Chapter 51. My Poker Face Has Been Reviewed by a Fifteen-Year Expert, and It Failed

Chapter 51: 51. My Poker Face Has Been Reviewed by a Fifteen-Year Expert, and It Failed

She slid a page across the table, and I looked at it... It was a quick pen sketch, drawn in the margin of her notes, and it was unmistakable.

A circle with jagged edges, a single line through it. It was the same symbol that had been on the bandits’ gear in Blackthorn.

It was the same symbol that had been stitched on the shoulder of the black-armored knight at the gate.

"One of the riders noticed me looking," Eveline said quietly. "He wore dark armor, with no insignia..."

"He rode up beside me and said, ’You didn’t see anything, little knight.’ I said I hadn’t, and he said, ’Good. Forget this road.’ Then he rode back to the convoy."

"And you forgot...?" said Sharon.

"I did not forget the road! I wrote it down! I just..." Eveline’s ears went flat against her head. "I forgot to report it..."

"I was going to do it right away... But the monster surge happened again that night, and I was busy, and then we were retreating, and then there was the hat..."

Her voice wobbled, and her eyes were suddenly shiny. She looked like a child who’d realized that she’d broken a window and the window had been holding up the roof.

"If I’d told someone sooner, maybe we could have stopped it... Maybe none of this would have happened!"

"I’m so sorry... I’m so, so sorry!"

"Hey," I said.

She looked at me.

"Hey," I said again, more gently. "Sit down."

She sat, stiffly, on the edge of the nearest chair.

"You wrote it down," I said. "That’s more than most people would have done."

"You were in the middle of a retreat; there was a monster surge, you’d been fighting for days, and a guy in black armor had just threatened you."

"You didn’t forget it... it sounds to me that you put it somewhere safe." I smiled.

"And look... here it is." I tapped the paper. "It’s accurate, it’s detailed, and it’s the first firsthand description of a second convoy we’ve had!"

"Nobody else saw this! But you... you did."

"But I didn’t tell anyone." Eveline shook her head in disappointment.

"You’re telling us now, and yes... That’s the part that matters for us."

Her eyes were glossy and red-rimmed, and a tear ran down one cheek. I held out a handkerchief, because I’d learned that a Royal Knight ought to carry one, and she took it with both hands and blew her nose with a sound like a trumpet.

Alicia pressed her lips together to keep from laughing, and Laura just looked at me with an expression I couldn’t read.

"Thank you," Eveline whispered. "Sir Ravenshield..."

"Just Roland, please... I’m still getting used to the other one."

"Roland," she said, trying it out, and she smiled a little.

It was a small smile, but it was real.

"Right," said Laura, who had been quietly working through the dates. "The northeastern road..."

"If it runs through Greywater and bends east after the checkpoint, it leads straight toward the old quarry district... which is the direction that Hallis’s scouts are following the first convoy."

"Meaning," said Alicia, "that these are two separate shipments."

"Two convoys heading for the same destination," I said. "One that left a few days ago, and one that Eveline saw at the Greywater crossing."

"It might be more than two," said Sharon.

We all turned to look at her.

"Whoever is behind this isn’t doing a one-off job," she said. "They have a pipeline..."

"Crystals come out of the royal stores, get repackaged, get marked, and get moved north along a route that nobody is allowed to inspect."

"They’ve been doing it for months... Maybe longer." She drummed her fingers on the table. "And I think the attack on Elarion wasn’t just Garrick being angry..."

"It was a distraction to cover a bigger shipment."

I thought about the red-inked order that Alicia had pulled out of the courier’s case, with its code in the corner.

’S-09. PHASE TWO.’

I’d assumed Phase Two meant something about the facility, but now I wondered if it meant the shipments...

A second wave.

A second stage of something that was already underway.

"We need to tell Hallis," I said.

"He’s overseeing the northern wall today," said Sharon. "I’ll send a runner, but I want this kept quiet..."

"I’m not trusting anyone who isn’t in this room."

"Even the Council?" asked Alicia.

"Especially the Council... They’re the ones who killed my request last time." She turned to Eveline. "You! Don’t leave the Order grounds without me!"

