Chapter 43 — Standing Alone

Chapter 43: Chapter 43 — Standing Alone

Chapter 43 — Standing Alone

Roland Harcourt’s second invitation was more generous than the first. It offered Dragonwatch copies of regular patrol reports, space in protected merchant convoys, shared purchases of grain and iron, priority access to travelling craftsmen, and military assistance when alliance settlements were attacked. In return, every member would provide fighters for joint defense when called.

The number depended on the threat.

Christopher read that line three times.

Godfrey sat across the table. Bennet stood near the window with the food count from Avenholt’s families tucked beneath one arm.

"It sounds reasonable," Christopher said. "That does not make it safe for us."

"No," Godfrey said. "Harcourt wrote them for his own strength as well as ours."

Harcourt had two Silver Knights of his own, several Bronze Knights and a larger body of apprentices and guards. Wentworth was believed to have more. Fairfax had arrived with two Silver Knights despite losing wagons on the road.

"If a member settlement is attacked," Christopher said, "Harcourt can call Godfrey away."

"He can ask for the soldiers we promised."

"And if Dragonwatch is threatened at the same time?"

"Then we argue about what counts as the greater danger while men are already riding."

Bennet put the food count on the table. "Protected merchants would help."

Eighteen new families had made that painfully clear. Avenholt’s surviving stores covered part of their needs, but some grain was burned or wet. More people could clear fields and repair walls; they could not produce a harvest that had already been planted.

"How much?" Christopher asked.

"We remain secure for now. The coming months depend on our harvest, hunting, and what we can buy afterward. Harcourt merchants would give us better choices."

He imagined Godfrey riding west because two Harcourt members disputed a patrol road with a northern lord.

"The agreement says joint defense," Christopher said. "Not boundary enforcement."

Godfrey gave him a level look. "Every lord calls his road defensive."

Christopher leaned back. "What happens if we refuse every alliance?"

Bennet answered first. "Merchants follow safer roads. Craftsmen take larger contracts. Alliance members buy together and hear first when goods arrive."

Godfrey added, "Their patrols protect their members. They still warn us about an orc band because letting it pass Dragonwatch may endanger them later. They do not ride here for every problem."

"Then for the moment, we stand outside their protection."

"We stand with our own people," Godfrey said. "That’s not the same thing. But no one owes us men."

Harcourt was not the only house asking. Two more letters arrived through Northgate before Christopher finished his reply: one bore Wentworth’s seal, the other came from Fairfax.

Wentworth offered scheduled river patrols, guarded access to its trade road and fixed places in shared supply purchases. Its obligations were equally clear: every member supplied a set number of mounted patrol days and fighters according to the strength of the settlement.

"More orderly," Bennet said.

"And harder to avoid once signed," Godfrey replied.

Fairfax offered pooled purchases, emergency refuge behind its growing defenses and introductions to craftsmen brought north under ducal contracts. Its military terms were less exact, requiring members to provide "reasonable assistance" during raids and other common threats.

Christopher tapped that phrase. "What’s reasonable?"

"Whatever the stronger member asks and the weaker one cannot easily refuse," Godfrey said.

Each offer gave Christopher something Dragonwatch needed. Each also placed another house’s hand on his soldiers.

Christopher compared them for most of the morning. Harcourt offered the strongest nearby political network. Wentworth offered clearer patrol arrangements and river trade. Fairfax offered more flexible terms but left the greatest room for later argument. Every agreement placed someone else’s call on Dragonwatch’s limited fighters.

Christopher drafted three replies. He thanked each ducal representative and agreed to immediate exchange of information about orcs, bandits, destroyed bridges and threats to travellers. He offered the same reports from Dragonwatch’s eastern roads. He declined exclusive membership, fixed patrol service and any standing obligation to provide fighters beyond Drake lands.

Bennet read it.

"He will understand."

"Will Harcourt take another refusal as an insult?"

"A little," Godfrey said. "That’s not fatal."

The Harcourt messenger accepted the sealed reply that afternoon. The Wentworth and Fairfax answers travelled back through the next Northgate courier, and none of the representatives argued or issued a threat.

Before leaving, he gave Godfrey the urgent warning sheet required by Northgate. It contained the confirmed Avenholt raid, two uncertain orc sightings farther west, and a washed section of road near the river.

