Chapter 73 — The Empty Saddle

Chapter 73: Chapter 73 — The Empty Saddle

Chapter 73 — The Empty Saddle

Godfrey reached Northgate with the wagon train, eighteen hired guards, the purchased people, six northern horses, four young hounds, poultry and four surviving Knight Apprentices.

The gate guard counted twice.

"You left with six apprentices."

"Martin Pike died on the capital road. Robin Dyer was executed for aiding the attackers."

The guard stopped asking questions and recorded the losses.

Northgate had grown busier during the month. Northern claimants sent wagons south for harvest supplies, refugees searched notice boards for villages willing to accept labor, and soldiers repaired another section of the outer palisade.

Godfrey rented the same inn near the western wall.

The innkeeper remembered them and looked past Godfrey toward the missing riders.

"Two rooms empty this time?"

"One room," Godfrey said. "The men share."

He placed the most valuable wagons inside guarded yards and posted watches even during daylight, since grain, iron, medicine and animals were enough to attract thieves.

Mabel’s medicine list had emptied part of the storage ring, so Godfrey used the space to hide the seed, smaller tools and sealed gold. Everything else remained beneath canvas and rope.

Ivo took Thomas and Simon to replace worn horseshoes. Nicholas stayed with the wagons. Adam found a poultry seller willing to examine the birds and tell them which duck had stopped eating.

Godfrey sent Bram to the orphanage only after a healer changed the dressing on his arm.

Bram went to the orphanage after washing and changing his bandage, the blanket resting across his arms. Children met him before the door and shouted questions about the capital.

He answered only those he understood.

"Did you see the king?"

"No."

"Did you fight?"

Bram looked toward Ivo.

"You may answer," Ivo said.

"Yes."

The older children noticed the new scar on his arm and stopped treating the warhammer like a festival toy.

Bram set the hammer against the wall before entering the work shed. Two smaller boys immediately tried to lift it; together, they raised the head an inch before the matron drove them away.

The blanket went onto a pile beside the winter clothes, and Bram added Godfrey’s wool and sewing supplies without claiming them as his own.

"Dragonwatch has dragons?" one child asked.

Bram went still.

The matron gave the child a tired look. "It has old stories. That is what the name means."

"Did you see one?"

"No," Bram said.

"What did you see?"

The children crowded closer.

Bram thought for a long moment. "Big walls. Cold river. Warthogs."

That disappointed them until he described killing the adult magical beast, his version using few words and too much swinging of his hands. By the end, every child believed the warthog had been as large as the orphanage.

The three youths who had shown interest waited in the work shed. The broad cart worker still wanted to go. The boy with cobbler’s hands had decided the same. The third had accepted a place with a Northgate cooper.

Godfrey spoke to each separately.

He offered food, a place to sleep and household wages once their work began, for Dragonwatch was cold, isolated and close to Orc territory, and Martin’s death made pretending otherwise impossible.

"You can remain here," he said. "Nobody will call it cowardice."

The cooper’s apprentice stayed.

The other two chose Dragonwatch.

The broad youth was named Ellis. He had spent three years loading carts and could mend harness well enough to keep leather from failing on the road. The other was Cole, narrow-shouldered and quick with his hands, who had helped a cobbler but never completed an apprenticeship.

Godfrey took them into the orphanage yard.

"Lift that chest," he told Ellis.

Ellis bent from the waist and hauled it upward.

"Put it down." Godfrey showed him how to set his feet and use his legs. "Strength used badly ruins the back before thirty."

For Cole, he loosened a strap buckle and asked him to find the problem. Cole saw the cracked tongue but missed the stretched hole in the leather, finding it only on the second inspection.

Neither youth showed trained Essence, and neither claimed he did.

"You work first," Godfrey said. "Training is decided later."

They accepted. For two youths with no family trade to inherit, steady food and a place in a lord’s household were enough to risk the north.

The matron produced their names, ages and the few belongings kept for them. Godfrey signed nothing complicated; she simply witnessed that they left freely under his protection.

She gave each a spare shirt, a blanket and a small wooden token bearing the orphanage mark.

"If your service at Dragonwatch ends, show that at the gate," she said. "It may get you a bed here if I am still alive."

Ellis looked embarrassed. Cole closed his hand around the token.

Godfrey did not object. Men served better when leaving did not mean dying in a ditch.

Bram gave her the blanket.

"Come back," she told him.

"I came back once."

"Then do it again."

The convoy remained in Northgate for four days. One child carried a fever but remained stable. Two wagon wheels required replacement, the horses needed rest and the several marching soldiers had blistered feet after months in confinement.

Godfrey paid for medicine and replacement wheels but released none of the final transport payment.

He inspected the families, who looked tired and frightened. Several stared at Bram. None recognized Godfrey as anything but another armed buyer.

