happen there.

"No one has to come," I reminded her.

"I know."

She touched my cheek briefly.

"Keep the door open for us."

Adrian and I left with the documents. Gideon stayed to escort whoever volunteered.

The Council chamber occupied the old customs exchange. Its high windows faced the harbor, where the moon showed faintly through the rain.

A guard blocked me at the inner doors.

"You're required at the petition rail."

I showed him the witness receipt.

"I'm required where testimony is taken. Find the clerk."

Adrian stood beside me without speaking for me.

The clerk read the paper, checked the register, and led us inside.

Lenora Saye watched from beneath the Council seal.

She wore a gray gown, her pale hair drawn back without ornament. Nothing about her looked hurried until a messenger approached her chair and bent to whisper.

Her hand tightened around her pen.

Then she looked at me.

"Three Revenue vehicles have been diverted," she told the chamber. "Their escorts are unaccounted for. This woman has escalated forgery into abduction."

I set my satchel on the witness table.

"Your escorts are alive and under guard. Your passengers have been offered food and medical attention."

The chair struck the desk for silence.

Lenora rose.

"Under whose authority?"

"Mine," Adrian said.

The word landed differently this time. I didn't turn away from it.

Lenora drew a paper from her folder.

"Lord Rook has a history of exercising authority over these particular residents. His signature authorized their detention. Perhaps we should ask why he now wishes to conceal them."

Adrian stepped to the table.

"I ordered the closure of Briar Street. I knew civilians would be trapped. Afterward, I accepted a report of their deaths without investigating it adequately."

The room had gone still.

"I will answer for that."

I placed his original order beside Lenora's copy.

"Read the final paragraph," I said.

"You are not presiding here," she replied.

"Then let the clerk read it."

The chair nodded reluctantly.

The clerk read the seventy-two-hour limit aloud.

I laid Tessa's copied work list beside the dispatch sheet from Rook House. Three years separated the dates. The same authorization number connected them.

"Where is the fresh Council order permitting continued custody?" I asked.

Lenora folded her hands.

"You forge documents for a living. Why should this chamber accept your copies?"

"You don't have to accept them on my word."

I gave the clerk her approved routing amendment and the manifest I had taken from the driver.

"Your office can verify these. Your escorts can identify the vehicles. Your signature approved their passage tonight."

She looked down at the amendment.

I watched her recognize her own ink.

"The batch numbers are administrative continuities," she said. "They do not establish the identities of the current workers."

"Then tell us what happened to the people originally assigned those numbers."

"The Briar Street casualties are registered."

"Are they dead?"

Adrian's hand rested against the table near mine. He didn't reach for me.

Lenora glanced toward the doors, then back to the Council.

"Every person on that casualty list died three years ago."

I faced the chair.

"I request admission of witnesses who can answer that statement. They're waiting outside."

For a moment, nobody moved.

Then the clerk, still holding Lenora's amendment, looked up.

"Their testimony would be material."

The chair lifted two fingers toward the guards.

The doors opened.

Tessa entered first. Three of the people we had brought out of the wagons followed her, with Gideon a few paces behind.

My sister walked without lowering her head.

I opened the original death register to her entry and set it before Lenora.

"This is Tessa Venn," I said. "My sister."

Tessa stopped beside me.

"Tell her why your office declared her dead."