The detailed Harcourt patrol map remained in his satchel.

Christopher noticed. So did Godfrey.

The cost of neutrality had begun before the rider passed through the gate.

"If we joined," Christopher said after the messenger left, "would you obey Harcourt’s calls?"

"I answer to you," Godfrey said.

"That was not my question."

"If you signed an agreement and ordered me to honor it, yes."

Christopher turned the copy of the proposed terms over. "Even if the call was foolish?"

"I would tell you it was foolish. Then you would decide whether breaking your word cost more than sending men."

Christopher traced the military clause again. "Could we agree to the trade arrangements without joining their military council?"

Bennet shook his head. "Then everyone would join for cheap salt and disappear when riders were requested."

Christopher knew that too. Harcourt’s terms worked because benefits and obligations came together.

It became clearer over the next two weeks. A merchant convoy travelled north under Harcourt colors, and Dragonwatch learned of it only after an independent peddler mentioned seeing the wagons. They carried nails, lamp oil, salt, cloth and two carpenters seeking seasonal contracts. The convoy stopped at three alliance settlements and turned west without approaching Dragonwatch.

Harcourt had offered them a safer, more profitable route elsewhere.

A Northgate message about available rye seed reached Dragonwatch four days after alliance members received their copies. By the time Bennet considered sending a wagon, most of the sound stock had been reserved.

Christopher stood outside the circle when advantages were divided. Independent merchants could still come to Dragonwatch, but they demanded enough profit to justify an unguarded eastern road. House Bell’s reopened market remained available, though the disputed southern boundary made every journey politically noticeable. Northgate sold to anyone with coin, provided goods remained after army and fortress needs.

The other circles tightened as well. Wentworth members began using shared river patrols. Fairfax negotiated a group purchase of draft animals. A northern count required newcomers using his repaired bridge to pay the old toll, and Harcourt protested on behalf of two members. Armed men faced one another across the crossing, traded insults and left without bloodshed.

Christopher received the report several days later. The official report described a dispute settled without drawn swords; a peddler later added that one Harcourt rider had been punched from his saddle and a northern guard had lost two teeth.

Christopher laughed once, then stopped when Godfrey reminded him that the next argument might involve someone less willing to put his sword away.

"We stay out of it," Christopher said.

"Until one side asks to use our road."

"Then they pay the same toll."

"We don’t have a toll."

"Good. One less thing to fight over."

Godfrey almost smiled.

He intended to remain neutral between ducal alliances and the established northern nobles. He would trade with any side, report orc movements to all, and refuse to send Godfrey into other lords’ arguments.

Neutrality did not prevent those arguments from shaping every road around him.

Within Dragonwatch, the Avenholt families began deciding what came next. Four households wanted to return south once the wounded recovered. Nine asked about remaining at Dragonwatch. The others waited for Northgate’s final word.

Christopher gave them time to decide. Cedric found work for those able to help while adjusting the existing field crews. Owen inspected two more houses. Joan reorganized the barracks and complained that people treated blankets like something the fortress simply produced from stone.

Edric’s captain asked to join Dragonwatch’s guards if his service oath had ended with his lord’s death. Godfrey told him they would discuss it after his wounded retainer recovered and after Northgate confirmed Edric’s household obligations. Christopher agreed. They could wait until they knew what promises still bound the captain.

One evening, Christopher climbed the western platform. The barley moved below in the wind, and beyond it, roads disappeared between ridges toward Harcourt, Wentworth, Fairfax and the old northern houses. Somewhere along those roads, merchants chose guarded routes and nobles compared banners.

Dragonwatch had strong walls, a Silver Knight and more people than it had held a week earlier.

It had no alliance.

Christopher had protected his right to choose where Godfrey fought. He had also made certain that, if danger came to Dragonwatch, help would have to be requested from people who owed him nothing.

Below, the evening horn sounded and the gate crew began drawing the movable barriers inward. Avenholt children watched the routine from the barracks door. For them, walls and an alarm had stopped being preparations for a distant possibility.

Christopher stayed on the platform until the gate closed. Independence sounded proud when spoken in a council room; from the wall, it looked like counting every rider he possessed and knowing exactly how few could be spared.