The forty-five soldiers stood in three lines outside the wagons, their spacing still good despite the journey. Godfrey counted them, then checked the number against the merchant’s ledger. All forty-five remained alive. Two had blistered feet, one had a swollen knee and none had been permitted weapons.

"They march tomorrow?" the dealer’s Knight asked.

"After the healer sees them," Godfrey said. "Put the worst feet in the wagons until the skin closes. I paid for soldiers, not cripples."

The sick child lay against her father’s chest in the fourth wagon. Her fever had eased after medicine, but sweat dampened her hair. Godfrey questioned the convoy healer and ordered another day of rest if the fever rose again.

One mason brother had bruising around his collar. The dealer’s knight claimed the man had tried to slip away during a river crossing.

"Did he?" Godfrey asked.

"He went after his son. The boy fell from the wagon."

Godfrey studied the collar mark, then the knight.

The knight bowed his head slightly. "Sir, until delivery, the guards answer to me. He left the wagon without permission."

"To pull a child from the river."

"Yes, Sir."

"If a collar is used again without need, the final payment will be reduced. Is that understood?"

The knight bowed again. "Understood, Sir."

"Dragonwatch has roofs ready," he told them. "You will remain with your households. Work will be assigned after arrival."

He ordered the guards to leave the collars untouched unless someone tried to flee.

Godfrey checked their supplies instead. Grain remained adequate, but the convoy had used more firewood than planned and lacked enough lamp oil for the final stretch. Northgate charged northern prices for both, so he bought the oil and told the convoy to carry cut wood before leaving the last settled farms.

Before leaving, Godfrey stopped beside the man listed as a carpenter.

"There is forest south and east of Dragonwatch. When you arrive, you will inspect the nearby timber and tell the steward what can be used."

The man lowered his head. "Yes, Sir."

The entire convoy left Northgate after the healer cleared the sick child for travel.

Ellis rode on the first wagon beside Ivo. Cole sat with Nicholas on the second and spent the first hour asking the names of tools beneath the canvas. Nicholas answered six questions, ignored the seventh and ordered him to watch the right side of the road.

The western road narrowed after the last farms. Spring damage remained in the low places, and old wagon ruts held brown water, so twice the party dismounted to guide the teams around washed ground.

They made fewer miles than Godfrey wanted.

At the first camp, Ellis tried to help Bram lift a wagon tongue, but Bram raised it before Ellis found a grip.

"He does that," Thomas said.

Ellis stared at Bram’s back. "Is he a Knight?"

"No."

"Then what is he?"

Thomas fed another branch into the fire. "Bram."

Godfrey let the matter end there.

Godfrey continued the nightly perimeter walks. Ellis and Cole joined without weapons, learning to listen for horses, look for cut branches and keep the fire below the shelter of the wagon.

The road threatened them through broken axles, sick horses and flooded fords rather than another attack.

On the fourth day north of Northgate, rain turned to hard sleet for less than an hour. The ducks endured it better than the men, who lost half a day drying blankets and checking that the seed remained sealed.

At Dragonwatch, Christopher’s paired training reached thirty breaths.

Thunder lay close enough that one wing touched his knee. Their rhythms no longer collided immediately; her energy remained on her side of the contract, his Essence on his, while both learned the other’s pattern.

The record called this Recognition.

It was only the first stage.

Christopher ended the session before exhaustion. His channels felt warm but intact, and Mabel checked him and found no bleeding, fever or irregular pulse.

"Tomorrow?" Thunder asked through an impression rather than a word.

"Tomorrow."

He had begun understanding some of her deliberate thoughts, though they remained emotions and images, not spoken sentences. Hunger was easiest. Pride required no translation.

He trained publicly afterward with Walter. The Drake method felt smoother, his Black Iron Essence following familiar channels with less resistance, though his total strength had barely changed.

Meg and the other runners crossed the yard while he trained. Their exercise had become less of a game; they carried messages between marked points, repeated alarm routes and learned which adults to find if the bells rang.

Bram’s empty place was obvious whenever the older youths practised lifting and stance work. Meg filled it by shouting at anyone who slowed.

"She learned that from Walter," Christopher said.

Walter struck his practice blade. "Watch my shoulder."

Christopher blocked late and felt the wooden blade against his ribs.

"You were saying?" Walter asked.

"Better control," Walter said.

"Not more power."

"Control comes first."

Christopher remembered blood on stone and agreed.

They inspected the wall arbalest after training. The base had been moved away from the cracked platform, and Barlow’s copied trigger worked during a dry test, though the bow remained unfinished.

Owen wanted another brace. Walter wanted a wider firing angle. Christopher approved the brace and kept the narrower angle until the first test proved the frame could survive.

