Doc's hand on his shoulder. Nothing more.
Cael was sitting up before he had decided to sit up. Fourteen years in the Army makes the body learn faster than the mind.
"Patrol at the North Gate," Doc said. "Drenn colors. Fen's on them from outside. Had the overnight watch. They've got a body across a horse and the Greens are trying to walk them to the steward hall."
Cael was dressed from the boots up by the time Doc finished. Not fast, not slow. The same pace every time.
The curtain between his desk and the bunks was already back. The squad was up. That was the thing about soldiers, they somehow knew when things were about to happen.
"Doc, Cobb, on me," Cael said, pulling his coat on and tucking the procurement record book inside it. "Everyone else, gear up."
"It's the middle of the bloody night," Fish said.
"Your gear saves you," Sarc said. "Your small clothes don't. I have the scar to prove it."
The squad laughed. One of them threw Fish's boot at him.
Cael went through the door.
Twenty riders at the North Gate. Drenn cavalry colors. Torches. The horses blowing hard in the cold. A body across the last horse, tied down and covered with a patrol cloak. Three Greens were doing their best to redirect the column toward the steward hall.
Doc signaled Cobb to move to the far right to give distance and a good field for covering fire. Cobb was the best crossbow shot in the squad.
Fen moved in beside Cael as Cael was walking toward the patrol.
"The Greens are trying to bully the patrol to reporting to the steward hall," Fen said. "By the sounds of it, the Troopers are having none of it."
Cael nodded and Fen slowed and moved behind and to the right of Cael while Doc occupied behind and left.
Cael walked past the Greens without looking at them.
The officer was cavalry, noble-born. She held herself like she was accustomed to being the senior presence in any room. She was ignoring the Greens. As Cael approached, she looked down at him from the saddle, took his measure briefly, and found the person for whom she was waiting.
"Sergeant Drenn," she said. Not a question. She had done some preparation.
"Lieutenant." He nodded.
"I've got a body that I need to leave with you. We found him on Watch Road, north of Grainhollow. We were running a night circuit looking for campfires to locate bandits. Instead, we found a wagon in the scrub. No load but a dead driver."
Cael looked to Doc, who already had the lantern. They walked to the horse.
He pulled the patrol cloak back. Doc held the lantern close to the face.
The throat was opened from ear to ear. A clean cut it appears in the dark. A blood beard running down his neck and covering the top of his clothes. Poor guy.
But it was the face Cael was looking at.
He had seen that face at the Grainhollow weighing post several times picking up military grain and driving it North. A regular for the Army.
Bram Vesser. Vesser Haulage.
"That's Bram Vesser. He hauls for us and runs the route from here to Highwatch. Please tell Commander Aldane when you return and I'll follow with a report."
She looked at him for a moment. The expression of an officer recalibrating what kind of sergeant she was dealing with. "Understood. You have the body now."
A cavalry trooper leaned over and cut the binding rope. Bram Vesser flopped to the ground like a sack of potatoes.
She signaled. Twenty cavalry formed up and moved north through the open gate, torchlight receding, hooves on the cobbles and then on the road and then nothing.
The night watch officer came with more Greens at his back. A compact man with the manner of someone who had spent years being technically correct about things. He looked at the body, at the Drenn garrison sergeant standing over it, and made his calculation.
"House Maren jurisdiction," he said. "A civilian death in House Maren territory. We'll take him to the steward hall."
"That man is a House Drenn military contractor," Cael said. "The grain he was carrying is House Drenn property. The investigation belongs to the Army."
"The dead body on my road in my town belongs to me." The watch officer said it with the finality of a man that was not going to change his mind.
Cael looked at the three Greens who had been at the gate when the patrol arrived. They had heard him identify Vesser. They had heard the Lieutenant acknowledge it and identify where she had found the body. He looked at them.
They looked at a point somewhere past his left shoulder.
He stood for a moment. The watch officer waited.
Cael stepped aside.
"Move him," the watch officer said.
He watched them carry Bram Vesser toward the steward hall. The door closed.
Doc said, "Good call, Sarg. Not sure a bunch of dead Greens is the right answer for a dead body that is just more paperwork for us."
"You think that high-nose officer is going to forget she assigned that body to me?" Cael said. "We need to figure out something on the quick."
Cael turned and made a circling motion with one finger in the air. The squad made its way back to the barracks.
Cael crossed the square. At the far edge he stopped once and looked west.
