Chapter 40: THE CITADEL WAITS

DIANA’S POV

By the time Blackharrow received its first field dispatch, whatever it described had already happened hours ago.

Diana knew the message had come from the western line because the black-and-silver case carried the field-command seal.

The man who delivered it clearly had not.

His horse was fresh. Snow melted across one shoulder of his coat, but neither animal nor man looked as though they had crossed half the western boundary at speed.

Diana stood with Alma beside the covered dispatch table in the lower military court when he handed the case to Daric.

Daric broke the seal while a clerk cleared space beside the signal register.

Diana remained several steps away until he motioned her closer.

She wrote:

THE MESSENGER CAME FROM RAIGORO?

"The message did."

That was not the same thing.

Diana waited.

Daric understood.

"Field couriers carry dispatches to military relay posts. Fresh horses and fresh couriers take them onward from there."

Diana looked again at the man who had delivered the case.

That explained the horse.

It did not explain anything she actually wanted to know.

Daric unfolded the page.

The dispatch was short enough that Diana could read it beside him.

WESTERN FORCE ENGAGED.

NO REINFORCEMENT REQUESTED.

PREPARE STANDARD MEDICAL CAPACITY.

Three lines.

Nothing about Raigoro.

Nothing about how many creatures had attacked.

Nothing about whether Blackharrow was winning.

Diana wrote:

WHEN WAS THIS SENT?

Daric checked the field mark near the bottom.

"Several hours ago."

Whatever the page described was already old.

Diana looked at him.

IS THAT ALL?

"That is what field command needs us to know."

Alma read the message over Diana’s shoulder.

"And what do they not need you to know?"

Daric folded the dispatch.

"How Raigoro is fighting the battle unless he needs something from the Citadel."

That was a terrible system for anyone who wanted to know what was happening.

It was probably a sensible system for war.

Daric handed the dispatch to a clerk.

"Medical office gets a copy. Inner reserve stays where it is."

The clerk left.

No one rushed.

Diana almost wished someone would.

The infirmary had already cleared beds before Raigoro departed. Additional blankets stood in tied bundles near the treatment wing. Household staff had opened the emergency family rooms and placed food and water inside them.

They were preparing for wounded people who had not yet arrived.

For injuries no one could name.

For families who did not yet know whether they would need the rooms.

Tavia stood across the transport court with the quartermaster and three territorial clerks.

Four empty medical wagons had already been brought beneath the eastern wall. Another two waited farther down the service route.

Diana crossed toward her.

Tavia was checking a transport list.

"One team came back from the Lower Fen ore route this morning," she told the quartermaster. "Use them here."

"And Hollow Ridge?"

"Untouched."

The man nodded.

Diana remembered the damaged bridge and the grain wagons.

Even now, while Blackharrow prepared for a battle, Tavia was making sure the military did not solve its transport problem by creating hunger somewhere else.

Tavia noticed Diana beside the table.

"No additional wagons have been requested yet."

Diana wrote:

YET.

"No."

Tavia did not offer comfort she could not support.

Diana appreciated that less today.

By midday, no second written dispatch had arrived.

Diana began hearing every horse that entered the lower court.

A supply clerk came first.

Then two officers from an inner watch station.

Then a household wagon carrying winter vegetables.

None carried the black-and-silver case.

Families had begun asking whether there was news.

There was not.

Mistress Hale directed relatives of the deployed companies toward the family rooms rather than allowing them to gather around the military offices.

Diana went with her.

They moved two more benches into the larger room. Someone brought hot water. A kitchen servant carried in bread before anyone asked.

A woman standing near the window stopped Diana.

"My son is with Second Company."

Diana waited.

"Has the western line held?"

She looked toward Daric.

The woman followed her attention.

Daric had entered behind them with another military clerk.

He answered.

"No reinforcement had been requested when the first field dispatch left."

The woman frowned.

"Does that mean they are winning?"

"No."

The room became quieter.

Daric continued.

"It means no reinforcement had been requested when the message left."

The woman understood the distinction and looked back toward the waiting room without asking again. Diana knew exactly why.

In Valence, information had been withheld because Odran decided who was entitled to know it.

This was different.

Daric did not possess the answer either.

Blackharrow was not keeping the battle from them.

The battle was simply happening too far away and too quickly for everyone at home to know it while it happened.

A signal horn sounded from the western tower.

Every head in the room lifted.

Three short notes.

One long.

Diana looked immediately at Daric.

He was already moving.

They followed him back into the lower court.

A second tower repeated the pattern.

Captain Iven Sorn, commander of the Inner Reserve, reached Daric near the military stair.

"What does it mean?"

"Western field movement."

"Do we assemble?"

"Closer."

"Do we send them?"

"No."

Sorn hesitated.

"If the line is worsening..."

"We do not know that."

Daric said, "Bring the reserve to lower readiness. Horses prepared. Equipment loaded. Nobody leaves the Citadel."

"Understood."

The order moved.

Within minutes, soldiers began crossing the lower military court toward the staging area.

Diana watched them form.

The reserve looked ready to leave, but Daric kept every soldier inside the Citadel.

He had received a signal that western command had moved. He had not received an order saying why.

That distinction seemed to control the entire court.

Horses were saddled.

Equipment was loaded.

Medical staff moved closer to the lower route.

Nobody left.

Diana had thought waiting meant the absence of action. Blackharrow apparently disagreed. Here, uncertainty produced preparation without permission to invent the answer.

She returned to the household rooms because standing beside the dispatch table would not make another signal arrive sooner.

Another horse entered the lower court before she reached the door.

Diana turned.

No black-and-silver dispatch case.

Behind her, the reserve remained mounted and waiting.

Western command had changed position.

Blackharrow still did not know why.