The Exchequer Chamber at the West Gate of Crown-Reach was the financial safe hall of the kingdom. A castle of solid Portland stone guarded by two companies of the King’s Yeomen in scarlet coats. There, the royal bullion reserves were weighed on huge bronze beam-scales thirty feet long. At eleven o’clock on Monday morning, Tomas Reed and Hester Quill walked into the vaulted chamber, preceded by Scribe Olla carrying the forty-two-pound Master Ledger of the Three Thousand.
At the head of the great checkered audit table sat Lord Treasurer Montfort—a stern, high-born statesman of sixty-five winters, wearing his dark velvet robes of office. He was flanked by six senior Barons of the Exchequer. For two hours, the royal clerks step by step reviewed Hester Quill’s approved summaries, checking the math against the sovereign bank deposits and the forced payout rolls of the High Sheriff.
“In my thirty years as Lord Treasurer, Master Reed,” Montfort spoke, his voice dry, analytical, and fully unrushed, “I’ve seen five hundred audits presented by royal commissions. But I’ve never seen a balance sheet that reconciled thirty-six thousand sovereigns in sixty-year unpaid debts down to the last copper bit. The arithmetic is flawless.”
“The arithmetic is flawless because it was kept by honest scribes, My Lord,” Tomas answered. He stood before the checkered table in his gray wool tunic. “Master Scribe Cullen recorded every sovereign in Anno 242. Aaron Coram preserved the record of the theft in Anno 272. And Scribe Olla checked every receipt in…
