Lawrence and company went back the way Meyer brought them, and when they arrived at the checkpoint in which Holo had suffered her hangover, they stayed the night before going downriver.
Boats were stopped on the river as always, but it seemed as though they were pausing to take a break before heading into town to sell all their merchandise, so it was not hard to find a ship that would take them the rest of the way.
Meanwhile, the merchant that had lent them his cart was still at the inn, and he seemed generally displeased when Lawrence asked to nullify the agreement, but when Meyer offered him a cask of the forest’s best honey, he graciously accepted.
“Sir Lawrence,” Meyer said at last when their boat began to take them downriver; he had been rather silent this entire time. “I am not exactly sure what to say…”
“It’s all right,” Lawrence purposefully flashed a complacent smile. “Lord Matthias has promised a reward.”
That reward was nothing more than forgiveness for now, but Meyer didn’t know that; the news was enough to offer him some much-needed emotional support.
“And after listening to what Lord Matthias had to say, I’ve learned of another reason that I must get involved.”
“Is…that so?” Meyer asked.
Lawrence shrugged. “I hear a hunter will always be particularly conscious of one or two creatures in the woods.”
Meyer nodded slowly and sighed. “Thank you. We need you, for our forest’s sake.”
Lawrence took Meyer’s hand and shook it; and at the boat captain’s prompting, they took a seat.
Holo, who had been silent the entire time Lawrence spoke with Meyer, did not settle in Lawrence’s lap; instead, she put a considerable distance between herself and him as she took her seat. She acted like a traveling nun, one who decided to accompany him simply because their destinations happened to be the same. Ever since he had summarized his conversation with Matthias to her, she had been acting like that, silent.
But it was clear why—she had determined that Eve was using Col’s name to make a quick and tidy profit. And from what Matthias told them, Eve was wearing terribly gaudy clothes, spending appalling sums on song and dance, emphasizing her ostentatious wealth to Matthias.
Eve of course wore imposing clothes that suited the great merchant she was at their wedding, but that, too, felt more like a foil to Holo’s lackadaisical attitude. At her core, she always prided herself on being a stern wolf, but it never seemed like she ever wanted to give in to the luxuries of the material world.
And so when Matthias told Lawrence of how Eve seemed to have given into her greed, Lawrence felt, somehow, like he had been betrayed.
And what troubled Lawrence even more was Eve’s position. All he had to do was think back on the letters they received, jointly written by Col and Myuri—Holo always told him that they carried with them the scent of joy of travel. Then, at some point, the letters said, they reunited with Eve, and she turned out to be a reliable ally ever since.
Col was straightforward in his personality, and Eve always had a soft spot for him. And Eve gave off a certain scent of danger that differed from the crafty wisewolf that intrigued Myuri—it was clear from her writing that she had taken to the woman. Perhaps Eve was using her deep relationship with the two to collect fees from would-be petitioners and then was splurging with her extraordinary profits.
Col set off on his journey because he believed that justice was a worthy pursuit. And Matthias, who stood on the brink of the fate of his forest, was clearly not a bad ruler.
The jewels decorating Eve’s vestments glittered with the fires that were going to burn the forest that Matthias’s family had spent generations trying to protect.
It was one of the world’s greatest absurdities, and perhaps Eve’s treachery was the same.
But at the very least, Lawrence now understood whose side he needed to be on.
“Dear,” Holo called to Lawrence once, long after the boat set sail from the checkpoint, but she said no more. She did not doze, nor did she snack; she simply stared blankly at the passing fields. Perhaps she was having trouble expressing what she felt.
Lawrence offered a reassuring nod and a smile in return.
Relief passed over her features for a brief moment, but she quickly hardened her expression and trained her gaze on the distance.
Throughout their wedding, Lawrence had caught glimpses of Holo and Eve deep in conversation.
When that thought crossed his mind, he could feel himself gritting his teeth even harder.
He was perfectly used to watching treachery unfold in the world of commerce, but that was not what this was to Holo. His wife was the sort to keep ancient promises, even long after the hearts of the people had long moved past them. That was what had kept her watching over the wheat in Pasloe for centuries.
Though Lawrence would never match Holo in some things, the human world was his field of expertise.
Over and over Lawrence turned over the conversation he had with Matthias in his head as he kept his gaze fixed straight ahead toward the port town of Karlan.