The postponed fish-pond plan returned to the fishermen that afternoon. The older man took Christopher back to the shallow hollow they had marked earlier in the year.

"Deepen that, screen both ends and fish will stay, my lord," he said. "Winter is the problem."

"Dig part deeper."

"After the housing work, my lord. Every shovel was in the fields or walls when we last measured it."

Christopher assigned no digging yet; they first had to check what the summer water had done to the bank.

The fishermen took him to the hollow anyway. A narrow cut connected it to the river during high water, and small fish already flashed in the shallows.

Christopher’s first thought was a straight stone channel with a gate. The older fisherman shook his head.

"My lord, the first flood fills it with branches. Water goes over your stones and takes the bank."

Christopher crouched and examined the mud line on the trees. The man was right.

"A wider opening, then. Wooden screens we can remove before floodwater."

"That might hold, my lord."

Cedric corrected the angle and marked the bank with stakes, and they marked the deeper side as well and left it untouched.

Scouts sighted Godfrey’s party two days later.

The riders had first found wheel tracks, then climbed a low ridge and seen the canvas tops. One scout returned at speed while the other stayed to make certain the party was Godfrey’s.

"Two extra riders," the scout reported. "No pursuit. No wounded that I could see."

"How many apprentices?" Walter asked.

The scout hesitated. "Four."

Christopher had already started toward the wall.

The southern bell rang twice. People gathered near the gate, and Christopher climbed the wall with Walter and saw the first wagons approaching between mounted riders.

He counted automatically.

Godfrey. Ivo. Bram. Thomas. Adam. Nicholas. Simon. Two unfamiliar youths. Wagons continued appearing behind them until Christopher stopped counting and faced the guarded column beyond.

No Martin.

No Robin.

The bond carried Thunder’s curiosity from beneath the castle.

Christopher watched the empty places in the line and felt the first edge of dread.

Walter stood beside him without speaking. Below, workers opened the gate while children ran toward the road until Joan called them back.

Thunder felt Christopher’s unease through the bond. Her attention sharpened beneath the castle, followed by a protective anger she did not understand.

Christopher rested one hand on the cold stone of the battlement.

Godfrey had returned. Bram had returned. Four apprentices had returned.

He tried to be grateful for the living before asking about the missing.

Godfrey entered Dragonwatch beneath an open gate.

The wagons followed, ducks complaining beneath their canvas covers and young hounds barking from their cage. Settlers crowded the inner road until Walter ordered them back from the wheels. The hired guards remained near the outer yard until Ivo assigned their camp.

Christopher waited beside the inner yard.

Godfrey dismounted.

"My lord."

Christopher looked behind him. "Where are Martin and Robin?"

"We speak inside."

That answer was enough.

Christopher stepped aside and let the party enter. Thomas looked older than when he had left. Adam kept one hand close to his sword even inside the walls. Nicholas checked the wagon behind him before surrendering the reins. Simon did not meet Christopher’s eyes.

Martin’s spear lay wrapped along the first wagon. Robin’s horse was gone.

The two unfamiliar youths dismounted awkwardly and stood close to Bram, one staring at the walls, the other at the armed men on them.

"Get the teams watered," Godfrey told Ivo. "Nothing leaves the wagons until Walter assigns it."

The familiar rhythm of orders kept people moving. Grief could wait until the gates were shut and the supplies were safe.

Walter took command of unloading. Ivo directed the apprentices toward the stable. Bram remained beside the wagons until Christopher told him to go with Nicholas.

Godfrey, Christopher and Bennet entered the private workroom beneath the inner castle. Walter joined after placing Peter in charge of the gate.

Godfrey reported the road attack without softening it.

Martin died from a crossbow bolt. Robin had sold their departure time and cargo information to a merchant’s intermediary. The attackers expected old treasury wealth. Robin claimed nobody was meant to die.

"You executed Robin and the surviving attacker," Christopher said.

"I questioned both men first," Godfrey replied. "Keeping them alive would have taken guards from the convoy while we were still carrying the treasury."

Godfrey gave them the information as well. The merchant had passed Robin’s report to hired men through two intermediaries. The attackers had known the party’s route, its strength and that it carried an object worth killing for, though not what the object was.

"Name of the merchant?" Walter asked.

"The prisoner knew only the man who paid him. That man is dead. The merchant remains a description and perhaps a false name."

"Could Robin identify him?"

"No. He met an intermediary in Northgate."

Christopher scanned the map on the table. Northgate was the one place every northern road eventually touched, where merchants, soldiers and nobles’ agents passed through daily. Finding one man from a description could take months and warn whoever stood behind him.

"We don’t hunt shadows," he said. "Record the description. If he appears again, we act."

Godfrey agreed.