"You’re not allowed to wander, and you’re not allowed to talk to anyone about the convoy... Understood?"

She nodded. "Yes, ma’am."

"Since you’re the only witness we’ve got who isn’t currently on trial or in a cell, you’re now the official liaison between my training detail and Hallis’s office..."

"You will report to me every day, and you will carry a written log... and you will NOT lose it!"

She nodded again, but this time... her hand raised on top of her forehead. "Yes, ma’am!"

"And you will also train with Ravenshield... Light work, nothing heavy."

"He needs a sparring partner who can keep up, and you’ve got the reflexes of a snake." She looked pained. "When you’re not tripping, that is."

"I’ll do my best!" said Eveline and saluted so energetically that she hit herself in the face.

I rubbed my forehead... Oh, jeez. This was going to be a very long week.

...

I found Alicia on the covered balcony outside the dormitory that afternoon, leaning on the railing with her chin in her hand.

I’d been banished to my room for rest after lunch, which I’d mostly spent staring at the ceiling and thinking about convoys, and when I heard her voice through the window, I’d given up pretending to sleep.

She hadn’t called me, but she’d left the balcony door open, which in Alicia’s language was an invitation.

I limped out and joined her at the rail.

Below us, the practice yard was empty except for a few figures hauling water, and the afternoon sun made long gold stripes across the cobbles.

"You can say it," Alicia said, without turning around.

"Say what?"

"What you’ve been wanting to say since this morning."

I leaned on the rail next to her. The balcony was private, with a tall hedge on one side and a stone wall on the other, and we were the only ones around.

That meant the usual rules didn’t apply.

"The system flagged Eveline," I said. "SSS-Compatible."

’Trust Level: Neutral... Romantic Affinity: None."

"I knew it." Alicia giggled.

"How?"

"Your face." She finally looked at me, and her eyes were bright with something that wasn’t quite amusement. "You’ve got a very specific expression when the system pops up!"

"You go still, and your eyes get very wide, and you try to look like you’re thinking about weather."

"Look... I’ve known you for fifteen years, Roland. And that’s a terrible poker face from you, hahaha!"

"I thought I did well."

"You did better than I expected... For a second, I thought you were going to confess to her on the spot."

"Now that’s not funny."

"It’s a little funny."

I sighed. "That’s what the system said, too."

She laughed, then went quiet, and when she spoke again, her voice had changed. It was calm and measured, the voice she used when she was being the captain.

"I’m not angry..." she said. "I want to be clear for that, and yes... I’m not worried, either."

"I think she’s sweet, and she’s obviously good-hearted, and I’m not going to pretend I didn’t see you looking at her."

Alicia is really such a detailed girl when it comes to this. No wonder she loves teasing me about my harem obsession, and so far... she has helped me by a LOT.

"Well, I wasn’t looking at her... I was looking past her."

"You were looking at the panel, and the panel was looking at her."

"Either way, I need us to agree on a few things."

"Go ahead."

She held up one finger. "One... She is a person, not a collection piece."

"She isn’t an addition to a list, and nobody gets to treat her like one. Not you, not me, and not the system."

"Agreed."

"Two." A second finger. "If anything happens between you and her, which it might not, she has to know exactly what she’s getting into."

"She needs to know about us, and about Laura, and about the harem... before anything else."

"She needs the whole truth, as much as we can give her... She can’t find out later and feel tricked."

"Agreed. That’s non-negotiable."

"Three." The third finger rose, and her gaze sharpened. "You don’t chase anyone because of a number on a screen."

"Not because your Lust is low... not because a bond would help, and not because the system suggested it."

"If you ever catch yourself thinking like that, you stop! You come to me or to Laura and you tell us!"

"I promise."

"You promised that last time."

"And I’ve kept it, right? Laura chose me, and I didn’t push."

"I know you didn’t," she said, and her face softened. "That’s why I’m saying it... I trust you."

"I want you to keep earning it. And for the best."

"I will... I’m not going to chase Eveline." I nodded. "I’m not going to chase Sharon, either, if that’s your next question."

"It wasn’t."

"It was about to be."

"It was going to be... in about thirty seconds."