Chapter 110 - Missing Caravans

Chapter 110: 110 - Missing Caravans

Vikir led Adrien back through Greymoor without wasting time. By the time they reached the main house, the quiet morning with Amelia had slipped behind him and his thoughts had moved to whatever trouble had crawled out of the former Arquenay territory.

Evelyne waited in the room she used for administrative meetings.

Reports lay spread across the table, along with a map of the roads threading through the lands House Clairmont had inherited after Gaspard’s fall.

Garrick stood at one side of the table, halfway through a page when Adrien entered with Vikir. Adrien took the seat opposite his mother and skimmed the documents.

"What happened?"

Evelyne pushed one of the reports toward him. "Several caravans have been attacked over the last few weeks."

Adrien picked it up. The first complaint came from a merchant travelling south with food and cloth, another involved tools and metal, and a third caravan had been hauling grain between two towns. Different cargo every time, and the same road in every report.

"How many attacks?"

"Seven confirmed," Evelyne said. "There may have been more. Some merchants don’t bother reporting losses if they believe nothing will come from it."

Adrien read on.

Wounded guards filled the pages, though almost no deaths. One man had a broken arm, another had been stabbed through the leg, and several had been beaten badly enough to need treatment, yet all of them had walked away breathing.

"They’re avoiding killing people."

Garrick nodded. "Looks that way. If this was an ordinary group of bandits, I’d expect bodies by now. Especially after seven attacks."

"What are they taking?"

"Food first," Evelyne answered. "Then Crowns, weapons and anything easy to sell. Cloth, tools, alcohol, medicine. They leave most of the heavier cargo behind."

Adrien set the report down and drew another closer. Nothing in the attacks looked random. Whoever worked those roads knew which goods were worth carrying and which would weigh them down, and how to halt an armed caravan without turning the road into a slaughter.

"Have they attacked anyone travelling without cargo?"

"No."

"Farms?"

"No."

"Villages?"

"Nothing so far."

That narrowed it. Adrien leaned over the map and traced the road with a finger. The attacks lay scattered along a long stretch of territory instead of clustering around one settlement.

"They’re targeting merchants, then. Not the people living there."

"That’s what it looks like," Vikir said.

Adrien turned toward him. Vikir had been unusually quiet since they entered, and a second bundle of papers sat beside him, older and more worn than Evelyne’s reports.

"You found something?"

Vikir laid the older documents on the table. "I started checking Arquenay records after the third report arrived. Gaspard hired outside companies fairly often, especially when he needed additional protection for trade routes or private convoys."

He opened one and turned it toward Adrien. Names ran down the page beside payments, dates and contract lengths, and one returned again and again, the same company hired for years. Adrien read it twice before raising his head.

"Mercenaries?"

"A professional company," Vikir said. "They protected roads, escorted caravans and occasionally worked alongside Arquenay soldiers. Gaspard used them regularly."

Evelyne folded her hands. "Their last contract ended shortly before everything happened in Arquenay."

Adrien saw where this led before she finished. "Do they work for anyone?"

"No."

Vikir pointed at the final payment on the page. "They were paid through the end of their contract. After Gaspard was removed, there was no reason for the previous administration to hire them again, and Clairmont never signed anything with them."

Adrien returned to the map. A seasoned company losing its steadiest source of work explained a great deal, especially if the men had lingered nearby instead of marching off to find work elsewhere.

"Do we know where they went after the contract ended?"

"No exact location," Vikir said. "There are records of them buying supplies in the region several weeks afterward, but nothing official beyond that."

Garrick set his report down. "If it’s them, they’re not amateurs. Men like that know how to set an ambush, stop a convoy and control a fight. That would explain why people are being injured without many deaths."

Adrien nodded, since that also accounted for the discipline behind every ambush. What gnawed at him was why a professional company had turned to robbery at all. Losing a contract did not turn a hundred trained men into criminals overnight.

"How large were they?"

"The most recent Arquenay records list just over one hundred and thirty active fighters," Vikir replied. "That number could have changed."

Enough men to become a genuine threat, and far too many to treat as roadside thieves and answer with five guards.

Evelyne raised her eyes to him. "The attacks are starting to affect trade. Two merchant groups have already changed routes rather than cross that road again. If more follow, several towns in the region will start paying more for basic goods."

That settled it. Adrien rose and studied the map once more.

"I’m going."

His mother did not object, though her expression said she had expected the answer. "With how many men?"

"None. If I ride in with a column behind me, they’ll either disappear before we arrive or assume we’re there to fight them."

Garrick straightened. "Alone?"

"I’ll take Vikir with me then. I want to talk to them first. They worked those roads for years without turning on anyone, so I’d rather hear their side before I decide anything."

Garrick didn’t look pleased. "And if talking goes badly?"

"Then I’ll know that too."

Adrien turned to Vikir. "Bring everything you have on the company. Contracts, payments, names, whatever Gaspard kept. If they really are behind the attacks, I want to know who I’m dealing with before I meet them."

"I’ll have it ready."

Evelyne gathered the reports into one stack. "When are you leaving?"

"Tomorrow morning."

Rushing out before they understood anything served nobody, though waiting while caravans vanished from Clairmont roads served even less.

Adrien read the map one final time. A few months ago, trouble in Arquenay would have belonged to somebody else.

Now merchants losing cargo there meant higher prices in his towns, frightened traders and roads under his responsibility turning unsafe. That territory carried the Clairmont name, and so did its problems.

"Have everything ready ready at first light. I want to find out who’s been attacking those caravans."