Christopher folded the three invitations together and put them away.

Northgate’s investigators arrived beneath a clear morning sky. There were six riders. The senior man wore Northgate’s griffin badge on his travelling cloak. Beside him rode a cavalry sergeant with a weathered face and a sword polished by use rather than display. Four guards followed around a packhorse.

Christopher met them outside the inner gate with Godfrey and Bennet.

"Baron Drake?" the officer asked.

"I am Christopher Drake."

The officer showed Baldwin Griffin’s seal. "We’re here to confirm the raid and speak to Avenholt’s people."

"We expected you."

Christopher had known they would come, with the same flat certainty he felt before hard rain; knowing did not make him pleased to stand beneath it.

The guards studied Dragonwatch while their horses drank, their attention lingering on the repaired gate, the half-cleared breach and the men watching from the wall. The guards regarded the work with quiet respect. One guard quietly counted the towers before Christopher led them inside.

The investigators accepted rooms in the repaired guest house rather than Christopher’s temporary residence. Their guards remained together and surrendered no weapons at the gate, though they agreed not to carry them inside the barracks or storehouse.

They began before midday.

Christopher went first.

The officer placed Christopher’s report on the table. "Who decided to move Avenholt’s people?"

"I offered shelter. Their household heads agreed."

"Were the surviving families told they could leave Dragonwatch?"

"Yes, once the wounded could travel safely and their property was separated."

"Did any household object when you moved them from Avenholt?"

"Three men wanted to remain and guard it. I refused to leave them there alone."

The officer looked up. "You refused."

"Three men could not defend eighteen empty houses against another raid."

"You gave those three men no choice except to leave."

"I refused to let three frightened men die for empty houses," Christopher said. "If you think that was wrong, say it plainly."

The officer studied him, then asked about the cattle, the dead, and the direction the orcs had taken. Christopher answered without reciting every recovered pot and spade.

Godfrey was questioned separately. His account of the pursuit was shorter than Christopher’s written report.

"Seven orcs," he said. "One Grom. Six lower-ranked. All killed. Five cattle and two horses recovered. One injured cow slaughtered. One horse escaped."

"What losses did your pursuit party suffer?"

"A shallow cut on an apprentice caused by livestock."

"Did Baron Drake order you to pursue the raiders?"

"I recommended the pursuit. He approved it and remained to hold Dragonwatch."

"Why did you not wait for Northgate’s patrols?"

"The orcs were moving north with livestock. By the time a request reached Northgate and riders returned, they would have crossed beyond useful pursuit."

"Did you believe Dragonwatch itself was in danger?"

"Successful raiders return. Other raiders copy them."

The officer listened without interrupting.

Edric’s captain came next. Three household heads followed one at a time; the investigators did not allow them to listen to one another’s answers.

They were asked why they left, whether Christopher had threatened them, and whether they could recover their belongings. Their answers were untidy but consistent: Christopher offered shelter, Bennet recorded supplies, Joan assigned sleeping spaces, and nobody had been required to swear service.

One man complained that Cedric expected him to help repair a drainage ditch in exchange for meals.

"Did anyone beat you?" the officer asked.

"Nobody beat us or threatened us."

"Did they take your tools?"

"Our tools remain with us."

"Stop you from leaving?"

The man turned toward the cold road outside. "Where would I go?"

That answer told the officer enough.

Joan watched the procession from the common hall.

"They think we stole the people?" she asked Christopher quietly.

"They’re checking whether we forced the families to come here."

"The families can answer that themselves."

"That’s why the officers are speaking to them separately," Christopher said.

Joan eyed the guest house. "Miserable work."

Christopher agreed, though he understood the need. If the Crown accepted his report without checking it, another lord could later claim Christopher had frightened the survivors into service and taken Edric’s belongings.

The families understood that as well, but understanding did not make the day easier. Children were pulled away whenever a Northgate guard crossed the courtyard. Edric’s surviving men stayed close to one another. The newcomers from Dunmar watched from the field path, perhaps wondering whether officials would question their right to remain next.

Christopher wanted to tell everyone that nothing would happen. He stopped himself. He did not know what Northgate would decide, and empty reassurance would only make the truth worse if the decision went against them.

