Chapter 24 · Last Page on the Scaffold

"Hold!" The horn died when a blade touched Marcus's throat.

Six strangers in gray wool had surrounded him before his escort finished dismounting. The Crown's ledger-and-sword marked every shoulder. One man held up a scrap of burnt paper. Another pressed a short blade beneath Marcus's jaw.

"Ryan Ashe!" the blade-man shouted toward the wall. "I'm Collector Bram, acting for the Crown's Exchequer. Your brother carries forged financial instruments implicating royal officers. Open the gate and surrender the document, or I take his head on the count of ten."

"Forged?" Ryan called back. His voice sounded steadier than he felt. "That's the word you're using?"

"Nine."

Ivy's hand locked around his forearm. Her knuckles were still split from the knife Matthias had bound an hour earlier.

"That's what I was trying to tell you," she said. "The Ledger Office flagged Marcus three weeks ago. They wanted him found alive. He was bait."

"Bait for what?"

Her grip tightened. "For whatever he was carrying. For you."

"Eight!"

Forty feet below, blood ran from the shallow cut at Marcus's collar. He looked furious, not frightened.

"Ryan!" he shouted. "It's real! Father hid it in the false bottom of the ceremonial strongbox.