Theodosius Valkorion's Arc

Chapter 21 of 22

Theodosius stood at the map table with the satchel of letters still open beside him. The drafts named a general on the pass line, but drafts were not proof. He could not ride to the western keep and pull a castellan's second in irons on the strength of an unsent page. If he moved without evidence, the legion holding the pass would fracture, and the foreign columns behind the mountains would find the gap they had been paying for. He sent for Master Inag Divondûn and Master Guardsman Longhall. Inag came first, black armor still dusted from the cellar. Longhall followed, the four-pointed stars on his plate catching the lamp. Theodosius set the three drafts flat on the table. "One name at the western keep," he said. "I want him taken clean. No arrest on rumor. Give me a letter in his own hand." "Bait," Inag said. "A payment he can't refuse." "Route it through the wine merchant's chain," Theodosius said. "He doesn't know the merchant is in irons. Send a courier under the old seal. Offer him gold for the timing of the next relief column." Longhall folded his arms. "If he answers, he hangs himself." "If he answers," Theodosius said, "I want the answer in a sealed room with witnesses who cannot be bought." He sent for General Thraxes and Arcturus Zanator by fast rider. Thraxes rode in the next night, red accents on his white plate, mud to the knee. He read the drafts once. "You want me to sit across the table from a man I already know is selling my walls," he said. "Sit," Theodosius said. "Don't touch him. Not yet." Thraxes gave a short breath that was almost a laugh. "Fine. I've held worse ground." Zanator came in his light peacekeeper kit, the small blue star at his chest. "I want two of your men inside the keep as clerks," Theodosius said. "They witness the handoff. They carry the letter out." "Done," Zanator said. "No armor. No stars. They'll look like anyone." The courier rode west with the false offer. Six days later he rode back. Inag broke the seal in the map room. The general had written in his own hand. He named the relief column's route, the day, the escort's strength, and the price in gold he expected at a chapel on the pass road. Theodosius read it twice. He passed it to Thraxes. Thraxes read it and set it down. "Tonight," he said. "In his quarters. No horn. No ranks drawn up." "Take him alive," Theodosius said. "Every paper on his desk. Every servant sealed in the keep until Inag has walked the rooms." Thraxes rode before dawn. By the third night a rider came back with a locked chest and the general in chains. The pass held. The satchel on Theodosius's table now carried a fourth name, written in the general's own hand, from the chapel on the road.