Chapter 126: HOLLOW BRIDGE

DIANA’S POV

Hollow Bridge looked exactly as Diana remembered it.

Cold, busy, and under repair.

Apparently bridges in Blackharrow survived by never being permitted to believe they were finished.

Diana stepped down from the carriage into a fortified transfer yard filled with freight sledges, covered wagons, scale houses, storage sheds, and enough clerks to make Household Relief appear restrained.

Alma had remained at the Citadel.

Diana had made the decision herself. The inspection party was traveling light and changing horses through the relay stations, but Hollow Bridge was too far from the Citadel for an overnight journey. They expected to be away for several days.

Diana’s role here concerned records and evidence. Bringing Alma merely because Diana preferred having her nearby had become harder to justify now that Alma’s own responsibilities were expanding.

Daric and Raigoro had both come, along with a Ward specialist from Renn’s office, a Ward Artificer, a field engineer, evidence clerks, Diana’s Household Guards, and local station officers.

Enough people to make the journey completely unsuitable for romance.

Daric controlled the evidence team.

Raigoro had a different reason for coming. Two compromised strategic-defense supply chains had now touched the same transfer station. If the overlap proved meaningful, the investigation would affect how Blackharrow supplied the Ashen frontier.

The Warden had reason to be here.

Raigoro had spoken to Diana during the journey only when necessary. They had discussed the weather, road conditions, and whether the carriage heating stone worked correctly.

Entirely functional.

The dance might as well have happened months ago instead of days.

Diana had not decided what to do with that.

Work began inside the scale office, where the station master had already laid out the requested records.

Incoming weights. Outgoing weights. Crate counts. Seal checks. Weather delays. Transfer authorizations.

Diana sat at the table while Raigoro went outside with the engineer and one Ward specialist to inspect the physical storage areas.

Daric took the opposite chair.

"Try not to discover another war before lunch."

Diana wrote: THEN STOP GIVING ME PAPER.

Daric considered the request. "Unreasonable."

They began.

The first legitimate wardstone shipment showed twenty-four blocks entering from the Southern road and twenty-four leaving. Its weight difference remained within expected transport variation.

Nothing unusual.

Diana appreciated nothing unusual.

Then she opened the compromised batch.

Twenty-eight blocks had entered Hollow Bridge.

Twenty-eight had left.

The weights were different.

Diana compared the figures again.

The incoming wagon had been weighed before unloading, while the outgoing load had been measured after reloading onto Blackharrow mountain transport. Different wagons meant different harness, packing, ice, and moisture. The raw totals could not tell them enough.

Diana wrote: EMPTY WAGON WEIGHTS.

The station master found them.

They calculated again.

The outgoing cargo was slightly heavier.

Enough to record.

"Packaging?" Daric asked.

The station master studied the figures. "Possible."

Diana pointed to the packing record.

Same brace count. Same crate frames. Same straw allowance.

Daric called to an evidence clerk. "Mark the discrepancy. Do not call it substitution."

One inconsistency did not become conspiracy simply because they wanted an answer.

An hour later, the engineer returned carrying a broken crate brace from the old salvage pile.

He placed it on the table.

Two sets of fastening holes marked the wood, one older than the other.

Daric asked, "Reused?"

"Could be. It could also mean the crate was opened and re-strapped."

The evidence clerk recorded its position, measurements, and storage location without adding a conclusion.

The Ward specialist arrived next.

"We checked the seal-copy cabinet. Inventory says twelve reference impressions."

Daric stood. "How many are there?"

"Eleven."

The station master went pale. "One was damaged last winter."

"Record?"

He began searching.

Nothing appeared immediately.

Daric simply waited.

A missing record could still mean bad administration. Blackharrow had learned that often enough.

They kept going.

By midday they had three anomalies: an unexplained load-weight increase, a crate brace that might have been reopened, and one seal-reference impression that could not yet be accounted for.

Then Diana opened the records for the older Broken Ward shipment.

The cargo had been ordinary repair hardware, later discovered to be substandard. It had passed through the same station months earlier.

Its incoming and outgoing records showed another weight discrepancy.

This time the cargo had become lighter during transfer.

Diana placed the two sets of records beside each other.

Daric read them.

"One gains. One loses."

Diana wrote:

SAME TRANSFER STATION.

"Yes."

