Chapter 84: SOMEONE EXPECTS TWO WEAK PLACES

RAIGORO’S POV

The forged transfer order had been caught.

Raigoro still did not know whether North Spur had received his correction.

The courier pair Veyr had assigned had launched hours earlier carrying two sealed instructions.

The first was real.

KEEP RESERVE IN PLACE. VERIFY ALL FURTHER TRANSFERS THROUGH COMMAND.

The second concerned what North Spur should allow the ordinary paperwork to say.

TRANSFER ACKNOWLEDGED. PREPARATION UNDERWAY.

The first message protected the ward while the second protected the deception.

Until the Dragon Host courier returned, Raigoro had no live knowledge of which stage North Spur had reached.

He planned accordingly.

West Rime remained the visible problem.

Reports showed increasing fractures along the outer ward line. Engineer teams were already moving north with replacement stone, bracing material, and fresh anchor fittings.

The nearest infantry reinforcement company would reach the outpost before dawn.

North Spur sat farther east.

Officially, it was about to become weaker.

In reality, Raigoro had ordered the opposite.

A second reinforcement column had been ordered north under ordinary road-maintenance paperwork.

It would not reach North Spur quickly.

That was precisely why the order left before Raigoro knew whether North Spur was the target.

Additional arrows and medical stores moved in civilian-marked wagons where practical.

Captain Arven would eventually place infantry within marching distance of the second ward without visibly flooding the station with troops.

None of it happened instantly.

Raigoro was spending time now because he might not have it later.

Captain Veyr stood beside the Dragon Host map.

"Two pairs at North Rise. Two more are attached to the mobile reserve. Meris stays with me."

Raigoro nodded.

"Keep the North Rise pairs where they are."

"Meris is unhappy."

"That is not new."

Five Dragon Host pairs were committed to the Broken Ward combat response. A Citadel readiness pair was already being spent on the North Spur courier run; the remaining pairs stayed on their assigned ward sectors, patrol routes, or other readiness duties.

After weeks of manufactured weakness, Raigoro had no intention of protecting one northern line by quietly stripping another.

"She knows the companies are moving."

Raigoro looked at Veyr.

"Does she know why?"

"No."

"Then she knows as much as most of Command."

Veyr apparently decided against whatever he had been about to say and returned to the map.

Raigoro pointed between West Rime and North Spur.

"Mobile reserve here."

Daric frowned.

"That leaves them farther from West Rime."

"Yes."

"And farther from North Spur."

"Yes."

"Conveniently equally dissatisfied."

"Exactly."

Daric looked at him.

"You believe both positions will be attacked."

"No."

"You believe one will."

"No."

Daric waited.

Raigoro pointed toward West Rime.

"This one is genuinely weak."

Then North Spur.

"Someone tried to make this one weak."

He moved his finger between them.

"That means whoever sent the order expected the condition of both positions to matter."

Captain Veyr asked, "Simultaneous attacks?"

"Possible."

"Feint at one, main force at the other?"

"Possible."

"Nothing happens at North Spur and we waste half the night hiding troops in snow?"

"Also possible."

Nobody looked offended by that answer.

Good.

Raigoro had seen too many commanders fall in love with the cleverest interpretation of enemy intent.

A good theory was useful.

A reserve was better.

Senior Ward Specialist Julius Renn stood over the infrastructure map with Bastan Holt and another ward specialist.

"If both positions matter," Renn said, "then the connecting ward system matters too."

Raigoro looked at the road and ward network between West Rime and North Spur.

"How recently was the junction inspected?"

"Routine inspection three days ago."

Holt asked, "Physical?"

Renn hesitated.

"Surface and pressure checks."

Raigoro looked at Holt.

"Enough?"

"No."

Raigoro turned to Daric.

"Have the local crews verify it again. Physically this time."

Daric reached for a relay sheet.

"What are they looking for?"

"Anything the records say should be there that is not."

Holt nodded.

That was enough for now.

The answer would come when the northern relay brought it.

Raigoro would not invent one before then.

He marked the inspection beside the other unanswered questions rather than treating it as a new emergency.

West Rime already had visible fractures. North Spur had received a forged order. The junction had given them no emergency yet, only a reason to verify what was actually there.

Raigoro would not spend soldiers on suspicion merely because three problems happened to fit neatly on the same map.

Later, the Duchess returned to the cleared review room with Alma and one of her household clerks.

She carried another stack from the sabotage audit.

Raigoro stepped out of the restricted map room.

"The audit?"

She nodded.

Her slate turned toward him.

NOTHING NEW YET.

"Keep looking."

She gave him a look that suggested the instruction had been unnecessary.

Probably true.

The stack beneath her arm was thicker than the one she had taken away earlier.

Whatever the audit had failed to find, she had not stopped looking for it.

Raigoro found that more reassuring than another confident theory would have been.

Captain Veyr looked toward the northern staging marks.

"We will know more when the courier pair returns."

"Maybe," Raigoro said.

"Maybe?"

"They can tell us what was true when they left North Spur."

Veyr gave him a tired look.

"You have become hostile toward time."

"Time started it."

The Duchess gathered her papers.

At the door, she stopped.

Her chalk moved again.

WHEN DO YOU LEAVE?

"Tomorrow morning, unless the next northern dispatch gives me a reason to leave earlier."

The slate remained still in her hand.

Raigoro watched her.

The last time he had left for danger, she had spent days waiting for reports from Rellan.

Before that, the western defense.

Before that, a boundary mission where her relief at his absence had once been almost visible.

The pattern had changed.

The Duchess wrote: I WILL KEEP THE AUDIT MOVING.

"I know."

She left.

Daric waited until the door closed.

"Remarkable."

Raigoro looked at him.

"She asked when you leave instead of whether."

"Because she knows I am leaving."

"That is the remarkable part."

Raigoro looked toward the northern windows.

The courier pair had still not returned.

Until they did, North Spur remained the part of the plan he could not verify.

Then wings sounded beyond Command Terrace.

The rhythm was lighter and quicker than Meris’s heavy wingbeats.

Captain Veyr turned toward the windows.

Raigoro was already moving.

"The North Spur courier."