Theodosius Valkorion's Arc

Chapter 19 of 22

The tax rolls closed at three-quarters. Theodosius left the map table before dawn and rode for the capital with fifty of his palatine guard. The factor had watched every move from a counting house somewhere behind the palace walls. Every day the man kept his desk, another keep's ledger walked out the gate in a merchant's satchel. Theodosius had a name for the leak now, but no face, and no proof to hang on the door. He met Master Inag Divondûn in a back room off the palace kitchens. The head of the Clandestine Guard came in still in his black armor, the triangle visor turned to the lamp. He set a folded slip on the table and stepped back. "Six factors take grain deliveries from western keeps," Inag said. "Four are cleared. Two are not." "Names." "On the paper." "Which one is our man?" "Unknown. Both handle keep ledgers. Both pay couriers." Theodosius unfolded the slip. Two names. Two counting houses on opposite sides of the market. "Then we make him show himself." He looked up. "Write two letters. Each goes to one factor, through the gate captain's old drop. Each carries a different lie about the pass keep's next grain shipment: one route north, one route south. Whichever lie reaches the foreign buyers, that is our factor." Inag did not move. "The buyers' courier line runs through the river ward. My watchers are already on it." "Then set the letters tonight." "Done by dusk." The Prime Consul arrived at the palace by the second morning, summoned without explanation. He came in his white and light blue vestments, sandals wet from the courtyard rain. Theodosius met him at the audience door. "When my men take him, I need you at the shrine steps within the hour," Theodosius said. "A factor selling to a foreign army is treason before the crown and before the faith. Say it plainly." The old man studied him a moment, then nodded once. "I will be ready." The report came on the third night. Inag entered without knocking and laid a small waxed square on the table. "South route," he said. "Courier stopped at the river gate. Letter still sealed. The factor is the wine merchant on the south row." "Take him alive." "Already done. The other factor is clean. Released." Theodosius stood. "His books." "Ledger and cipher. Three keeps named. Four buyers. Payments back six months." "Then we have him." By noon the wine merchant stood in irons on the shrine steps. The Prime Consul read the charge in a clear voice and the crowd went quiet. Theodosius watched from the palace arch. The leak was closed. But the ledger named four foreign buyers by hand, and one of them sat inside his own council of loyal lords.