Christopher sat in silence.

The execution still disturbed Christopher. Martin had died because Robin sold them.

"Could you have brought Robin back?"

"Yes."

"Why didn’t you?"

"He had already sold us once. We still carried treasury wealth and travelled toward the capital. Guarding him would take a man every hour. If he escaped, he could sell what he knew again."

Christopher eyed the silver coin again.

"Did Martin die immediately?" Christopher asked.

"He died before we could help him," Godfrey said.

He remembered Martin eating beside the fire on the road north, complaining that Bram snored. He remembered using the Dragon Eyes on the apprentices and reducing each of them to a color before he knew much else about them.

Martin had been white. Robin had been green.

One was dead. One had betrayed them. The colors had predicted neither choice.

Godfrey placed Robin’s silver coin on the table, then placed Martin’s wrapped spear beside it.

"The attackers knew our route, our numbers and that we carried something valuable," Godfrey said.

Christopher considered the coin. Robin had trained beside the other apprentices and eaten at the same table. Gold and a chance to escape the cold had mattered more to him.

"The workers chosen for the other settlement will live there," Christopher said. "They cross once and remain under guard until we know them better."

Walter nodded. The people already responsible for the buried bastion kept their duties.

"The remaining apprentices?" Walter asked.

"They continue as before. Robin’s crime is his."

Godfrey gave the smallest nod.

"What do we tell everyone?" Bennet asked.

"The truth that concerns them," Christopher said. "Martin died in an ambush. Robin betrayed the party and was executed. We do not discuss the cargo or why the attackers wanted it."

"Rumors will grow."

"They always do."

Christopher saw no reason to invent a bandit chief or a false battle. They would give the household the facts and leave out the cargo.

The treasury report came next. Godfrey listed the bullion exchanged, purchases, guard costs and remaining reserves. All the purchased people had arrived with him, and two free youths had joined from the orphanage.

"Livestock?" Bennet asked.

"Six northern horses, chickens, ducks and four young hounds."

"No cattle?"

"Later."

The storage ring produced medicine, seed, books, tools and sealed gold. Godfrey held part of it back. Bennet received enough to begin recording public purchases, and the rest remained private.

"The bullion house asked no useful questions," Godfrey said. "No one followed us as far as we could prove."

Christopher checked the remaining treasury account. "The arsenal stays intact. We use what we have."

Godfrey had worn his magical armor beneath ordinary clothing in the capital. Walter and Ivo already possessed their own sets. The apprentices continued using the reinforced arms already issued.

Dragonwatch had gained wealth. It had also learned how quickly wealth created eyes.

Christopher read Osbert’s reply.

House Drake could send no Knights or families. Hugh and Ranulf opposed further northern expense. A small shipment of medicine and seed travelled separately.

Christopher had expected nothing. The letter still disappointed him.

He folded it and placed it beside Martin’s spear.

Godfrey handed him another letter.

The paper was thinner, marked by rain at one corner and covered with forwarding seals. It had travelled from Alvion to Griffin City, reached the Drake office and waited there until Godfrey arrived.

Christopher recognized Edwin’s writing before he broke the last seal.

Edwin had reached Alvion safely, and his mother and sister were with him. He had passed the academy examination, though the letter had been written before his first proper lesson. Most of it complained about the cost of books and Magister Deepwell’s satisfaction at being proven right.

The final line was shorter.

You had better answer.

Christopher read it again.

Edwin had written while Christopher was still on the northern road. Months had passed between the ink drying and the letter reaching Dragonwatch, but his friend was alive.

"Do we have paper that can survive the return journey?" Christopher asked.

Bennet opened a cabinet. "Better than what he used."

Christopher placed Edwin’s letter apart from the official correspondence. He would answer after Martin’s marker was ordered and the stores were counted. This time, Edwin would know the letter had somewhere to find him.

"His family?"

"Notified," Godfrey said. "We return his belongings when the road allows."

Christopher ordered Martin’s name added to Dragonwatch’s dead. Robin’s name would be recorded among the executed, with the reason beside it. Neither man would simply vanish from the rolls.

"A marker?" Bennet asked.

"For Martin. Beside the others."

"His body is not here."

"His name can be."

Robin would receive no honor marker. His name and crime remained in the household roll.

Outside the workroom, the wagon train filled the inner yard. Eighty-two purchased people still had to be counted, fed and housed before dark, and Christopher could hear the wheels, frightened children and Walter’s orders through the stone ceiling.

Godfrey had returned, but the empty places in his party remained.

Martin’s wrapped spear rested beside the table. Robin’s silver coin lay near it, too small for the damage attached to it. Christopher left both where they were and went to meet the people waiting outside. Grief would remain after the wagons were emptied. The living could not wait that long for food and shelter.