In the small antechamber outside Marshal Krail’s command room, Kezra stopped at a narrow oak clerk’s desk, unclasped her canvas satchel. Then she drew out a sheet of stiff rag paper, a horn inkwell, and a sharp goose-quill pen.
Captain Hest stood by the iron-studded oak door leading to the inner chamber. Her hand tapped the handle of her sword with growing impatience. “The Marshal is ready to receive you, Mistress Venn. There’s no need for preliminary scribbling in the hallway.”
“There’s every need, Captain,” Kezra replied, seating herself on the oak stool and dipping the quill into the black gall-nut ink. “Before I speak a single word to Marshal Krail, I’m drafting the exact scope of this check in writing. I learned on the tenth day in Kilnstep that an unwritten agreement with a powerful person is an invitation to be swallowed whole.”
Fellis Dain leaned over the desk. He used his good right hand to hold the edges of the rag paper flat against the oak grain while Yseld kept watch by the hall door.
With steady, deliberate strokes, Kezra wrote out the notice in the clean, angular script of a royal land-mapper:
Notice OF PRELIMINARY Safety check — STONEWAKE CITADEL Date: Day 100 since Awakening. Winter Campaign. Land-mapper: Kezra Venn, Quarter Mapmaker (Kilnstep). Party of Safety check: Kezra Venn, Fellis Dain (Rigger), Yseld Arken (Observer).
