There were six people on the platform, and none carried a flag of truce.Osric called the number from the watch stair. Daren repeated it to Nera, who marked six strokes beside the gate plan. Four spears. One narrow chest. One man holding a surveyor's staff as though the mountains had been built incorrectly and he had come to put them right.The platform touched the ridge road beyond bowshot. Its chains slackened. A guard tested the ground before the others stepped down.Daren kept his injured leg on the bench. Through the open hall door, he could see Orin sitting beside Pella with both hands around his wooden horse. The boy was watching his father instead of the mountain. Daren made himself finish reading the assigned positions before looking back.“Two coming forward,” Osric called.The surveyor approached with a single guard. The others opened the chest beside the platform. Brass rods caught the afternoon light.At the shortened gate, Brida asked his business.“Master Rusk. Works ex

Jun rejected Daren's first route before he finished drawing it.“That puts us past the seizure point.”“It saves half a day.”“For the men waiting there as well.”Daren looked down at the charcoal line. He had drawn the quickest military road to White Stair, forgetting that three people carrying a receipt were not a company of soldiers.He rubbed out the bend.It was late on the twenty fourth day. Jun, Osric, and Pellan would leave at dawn. Pellan had agreed to guide them to the lower weighing house; Osric would carry his bow and decide for himself when a shot was possible. Their route crossed at Cinderbank, climbed beyond Rillmarket, and reached White Stair by the following evening if the weather held.The market was on the twenty seventh. They would begin returning that afternoon and aim for Hearthfast on the twenty ninth.“If you're late?” Iven asked.“Send a question with the next traveler,” Jun said. “Don't send someone straight into the same road trouble.”“Where should they ask

Rusk returned carrying a dead fish in a wooden bowl.He set it on the gate beam beneath his notice. Pale scales clung to his fingers. Daren smelled stagnant water before the examiner spoke.“Upper holding pool. Yesterday.”Brida leaned closer without touching it. “What killed it?”“Water standing where it should move.”“Or something in the water.”“Either way, keeping the outlet closed does not improve it.”It was the twenty seventh morning. Jun would be entering the White Stair market while Hearthfast argued over a fish. Daren wished, briefly and uselessly, that one problem might wait its turn.Rusk had brought two guards. Neither advanced when Daren asked for the bowl to remain outside the hall. That restraint felt deliberate, another tool being laid where they could see it.The examiner produced a folded writ.“An authorized local officer can acknowledge emergency access. Thorne's seal is still registered. Her signature would let me bring a small inspection crew instead of an enfor

“A dispatch entry,” Jun said. “About my brother.”The guard held out his hand.She kept the folded copy against her chest. Behind him, two laborers began loading the weighing house's outer records into a crate. They moved quickly, stepping around the cart whose wheel had struck the post.“Family copies remain with the office during transfer,” he said.Ista closed the book.“Show me that order.”He turned on her. “The office is being moved.”“Then list what you're taking.”Jun could hear the market outside. So many people, so close, and none yet aware that the small room had become a trap. Osric stood with his unstrung bow against one shoulder. He could not make it ready without giving the guard a reason to draw blood.The guard reached for Jun's paper.She stepped behind the table.“It's a copy. She marked it for me.”His fingers closed on the edge anyway. Jun let the loose question sheet come away rather than tear the attested page beneath it.He read the first question and swore.“T

Jun came home before sunset on the twenty ninth day, with her right sleeve tied above the wrist and Maret's receipt dry beneath her coat.Daren saw the bandage first.“Pella,” he called.“It's a cut,” Jun said.“Then she'll be pleased to find only a cut.”Osric grinned wearily behind her. Pellan went straight to the water bench. They had reached the named shelter on schedule, crossed at Cinderbank that afternoon, and come up the quarry path without being followed as far as any of them could tell.Sive stood in the hall doorway.Jun stopped when she saw her.For a moment, Daren feared the answer was worse than silence. Then Jun reached into her coat and brought out the folded page.“He was admitted to an infirmary. Four months ago.”The old woman's hand rose to her mouth.“He's alive?”“He was alive then, according to the entry. We don't know after that.”Jun spoke each part carefully. Daren heard how much it cost her to keep the second sentence beside the first.They sat at the long t