The days following their arrival, Heiko disappeared into the Lord’s office from dawn until long after midnight, surrounded by stacks of ledgers, scrolls, and ink-stained records. His face grew more severe with each passing hour, the shadows beneath his eyes deepening.
The numbers didn’t add up.
Gold that had been reported missing in the border conflicts had somehow ended up traced to trade routes in the northern passes—routes that hadn’t been active in years. Entire sections of grain and livestock taxes were written off with no evidence. The names of local pack leaders appeared repeatedly in handwritten margins, coded, underlined, and sometimes burned out. Heiko had seen enough corruption in his years at Court to recognize it when he saw it.
But this wasn’t just corruption. This was ent
