Page 36 of Knotted By the Triad

More forgeries.

Zian moved closer to one of the boxes. “They've been operating out of here for a while.”

“It looks that way.”

Daemin crouched beside one of the heavy chests beneath the table. A blue symbol had been carved into the lid.

“Want me to open it?” he asked.

“No.”

He looked up at me. “Why?”

“We just fought ten golems summoned from a necklace. Nobody touches anything marked with magic until we know what it does.”

“Fair point.”

While he stood, I moved toward the table. A thick ledger rested beneath several loose papers. I opened it and scanned the pages. Dates, quantities of DB, quantities of forbidden poisons, payments, and delivery locations filled the columns.

Most of the addresses changed from shipment to shipment, but one appeared repeatedly. I flipped back several pages. There it was again.

“Zian,” I called, flipping to another page. When he came over, I pointed to the address. “They've made several deliveries to this particular location.”

Zian studied the entries. “Well, damn.”

“Have your guards find out what's at this address,” I told him. “Then put someone on it. I want to know everyone who comes and goes. Show them this room and explain that if the facility looks empty, that could mean magic is at play. Make sure they have some of the golem’s shards to enter any of these types of rooms they find.”

“I'll handle it,” Zian told me.

I closed the ledger and looked around the room. There were weapons, forged documents, shipping records, DB containers, and objects etched with the same type of symbols we'd seen on the golems.

This wasn't a meeting place a few smugglers had chosen for one transaction. Someone had built an operation here and used magic to hide it. And they probably had more places like these, all around the capital.

“Post guards outside this room,” I ordered. “Nobody touches anything until we've documented it and brought in someone who understands magic.”

Daemin glanced toward the chest again. “I think there's money in this one.”

I looked at him. “Based on what?”

“That lock isn't protecting vegetables. This could be where they store the money used to pay for their shipments.”

He had a point. Still, I wasn't opening anything until we knew it was safe. At the mention of money, my thoughts briefly went to Zuri.

I need money.

Her words drifted through my mind. There could be a fortune sitting three feet from me while my own wife had been forced to ask us for access to enough money to take care of herself. I would fix that tomorrow.

She was the one who should be in charge of the household funds, not Mei Lin. As for this chest, if there was really money in it, once I made sure it was safe, I would give that to Zuri also.

“Come on,” I said. “We still have prisoners outside.”

When we returned to the clearing, the Shadow Guards I'd sent after the two fleeing smugglers had already returned. But only one prisoner stood between them. His hands were bound securely behind his back, blood ran from his nose, and he was barely putting weight on his left leg.

I looked behind the guards. “Where's the other one?”

One of the Shadow Guards stepped forward. “He got away, Your Highness.”

My jaw tightened. “Which one?”