DIFFERENT MONTHS.

"Yes."

SAME WORKERS?

Daric checked the rosters. "No."

Diana frowned at the records.

A single guilty clerk would have been convenient. The documents refused to provide one.

Warehouse assignments differed. So did the guard teams and the Blackharrow wagon contractors.

The station master had remained the same.

So had the commercial transfer contractor.

Northline.

Again.

Northline’s name alone gave them little now. The unexplained cargo changes at Hollow Bridge were becoming more useful than the company name attached to them.

Raigoro returned while Daric arranged the records.

"What do we have?"

Daric gave him only what the evidence supported.

"Two known compromised cargo chains passed through this station, and both show unexplained load changes during transfer."

Raigoro nodded.

"One seal-reference impression is unaccounted for."

"Proven missing?"

"Physical count says eleven. Inventory says twelve. We do not know when or why." Daric indicated the brace. "We also have physical evidence that at least one crate in the relevant salvage period may have been opened and re-strapped."

"May."

"Yes."

Raigoro looked down at Diana’s paired records.

She turned the slate toward him.

THE NETWORK EXTENDS BEYOND THE CITADEL.

He read it.

"Yes."

Diana looked again at the transfer records.

Whoever had done this did not need control of an entire supply chain. They needed access at a point where custody changed and one record ended before the next began.

She looked toward the scale house beyond the window. Wagons entered, were unloaded, weighed, repacked, resealed, and sent onward by people who might never see the cargo again.

The different workers did not eliminate the possibility. A weakness in the transfer process would not depend on one clerk, one guard, or one warehouse assignment.

Hollow Bridge did not have to be corrupt. It only had to contain a weakness someone knew how to use.

Two compromised shipments passing through the same transfer point made that possibility harder to dismiss as coincidence.

A horn sounded outside, one long note followed by two short ones.

The station master turned toward the window.

"Weather."

Snow had begun crossing the yard almost horizontally.

Raigoro went outside with the bridge master while Diana returned to the weight books.

A second horn interrupted the work later.

The station master listened.

"Rockfall."

Daric looked toward the ceiling. "Excellent."

Diana wrote: OPTIMISM.

"Contagious."

The station commander unfolded the emergency lodging chart.

Hollow Bridge’s fortified quarters were already filling with freight crews stranded by the road closure, road engineers, the evidence team, and two civilian wagon parties that could no longer move south.

The small north relay shelter less than two miles away had been assigned to Diana and her Household Guards. It had one inner room, a guard alcove, a stove, and secure shutters.

"Her Grace should leave before visibility worsens," the station commander said.

Diana closed the record book.

Raigoro returned while her guards were fastening their cloaks.

Daric handed him the weather sheet. "I’m staying with the evidence."

"Yes."

Raigoro looked toward Diana. "North relay?"

She nodded.

One of her guards said, "The road is still open."

Raigoro checked the yard through the doorway.

Snow briefly erased the far wall before the wind revealed it again.

Diana reached for her cloak.

"Wait."

She turned.

Raigoro fastened his own coat. "I’ll accompany you."

Diana stared at him.

"If the road closes, I can get back faster on foot than someone from here could reach you afterward."

Practical.

Of course.

Diana nodded.

They left.

The first half mile remained unpleasant but manageable. Farther along the road, the wind shifted and drove snow hard enough that Diana had to lower her head.

One guard moved ahead while another stayed behind.

Raigoro walked on Diana’s windward side without mentioning it.

The relay shelter eventually appeared through the snow as a dark block against the mountain.

The keeper opened the outer door when they reached it, and Diana stepped inside.

A sound larger than thunder came from the road behind them.

Everyone turned.

Stone covered the route back to Hollow Bridge.

A section of the upper slope had broken loose between the relay and the transfer station.

The guard nearest the doorway swore.

Raigoro stepped into the storm long enough to inspect the collapse before returning.

"No one crosses that tonight."

The relay keeper closed the outer door.

Raigoro had intended to walk Diana to the shelter and return to Hollow Bridge.

The mountain had ended that plan.

Her Household Guards took the outer security alcove while the keeper indicated the only heated inner chamber.

"Your Graces."

Diana looked inside.

One stove, one table, two narrow sleeping benches, and one door.

She entered.

Raigoro followed.

The road back to Hollow Bridge was closed.