Chapter 237: I Found Owl

"You don’t need to bother yourself with that, sir; it’s unimportant after all. And besides, most of them die before they complete their tasks," the man told him.

Anderson leaned back and considered him. Then he nodded once, slow. "William...what is it that you wish to report?"

"I..."

"Don’t hesitate now, if you have the guts to interrupt me then surely you just have the guts to tell me the reason why you did so if not, you can as well meet your end. I’m sure our man with a missing heart here would need a companion after all." Anderson said and the others laughed loudly like he had just said the funniest thing ever.

William controlled himself taking a deep breath.

"I found the owl, sir." He said.

The words landed like a stone in the hush around them. For a moment the only sound was the snap of burning cloth. The men’s faces shifted. One by one, their laughter ebbed. Anderson’s grin thinned; the scar on his cheek looked suddenly more savage than play-acted.

"You found the owl?" Anderson asked him.

William nodded. "Yes, sir."

Anderson leaned back and considered him. Then he nodded once, slow. "How do you know it was the owl?"

William gave a short, self-conscious laugh that sounded like the thing a young recruit would do to sell bravado. "Everyone knows the Owl," he said. "Everyone knows how he dresses; his mask is a dead giveaway after all."

Anderson laughed. "That is true. Everyone knows exactly how the owl looks, after all."

"Yes, sir."

But Anderson’s face didn’t relax entirely. "And? What did you do when you found him? I reckon he was running away like the others, right? Did you complete the mission?" Anderson asked him.

William nodded. "Yes, sir. He was running away with a bag of gold when I found him. I took him unaware and slit his throat."

Anderson cocked his head. For one terrifying heartbeat Tobias thought his disguise had failed — that the young man had that predator’s glance that sees through false hides. Anderson’s eyes narrowed, searching for a tell. Tobias felt his breath grow shallow and the world tilt a degree.

Then suddenly, Anderson let out a booming laugh. "That’s exactly like it. Where is the body?"

William winced. "It’s been burned beyond recognition. I don’t know if—"

"That’s okay. You did good after all. Take me to where the body is," Anderson told him. 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

William nodded then turned. Everyone followed as he moved. He led them by a route he’d memorized, winding around fallen stalls, ducking under a collapsed beam, smelling the shorter breaths around him as the men closed.

Anderson stayed at his shoulder, alert but not wholly suspicious; he had something to prove, and proving it in front of the others would earn him the weight he wanted. The other men moved behind like a hunting pack, armor whispering, knives gleaming.

They came to the place and stopped. The burned figure lay there, unrecognizable beneath blackened flesh and the scathed mask Tobias had fitted. Smoke rose in a slender column, smelling of oil and old leather.

For a second Tobias wondered if he’d done enough. The mask’s outline, the way the charred cloth clung to a shoulder — all of it had to read as Owl to a group trained to read the market’s small tells. He’d worn the Owl’s clothes on the corpse. He’d taken pains to make it look right. He’d prayed to small, practical gods.

Anderson stepped up and laughed, the sound bright and hard. He pointed at the blackened face. "This is good." He laughed, then turned to the others. "Someone call Craig. Let him know that the Owl is dead."

One of the men turned and ran to get Craig.

Tobias watched Anderson’s expression while the others jabbered. There was a lazy cruelty in the youth’s smile — the kind that tasted of power newly earned — and it made Tobias’s skin crawl. But there was also triumph; finding and burning the Owl meant something to them. It would justify what they’d been hired to do.

They waited. He let his eyes follow Anderson’s movements — the way the boy unhooked a small coin knife and flipped it between his fingers, the way his gaze flicked to Tobias intermittently, seeking confirmation that this was a victory they had all pulled off together.

Smoke thickened as the fire took more of the stall wood. People screamed somewhere — a piercing sound that made Tobias’s chest tighten. He thought again of the children slipping down the tunnel, of the small leather pouch clenched in the boy’s fist. He thought of the merchant who’d fallen earlier, a jab wound where a coin tray had been. He thought of all the tiny economies that sustained this place.

A shadow detached from the smoke and moved with a kind of arrogant confidence.

Craig arrived, and Tobias realized that Craig was the client who had come for the Skylur remains. At least now he had a name attached to the face.

Craig strode up, his eyes sweeping the burned heap, and then he laughed — a single rich sound that rolled out like a bell. "Well," he said, wiping his hands on his coat, "we didn’t even need to use the money after all."

"The same thought I had. He was trying to escape, but luckily they found him. Some new recruit finished him off. William, he is called," Anderson told him, pointing at Tobias.

Craig turned to him. "You did this?" he asked.

Tobias nodded.

Craig laughed. "You did good."

"We did what Victoria asked for," Anderson said.

Craig laughed. "We have finished the task given to us. We depart now. But first, take down any witnesses. Everyone remaining in the market—no one should be left alive."

Tobias’ heart clenched at the words. He had thought if they finally found Owl’s body then they would let the others go.

"We are killing them?" he asked.

Anderson laughed. "Don’t act like you didn’t just kill someone too. Of course we are killing them. We leave no stone unturned," Anderson said to him just as the others cheered loudly.