The top window of the House Valdene factor office was lit. The Crown was paying attention. Of course, probably most everyone near the North Gate had heard the commotion. Doc was right. A bunch of dead Greens in the street would have done no good. And for what reason? His pride or his fear of not following an order?
He walked on.
"Doc," he said. "Rotating watch on the steward hall. Two at a time. I want to know if anything moves through that door before morning."
"Understood," Doc said.
Fish opened his mouth. Olis put a hand on his arm without looking at him. Fish closed his mouth.
Cael walked on.
Cael's answer to his question arrived at first light on a lathered horse. Olis reported its arrival and Cael met the rider just as the rider put his foot on the first step to the barracks.
That was bloody fast, thought Cael. Why the rush?
The rider was a Trooper. Young. By the looks of him, he was fast and his horse was fast. The Trooper asked "Sergeant Drenn?" Emphasizing the word "Drenn" with a bit of an arched eyebrow.
Cael nodded and the Trooper handed Cael a sealed dispatch. Turned promptly on his heel and went back to his mount. Mounted and rode off at a slow trot without looking back.
Cael broke the seal and read.
SGT Drenn --
Supply contractor Bram Vesser, Vesser Haulage, was found murdered on the Northern Watch Road. A House Drenn grain shipment is missing. This is a House Drenn matter and will be investigated as such. You are directed to assume full control of this investigation immediately. All parties are expected to cooperate with your inquiry. Report your findings to this command on a running basis.
Commander R. Aldane
Highwatch
He read it twice. Folded it and placed it in the front breast pocket of his uniform.
He went to the barracks door. "Up. Full gear. Now."
The squad came out of the barracks with the efficiency of soldiers who knew something was about to happen. Patch and Sarc were already outside since they had drawn the last watch on the steward hall and had not fully stood down. The rest filed out behind them.
Cael looked at Sarc.
"The two at the door," he said.
"Yes," Sarc said.
He looked at the rest. Fish was the last one out the door.
"On my walk," Cael said.
He crossed the square. The heavies were to his left and right with Olis and Fen on their flanks. Doc was behind. Cobb was well outside the main formation with her crossbow at a good angle. Fish was still trying to get his gear settled and was behind Doc.
The Greens saw him coming and moved to fill the door frame and puff up.
"Bast..." one began to say just as Patch hit him. Sarc hit the one Green on the right.
Both men went down. Both were still breathing.
Cael stepped through the door.
Orin Maren was fully out of his seat when Cael entered the room. Two House Maren guards moved to his side and a third was moving through a side door. A large amount of noise was coming from nearby. Soldiers putting on gear.
"Sergeant Drenn." Controlled. An effort.
Cael held out the orders just as the first set of Greens entered the room fully geared up. The squad already formed around Cael and Cobb was already in position to put a bolt through Lord Maren's throat.
Everyone waited while Orin Maren read the orders.
Orin Maren read the orders, then read them again slowly. The controlled expression settled into calmness.
"You have my full cooperation," he said.
"The body," Cael said.
Everyone breathed.
They kept the body in the storehouse behind the hall down in the root cellar, cold and dark.
Cael stood over the dead man.
He had confirmed this face at the North Gate in the dark with a patrol lantern. In proper light the answer was the same. Bram Vesser. Broad across the chest, road clothes, no livery. A contractor who had run the route reliably until the night someone decided he shouldn't.
The throat told him the rest. One cut, clean and long from behind. No marks on the hands or forearms. No bruising at the wrists. He had not known it was coming.
There was still a satchel strapped to his body and two rings on his hands. Not a robbery? Why take the grain but not the rings or the satchel?
"Who took his coin pouch?" Cael asked into the open air.
Orin Maren received the question and bounced it to his senior officer. There was a whisper, then a look from Lord Maren and then an answer.
"I will have the pouch delivered to your barracks, Sergeant Drenn."
Cael nodded. "Doc, let's get the body to the barracks. Now would be best."
Doc detailed Fish and Patch.
Cael turned to Lord Maren. "Thank you, Lord Maren. My apologies for the entry."
Lord Maren looked at Cael and waited for everyone to file out. "Sergeant Drenn, the politics of this situation has allowed you to speak to a person above your station and for you to have authority above your station. Do not mistake my cooperation with you as anything but expediency in light of the circumstances. You are welcome to the paperwork related to the murder and, of course, I expect a resolution to this mystery quickly."
Lord Maren left without another look at Cael.