At eight the next morning, the heavy iron-heavy doors of the Provincial Exchequer in High Redoubt were thrown open. Tomas Reed, Hester Quill, and High Bailiff Raymond Thorn entered the marble banking hall. She was followed by four armed court spear guards carrying red wax seal lanterns.
Chief Provincial Treasurer Pell, a rotund man in a fur-trimmed velvet gown, dropped his counting frame as the party approached his counter.
“What’s the meaning of this intrusion, Guard?” Pell demanded, puffing out his cheeks. “The exchequer is closed for morning audit!”
Court guard Thorn didn’t reply with words. He stepped forward and slammed Senior Justice Vance’s broadsheet decree onto the brass weighing counter, right between two piles of silver crowns.
“By order of the High Court of Military Court trial,” Court guard Thorn announced, “I serve you with this Royal Payback Debt claim. All accounts, bonds, and reserve credits of the Iron Line Defense Fund—totaling fifty thousand silver crowns—are frozen and encumbered under sovereign receivership.”
Hester Quill placed the master claims registry beside the writ, her steel nib dipped in fresh red ink. “Plus, Treasurer Pell, Article 14 of the decree attaches all private rents, toll receipts, and grain mortgages belonging to the Brand patrimony across three provinces until the full sum is deposited in the commoner locked deposit.”
