Chapter 20: Osric's True Ledger

The third ledger was the one that broke it open.

Mara had been through the first two in an afternoon — the official supply manifests Osric submitted to the council each month, columns of figures she had audited before and found plausible, the independent channel explained away with partial truths she had accepted because the math held. She had not stopped looking after that conversation in the market. She had simply looked more carefully, which was a different thing.

The third ledger was not his. That was the first problem.