Chapter 11: A Brother's Knife

ERDEM

Two days after I caught Hendrix in the corridor, I assigned him to cleanup duty.

He was given simple tasks: helping servants clear dishes after meals, organizing storage rooms, assisting with laundry. Menial work designed to be humiliating for someone who'd sat beside me at the captain's dinner.

I watched Hendrix through surveillance as he moved through the estate performing servant duties with the same careful precision he applied to everything else.

He didn't complain or resist. Didn't show any sign that he considered the work degrading.

Konstantin entered my office with the daily security report.

"Sir, Hendrix has been compliant during cleanup duties," he said.

"He's too compliant, Konstantin," I said. "Keep him away from the lower levels."

"Yes, sir."

HENDRIX

On the third day of cleanup duty, I was assigned to help clear wine storage after a delivery.

The same storage room where the steward had entered the code I'd memorized. The same area near the service corridors I'd tried to access.

Coincidence? Or a test?

I worked alongside two other servants-an older man named Gregor and a younger woman named Anya-moving crates, organizing bottles, updating inventory logs.

They talked while they worked, comfortable.

"-heard they're moving it," Gregor said quietly, glancing toward the door.

"Moving what?" Anya asked.

"The Red ledger. Damir told the security team to prepare for a vault transfer."

My hands didn't stop moving, didn't show any reaction, but every nerve in my body focused on the conversation.

The Red Ledger. What is that?

"Why would they move it?" Anya sounded nervous. "It's been in the lower vault for years."

"Because the boss has recently been asking questions, digging into old files. Mara doesn't want him finding certain things." Gregor's voice dropped even lower. "Things that should stay buried."

"What kind of things?"

"The kind that get people killed for knowing about them."

They fell silent as a guard passed by the storage room entrance, and I continued organizing bottles with steady hands while my mind raced.

A Ledger. A record of something important enough for Mara to hide from Erdem? What could Mara hide there?

Could it also contain information about Liora?

That night, I lay in my glass cage and stared at the ceiling, my mind working through everything I'd learned.

How do I access the ledger? The vault is protected by security I can't bypass and locks I can't pick.

I needed someone with access.

Someone powerful enough. There are only two men in this house who could help.

Erdem and Silas.

But I trust neither.

SILAS

I stood outside Erdem's office, listening to him work late into the night, hearing the sound of files being opened, records being reviewed.

He's searching for something, something in the old file. What could he be looking for? Anyway, I don't care.

I pulled out my phone and sent a message to Niko Arzan:

Let's meet.

The response came quickly:

okay, I will send you a location.

I pocketed the phone and smiled.

The meeting place was one of Niko Arzan's choices. A private room above a dockside club.

I stood by the window and looked out at the black water, I did not like being made to wait, it was even bad that I had been told to wait by a man who was not my brother.

The door opened at last.

Niko Arzan entered without apology, followed by one guard who stayed near the threshold and another who shut the door behind him. Niko wore a dark coat cut too sharply for the docks.

"You came alone," Niko said.

I gave a small smile. "You sound disappointed."

"I sound cautious."

"That's better habit than bravery."

Niko's expression didn't change. He took the chair opposite me and sat down as if the room already belonged to him.

"Say what you came to say," Niko said.

I folded one hand over the other.

"Erdem is becoming difficult."

Niko's eyes sharpened a fraction. "That's your opening?"

"It's the truth."

"The truth is cheap." Niko leaned back. "Give me something expensive."

I let the silence stretch just long enough to matter.

Then: "He's distracted, he's changing the way he handles things."

"Are you just here because his presence makes you look small, or do you have anything important to tell me," Niko said.

"There is someone new in Erdem's house."

"A guard?" Niko asked.

"Someone Erdem refuses to treat like a prisoner that he is."

Niko said nothing for some time.

"Who is this someone?" Niko asked.

I rested my fingertips against the table. "A purchased informant."

"Name."

"Hendrix."

Niko repeated it once, as if testing whether the sound carried any weight.

"He's clever," I said. "Too clever for his own good. He even stole a passcode and went into the service corridor."

"And Erdem hasn't killed him."

"No," My smile returned, faint and ugly. "That's the point."

Niko leaned forward slightly. "You think the boy matters."

"I think," I said, "that Erdem is making room around him."

Niko's eyes stayed on my face.

"Why tell me?"

My answer came cleanly, because it had to.

"Because when my brother falls, I get everything he has now."

For the first time Niko looked amused.

"You want the throne."

"I want Erdem broken."

"Those are not the same thing."

My smile hardened. "They usually are in my family."

Niko was quiet for a moment, then he asked. "Why not do it yourself?"

"Because I don't want to be the one holding the knife when it happens," I said.

"I think you are scared of losing again. What do you want from me?"

I wanted to be angry so bad for what he said, but this was no time for that.

"Support, routes, pressure on the docks. A reason for Erdem to split his attention even more."

"And what do I get?"

I looked at him directly. "Access."

Niko's gaze did not move. "To what?"

"To the weak point in my brother's house."

I did not say Hendrix's name again, I didn't need to.

Niko understood.

Niko stood, signaling the meeting was over before I had fully decided it was.

At the door, he paused.

"He better be worth it," Niko said.

"I'm sure he is."

Niko left with his guards.

I remained in the room a little longer, listening to the thud of the club below. After a deal had been made.

Not friendship and not even a truce.

Just two predators recognizing the same weakness and deciding to aim at it from different sides.