Chương 196: Chapter 192 [Secrets uncovered]

Camdon's cart was already gone by the time they reached the gate, wheel tracks the only thing left to reveal where he ended up.

"Go on," the older man said, jerking his chin at the guard on duty.

"Ask." The guard barely looked up from whatever he was doing with a length of rope.

"Welcome to Stonehall."

"We're looking for a trader. Old fella, grey beard, runs a cart with a few others."

"Camdon." The guard said it like the name bored him.

"Came through an hour back. He's one of ours, lives here half the year. Any reason you're looking for him?"

"Business," the older one said.

"Nothing that concerns you." The guard's eyes moved between the three of them, unimpressed.

"Didn't ask what your business was. Asked if you had reason to be asking after one of ours."

"We wanted to buy some of those new knives he had for sale. He left before we had the chance." The older one patted the coin pouch at his belt.

"Been trying to catch him the last few days, see if he has any left over. If he's got more, we've got coin for it." The guard studied them a moment longer, then shrugged it off.

"You'll have to ask him next time. Gate's closed."

"Closed?"

"Monsters have been spotted nearby. Something's been through the forest west of here, tore up a fair stretch of it by what the scouts brought back. Nobody's coming or going till it's confirmed dealt with." He said it flat, like he'd repeated it a dozen times already that day, but his eyes went to the treeline all the same. The three of them went quiet, casting a look toward the dark line of trees themselves.

"How bad?" the youngest one asked.

"Bad enough they've doubled the watch." The guard shrugged and went back to the rope.

"Come back in a few days, might be cleared by then." They didn't wait around to ask more. None of them cared much for monsters, and even less for the idea of standing outside a wall with something like that loose in the trees beside them.

"Forget it," the older one muttered once they'd put some distance behind them.

"We know he's still alive, still trading. That's enough for the boss. I'm not sticking around here for it." The others didn't argue. They were moving before the guard even looked up again. Silas caught it before he'd even found a room. He stopped a woman selling bread near the square, asked about the talk he'd heard in the tavern not a bell before. She looked wary, eyes flicking past him toward the street, and gave him nothing at all. No, she didn't know what he meant. No, she hadn't heard anything like that.

He thanked her and walked on, unhurried, and didn't ask anyone else. He took a room above a butcher's shop after that, paid for one night he had no intention of using, and left the shutters cracked rather than open. Below, the square had changed since he'd arrived. Two patrols crossed in front of the well, more men than the street needed, moving like they were looking for something rather than walking a route. Someone had told this town to stop talking. It was fast, faster than he'd expected.

The secret they were keeping was clearly bigger than a few knives. More and more, the talk of portals and a town full of mages was sounding less like rumour and more like fact. Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings. He watched the gate guard from earlier cross the square below, out of uniform, flanked by two others glancing at doorways as they went. Not a patrol. A search.

The guard stopped at the inn two doors down, said something to the man sweeping the step. A shake of the head. He moved on to the next. Silas knew something about his story had been caught for the lie it was. Probably the fact he'd not gone to speak to the elders as instructed. He knew he didn't have long if he wanted to leave without issue. He had what he'd come for, more of it than he'd expected when the knives drew his attention. Staying would likely reveal more but taking the risk wasn't smart.

This wasn't a village in the core, this was on the border, every guard and likely most of the residents presented a real threat. You didn't live long out here if you were soft. He knew the gate wasn't an option. Every guard in the place was looking for a stranger who hadn't shown at the elders' hall — walking up and asking to leave would hand them exactly what they wanted. Instead, he found a stretch of wall east of the tanneries and settled into the dark to watch it.

The magic lights set into the stone had come alive with dusk, throwing pools of pale light at even intervals along the top. Two guards worked the section he'd chosen, and it took the better part of a bell to learn their rhythm: a slow walk to the corner, a pause to lean on the parapet and talk, then back. The gap when both of them turned away at once was short, but it came every circuit, same as the last. He waited for it twice more to be certain, then moved.

He might not look like much, but the training he received in the Core left him with more than enough to escape the watchful eye of a border village. The iron hook he always carried went up on the second throw, caught, held his weight when he tested it with a sharp tug. He climbed fast and low, staying inside the shadow the nearest light threw rather than the light itself, and dropped into the space between one guard's back and the dark beyond the wall before either of them had turned around again.

The rope came with him, coiled and stowed before his boots finished settling into the grass. His horse was where he'd left it, tied off in a stand of trees a half bell out, well clear of the road anyone searching would think to check first. He walked it out until the trees thinned, then rode. Ebonreach hadn't improved in his absence. The same stink off the lower district, the same idiots playing the role of guards. He went straight for Krell's estate without stopping to wash the road off him.

Krell didn't look up from his ledger when Silas came in, just kept the quill moving down a column of figures.

"Most of a week gone, no word sent. I was starting to wonder if you'd finally found a better offer somewhere."

"Better offer wouldn't have brought me back." Silas dropped into the chair across from him uninvited, waited until Krell actually stopped before he went on.

"You'll have heard something about a run of fine knives that turned up in the market a few days past. Folding steel, better than anything local." Nothing in Krell's face told him whether that was true or not.

"Go on."

"I followed Camdon back to where he got them. He gave me some made-up tale about finding them further south, but it didn't add up. He left, then returned in the time it takes to get to Stonehall and back with a wagon in tow. I followed him to be sure, and that's where he ended up." Krell's mouth twisted.

"That backwater. Savages, interbreeding with the beasts. If they didn't play the part of shield for the Empire I'd have had their whole region sacked already."

"Then you already know they're not the ones making steel like that." Silas let the silence sit.

"Something's changed there. Something they're keeping quiet, and keeping quiet well. I got as far as the gate before word went round that a stranger was asking questions, and I left before that stranger had a name attached to it."

"You're telling me Stonehall's found itself a benefactor."

"I'm telling you they're tied to something bigger than a border village has any business being tied to. I got a name but nothing else before word went round someone was asking questions. They're keeping it under lock and key. There's a place called Monkhaven, tied to Stonehall somehow — I don't know if it's a holding, a trade partner, a kin settlement, or something else. But it's the source. Whatever's coming out of it, the knives are only a small taste." Krell was clearly interested.

His silence and the crooked smile told Silas as much. He'd seen this look whenever the man thought he had a leg up over his rivals, even if that wasn't always true.

"I want to know what that is," Krell said.

"Not vague talk of something bigger. I want it found, and I want to know what it's worth."

"Then send scouts. Watch Stonehall, see who comes and goes, follow it back to the source. Enough men to look without being noticed, not so many they draw attention doing it." Silas spread his hands.

"I'd go myself, but my face is known there now. A stranger returning inside a week draws exactly the kind of notice we don't want." Krell drummed his fingers on the desk, already reaching for a fresh sheet of paper.

"Fine. Send out as many as you think wise. Quiet ones. I want a location in the next two weeks."

"I'll make sure it's done." Silas left Krell to his musings. He'd get the men moving before heading home. He had a letter to write.