Chapter 12-Days of Work

Odett’s POV

  “This could take days,” Joshy said with a frustrated frown after comparing the first three reports.

  “That is why we gave it to you,” Uncle Orian replied with a cheerful smile.

  “You said Dad needed help,” Joshy reminded him suspiciously.

  “He does,” Uncle Orian answered.

  “I never said the work would be enjoyable,” he added cheerfully.

  One messenger’s route bothered me. He had crossed two territories before reaching Arnald’s palace, but the journey had taken almost twice as long as the road should have. Joshy checked the dates while I followed the route on the map with my finger.

  “This messenger took eleven days,” I said with a confused expression.

  “The attack site is less than four days from the Northern palace,” Joshy replied with a thoughtful frown.

  “The roads may have been blocked,” I suggested uncertainly.

  Orian found the border record. The messenger had waited three days for permission to enter one Alpha King’s land and another two while the next ruler inspected his sealed report. Those waits explained five days, leaving part of the journey unaccounted for. I pictured him standing at a gate with news of missing families he could not yet name aloud.

  “Why didn’t he shift and travel around them?” I asked.

  “Crossing an Alpha King’s territory without permission could have been considered an invasion,” Uncle Orian explained with a serious expression.

  “That would have been especially dangerous while he carried a confidential report,” he added gravely.

  “People were missing while they argued over whether a messenger could use the road,” I said.

  “They did not know an entire community was missing yet,” Dad corrected from his desk with deliberate patience.

  “The leaders believed they were protecting private patrol routes,” he continued evenly.

  “That doesn’t make the delay less dangerous,” I argued with a frustrated frown.

  “No,” Dad admitted after a thoughtful pause.

  “It does not,” he confirmed quietly.

  By midday, we had made sense of only three attacks. Joshy held the dates in his head better than I could, while I caught repeated landmarks and family names. I began to understand why Orian wanted us both: one wrong place name could make a missing resident seem to belong to a different attack.

  Dad had removed witness accounts and most descriptions of the scenes. We learned nothing certain about the attackers, but the reports showed how a message could be delayed or misunderstood as it crossed a border. Arnald’s patrols had kept the clearest times because he allowed Sam’s team to compare them openly. Other rulers held back routes they considered private, even while families waited for answers.

  “King Arnald agreed to give us all of this?” Joshy asked.

  “He is our friend and ally,” Mom explained with a reassuring expression.

  “He requested our help when he realized the reports might be connected,” she added calmly.

  “He trusts Sam,” I said quietly while looking at the signature on the final travel record.

  “He does,” Dad confirmed with a proud expression.

  “Sam earned that trust by treating King Arnald as an ally instead of attempting to control his investigation,” he continued proudly.

  I almost asked which road Sam was on. Dad had forbidden contact, and I had spent all morning proving I could follow his rules. Now the question was right there, and I swallowed it. Lorilie made her opinion of that painfully clear.

  ‘Ask him where Sam is,’ Lorilie urged with growing impatience.

  ‘Not yet,’ I replied silently with caution.

  ‘You always say that,’ Lorilie complained with an irritated huff.

  ‘Because you always choose the worst time,’ I reminded her with equal frustration.

  Dad allowed us to continue until dinner before collecting every page himself. He locked the reports inside a cabinet and reminded us that our involvement ended when we left the office. His warning look settled on me longer than it did on Joshy.

  “This information does not become a dinner conversation,” Dad warned with a stern expression.

  “We understand,” Joshy promised with a serious nod.

  “I mean it, Odett,” Dad added with a pointed look.

  “I understand too,” I replied.

  ‘You did not promise,’ Lorilie observed.

  The rest of the break passed with the investigation mostly behind closed doors. Mom drew us into games and training so the castle would still feel like home to the twins. Guards continued arriving, but Zander found time to argue that assignments during a holiday were an insult to students everywhere.

  Gaven and Sean spent two afternoons helping the twins repair their battlefield-assessment plan. Zerina wanted every movement decided before the simulation began, while Zander believed plans were suggestions that could be abandoned whenever he had a better idea. Their argument covered most of the library table with maps, wooden markers, and several pages of notes.

  “You cannot change everything without warning us,” Zerina argued with a furious expression.

  “I warned you after I changed it,” Zander replied with an innocent look.

  “That is not a warning,” Zerina corrected with an irritated growl.

  “It explained what happened,” Zander defended himself with a careless shrug.

  “You are not allowed to create a distraction until the rest of us know what the distraction is,” Gaven said.

  “That ruins the surprise,” Zander complained with a disappointed expression.

  “The enemy is supposed to be surprised,” Zerina reminded him with a warning glare.

  “Not us,” she emphasized.

  ‘They may need all five years,’ Lorilie said thoughtfully as she watched them through my eyes.

  I watched the younger team solve the problem without stepping in. Zerina let Zander keep his distraction if he warned Sean before changing routes. Gaven moved the civilians around the new path. When Sean asked how they would know whether the enemy had noticed, all four bent over the map again.

  The Academy reopened the following morning without major examinations, formal announcements, or changes to our schedules. Most of the day was spent reviewing what we completed before the break and settling back into our normal routines. The instructors reminded everyone that several months remained in the school year, but no one treated the first day back as anything other than the beginning of another term.

  After our first day back, another stack of copied records waited on the small table. Dad’s note told us to compare the delays and nothing else. Joshy read it twice and looked up as if he expected Dad to change his mind.

  “He gave us more reports,” Joshy said with a hopeful expression.

  “He also underlined nothing else,” I reminded him with an amused look.

  ‘Progress is progress,’ Lorilie said with quiet satisfaction inside my mind.

  I took the chair beside Joshy and opened the first file. Dad was working within earshot, close enough to stop us if we went too far. For now, we were allowed to stay. Joshy settled beside me, and I turned the page before Dad could change his mind.