Theodosius Valkorion's Arc

Chapter 20 of 22

The wine merchant's chains had not yet cooled on the shrine steps when Master Inag Divondûn brought the second report. Theodosius read it once, then again. A council member named in the ledger was already moving. Wagons had left his townhouse before dawn. A steward had drawn his gold from three counting rooms in one morning. The man meant to be past the city gates within days. Theodosius laid the paper flat on the table. "How many wagons?" "Four," Inag said. "Household goods on top. Coin below. His wife and children left last night, ahead of him, by the north road." "And the man himself?" "Still in his seat on the council. He came to session this morning as though nothing had changed." Theodosius did not rise. An arrest at the council table would split the other lords and give every province a reason to whisper. A quiet flight would leave a foreign buyer at large, with names and routes in his head. He needed the man taken without a scene, and he needed the council to see the taking as lawful. He sent for Master Guardsman Longhall. Longhall came in his white and blue plate, the four-pointed stars catching the lamp. He read the ledger page Inag set before him and gave it back. "Council chamber or house?" he said. "House," Theodosius said. "After session, when he goes to load the last wagon. I want him alive and I want his papers." "Guards on the gates?" "Palatine on every road out of the capital tonight. No wagon leaves without a search." Longhall nodded once. "Done." By dusk the palatine guard stood at each gate in matched ranks, white cloaks still, the pale blue star on every breastplate. Longhall took forty of the Adamantine Guard through the merchant quarter on foot, banners furled, and closed the councilman's street from both ends before the man reached his own door. The councilman turned from his last wagon with a strongbox under one arm. Longhall put a gauntlet on his shoulder and said, "By the crown. Set it down." The man set it down. They brought him to the palace through the servants' gate, with his strongbox and a satchel of letters. Inag broke the seals in Theodosius's presence. Three letters were drafts, unsent, addressed to foreign hands. One named a second councilman. One named a general on the pass line. Theodosius closed the satchel. The leak in the capital was shut. The man who had bought from it sat in irons in the palace cellar. But two more names lay on the table now, and one of them wore a uniform at the western keep. He looked up at Inag. "Tonight," he said. "Before either of them hears."