The inspection lasted through the afternoon.

Bennet opened the secure store before the officer, the sergeant and Edric’s captain. Edric’s iron-bound chest remained sealed. His sword and armor lay wrapped beside it. The officer inspected them, then nodded to the captain. Nothing belonging personally to Edric had been taken.

They moved to the animal yard. The sergeant checked the cattle’s old ear marks and accepted the captain’s identification, caring more about their condition than whether one had been milked.

The cavalry sergeant spent less time with lists. He counted the apprentices on watch and asked Walter how many fighters remained when Godfrey pursued the orcs.

"One Bronze and eight apprentices," Walter answered.

"Is that enough?"

"For a small raid with warning. Not for a host."

The sergeant inspected the gate turn, the repaired breach and the range markers beneath the western platform.

"Is this new work?"

"Recent," Walter said.

"Good. Frightened archers always think enemies are closer."

The sergeant then asked to see the northern road from the wall. Walter led him up the steps. From there, the repaired settlement looked smaller: roofs clustered beneath old stone, narrow fields beyond them, and empty country stretching toward the cold haze.

"How far can your scouts ride before turning back?" the sergeant asked.

"Far enough to warn us of mounted raiders," Walter said. "Not far enough to watch every crossing."

"No one can watch every crossing."

Walter pointed toward the western ridge. "A signal post there would give us more time."

"If you can keep men in it."

The repaired stone mattered only while someone stood watch upon it.

By evening, the investigators had found differences in several accounts. One farmer remembered six cattle being taken; another remembered seven. A child claimed ten orcs attacked. One wounded retainer believed the Grom leader wore red armor, while the recovered plates were dark iron stained with rust.

Smoke and panic had broken the fight into a dozen different memories.

The officer asked to see Dragonwatch’s casualty and food arrangements. Mabel showed him the wounded without exposing more than necessary. Joan showed him the crowded barracks. Eighteen families had not disappeared into comfortable Drake homes; they slept behind hanging blankets and shared hearths with people they had met days earlier.

The sergeant paused beside a boy carrying a bucket almost as large as his chest.

"Avenholt?" he asked.

The boy nodded.

"Do you want to go back?"

The child’s gaze went to his mother. "The roof burned."

The sergeant let him pass. There was little else to ask.

At supper, the officer finally removed his coat.

"Tomorrow," he said, "we visit the grant."

Christopher had expected to accompany them.

"Edric’s captain will guide us," the officer continued. "Baron Drake, you remain here."

"Why must I remain?"

"Because I want to see the site before you explain what I should see."

The answer was blunt enough that Christopher almost respected it.

"Take two of our scouts," he said. "The road was safe when we left, but that can change."

The cavalry sergeant accepted Simon and Adam after confirming they had followed the orc trail.

That night, Christopher found Godfrey on the wall.

"Do they believe us?" he asked.

"They believe the raid happened as we reported."

"I asked whether they believe we acted lawfully."

"They have not finished deciding that," Godfrey said.

Christopher’s attention moved to the guest house. A light still burned behind its shutter; the officer was probably comparing statements while everyone else tried to sleep.

"I dislike strangers deciding whether I acted properly."

"Then you chose the wrong profession."

Christopher gave him a tired look.

Godfrey continued watching the dark road. "A clean investigation is useful. Months from now, when someone says you stole Edric’s household, you show Northgate’s seal."

"And if they rule against us?"

"Then we learn whether your neutrality includes arguing with Lord Marshal Griffin."

A horn sounded once from the western tower. Christopher stiffened before the answering call came: a returning hunting party, not an alarm.

Godfrey considered him. "That’s the other reason the investigation matters."

"Which reason?"

"If another settlement burns, Northgate must know this was not an argument over cattle. It was the first warning."

Christopher peered into the darkness beyond the walls. The official party annoyed him. The thought that they might be recording the beginning of something larger was worse.

The investigators left at dawn with Edric’s captain, Simon, Adam, and their four guards.

Before leaving, the officer told Edric’s captain to keep the dead knight’s chest, sword and armor secured. Everything else needed by the surviving families could remain in use.

Dragonwatch’s gate closed behind them.

Christopher returned to the work waiting inside his walls and tried not to count how many decisions were riding away for another man to judge.