The Grave of Lies — Part 4
The order carried Viktor’s name. The seal belonged to his house. Yet the man standing beneath the monastery window had never ordered Mara’s arrest.
Only minutes earlier, Adrian had shown his father the ledger that nearly cost him his life. Then someone had locked the storehouse from outside.
Mara pulled the handle. The wood struck iron and stopped.
“Open this door!” Viktor commanded.
The bolt scraped back. A guard appeared on the threshold, his certainty vanishing as he recognized the man inside.
“My lord?”
Bram held up a folded parchment. His eyes moved toward Mara.
“I have orders to arrest her.”
Adrian closed the ledger, gathered it beneath his arm, and stepped forward.
“She saved my life.”
Bram stared. The young man he had believed dead stood close enough to touch. He lowered the parchment into Viktor’s waiting hand.
“The order bears your seal.”
Viktor unfolded it. It named Mara, the monastery, and the storehouse. Whoever had written it knew where Adrian was hiding.
“I gave no such order.”
Elin leaned closer. Her gaze settled on the red wax.
“Look at the wing.”
Two ravens
Viktor brought his right hand beside the seal. The raven on his ring had an unbroken wing. The impression on the parchment did not.
A tiny gap interrupted the outer edge. It was too distinct to dismiss as a crease in the paper.
“That was my father’s seal,” Viktor said.
Nobody spoke. He kept studying the mark.
“The ring was damaged before I inherited it. I had another made, but I kept the old one. That broken wing appeared on every document it sealed.”
Bram glanced at the doorway, as though the messenger might still be waiting outside.
“Then someone copied it?”
“Perhaps.” Viktor folded the order without touching the wax. “Or someone used it.”
Who could reach the old seal?
Mara stepped beside Adrian. “Where was it kept?”
“In the estate archive. Inside a locked iron box.”
“Who has the key?”
Viktor looked at his son. The ledger beneath Adrian’s arm suddenly seemed heavier.
“Konrad oversees the archive.”
It was a connection, not proof. A missing key could change hands. A seal could be stolen. But the same man Adrian had accused of burning the granary also controlled the room where the old ring was stored.
Bram straightened. “I left him at the chapel with another guard. I can bring him here.”
“No,” Viktor said. “First, tell me exactly how that order reached you.”
The messenger had approached outside the chapel. He knew Bram’s name. He knew the route to the monastery. He had said Viktor wanted the woman secured quietly, before she could escape.
“Did you recognize him?” Mara asked.
Bram shook his head. “He wore an estate cloak. I trusted the seal.”
The order beneath the order
Viktor opened the parchment again and read past Mara’s name. A shorter instruction followed the arrest command, almost hidden beneath a fold.
Any account book found with Adrian was to be delivered to the estate archive.
“Not to you?” Elin asked.
Viktor slowly shook his head.
Adrian tightened his grip on the ledger. The order would have separated him from the only evidence he had managed to save. Mara would have been blamed for hiding him, and the stolen tax records would have returned to the very room Konrad controlled.
“He wanted the book,” Adrian said.
“Whoever sent this wanted the book,” Viktor replied. “We will find out whose hand sealed it.”
He turned to Bram. “Mara is under my protection. You will take no further orders concerning her unless you hear them from me.”
The guard stepped away from the entrance. “Yes, my lord.”
For the first time, the path outside lay open. Mara looked toward it, but Viktor was still staring at the broken wing.
“We go to the archive,” he said.
The old ring should still be inside its locked box. If it was gone, someone would have to explain how they had opened it.
To be continued in Part 5.
Read Part 3: The Man Presumed Dead