Captain Hest Vale dropped the spiral stone stair from the western castle walls with unrushed, measured strides. That kept her hand flat on the cold cut stone wall to steady herself against the dizziness brought on by the sudden shift to high alpine air. She reached the flat stone slabs of the inner bailey. Then, she found Marshal Solvan Krail standing at the foot of the keep steps. She was surrounded by four of his company captains and a dozen nervous headquarters clerks clutching empty leather document folios.
“I gave you an order, Captain Vale!” Krail bellowed, his heavy mustache bristling with rage as he thrust his baton toward her face. “Why are the signal bells not ringing? Where are the mappers? I ordered Kezra Venn and Ulvan Dret to report to the command table the instant the shifted weight locked!”
Hest stopped four paces from the marshal, her hands resting calmly on her sword belt, her eyes meeting his bloodshot gaze without flinching.
“They’re not reporting, Marshal,” Hest said. Her voice dropped into a clear, even rhythm that carried across the silent quadrangle. “Because neither of them is inside Stonewake Citadel.”
Krail’s jaw tightened until the muscles in his cheeks knotted like walnut shells. “What madness is this? I watched them in the upkeep lane with my own eyes not two hours ago! Dret had his brass folio. The girl was standing beside the service wall with her notebook open!”
