Tarin spreads the blackened leather across a wagon plank and pins its corners with stones. Maurice stands beyond the wreckage, watching the reeds and the uneasy horses.
Celia Graves
Hold still. The ankle needs binding. Your shin is closed, but I will make certain the crossing left nothing beneath the skin.
Celia winds a firm strip of cloth around Elianor’s swollen ankle, then examines the healed scrape before turning toward Tarin’s cramped red script.
Tarin Voss
The officer marked three routes. The dead take the ford, scouts use the alder road, and the hidden master enters at the toll crossing after the second bell.
Maurice Headsman
Signals?
Tarin Voss
A hooded lantern twice, then a horn from the western bank. The officer feared the creature would answer any other call and follow the bearer instead.
Celia Graves
You concealed something. Was there another message, courier?
Tarin Voss
A narrow strip sewn inside my coat. I hid it because it names the officer who sent the orders, and because that name may already be dead.
“I ask Tarin to allow me to examine the narrow strip.”
SUCCESS (Good Diplomacy, rolled +2)
Elianor Vale
Tarin, allow me to examine the narrow strip.
Tarin studies Elianor across the wagon plank. The dry call sounds again beyond the reeds, but he keeps one hand over the hidden seam of his coat.
Tarin Voss
You asked plainly. That is more than the officer offered anyone. I will show it to you.
He draws the narrow strip from inside his torn coat and lays it beside the blackened leather. Its cramped writing is protected by a thin waxed skin, though rain has blurred several lines.
Celia Graves
Read it carefully. If the name belongs to the dead, the order may still reveal who carries the command now.
Tarin Voss
The officer was Captain Odran Vey. The final line says he reports to a voice beneath the tollhouse, not to any banner or living lord.
Maurice turns from the reeds, his expression hardening. The horses quiet as the two strips lie exposed beneath the gray light.
“I take a rest before going toward the old toll crossing”
SUCCESS (Good Health, rolled +3)
Elianor settles beneath the wagon’s lee, keeping her ankle elevated against a folded saddlecloth. The noise of the reeds fades behind the steady breathing of the horses.
Celia Graves
Rest. The binding is sound, and stillness will let the swelling ease before we walk again.
Time passes beneath the gray sky. The tightness lessens, and Elianor’s ankle bears gentle pressure without the sharp instability that troubled the crossing.
Maurice Headsman
The road can wait. A tired ally is a liability, but a recovered one reaches the tollhouse ready.
Celia Graves
The call has moved east. Whatever searches these reeds is no longer watching the wagon.
When Elianor rises, Celia points beyond the alder stand to a narrow dry track hidden behind the burned wagons. It leads toward the toll crossing without entering the reeds.
Tarin Voss
That path joins the old toll road behind the scouts’ markers. They will not expect anyone approaching from there.
“I follow the hidden track toward the toll crossing”
SUCCESS (Fair Agility, rolled +0)
Elianor follows the hidden dry track behind the burned wagons, placing her weight carefully where roots knot through the packed earth. Celia and Maurice lead close behind.
The path rises over a broken bank. Her injured ankle turns on loose gravel, forcing her to catch a thorned branch; the jolt sends strain sharply through the binding.
Elianor Vale
The track is firm beyond the rise, but the ankle will not forgive haste.
Celia Graves
Slowly. The toll road is near, and your weight is still steady enough to carry you there.
Elianor continues, favoring the bound ankle without stopping. The hidden track slips between alder roots and emerges behind a line of old scout markers.
Maurice Headsman
There. The toll crossing. We reached it unseen, though the ground charged its price.
The abandoned tollhouse stands ahead beside the road, its gate sagging across the crossing. Beyond it, the western bank lies quiet beneath the gray light, and no lantern answers.
“I search the tollhouse for the hidden voice”
SUCCESS (Fair Perception, rolled +1)
Elianor searches the abandoned tollhouse methodically, testing warped boards with the ashwood spear and following the faintest draft beneath the dust.
Elianor Vale
The draft rises from beneath the tollhouse floor.
Behind a fallen counter, she finds a stone hatch concealed beneath loose rushes. Its iron ring is cold, and red script circles the frame.
Elianor lifts the hatch. Stone steps descend into a cramped chamber where black wax candles burn without flame, illuminating a mouth-shaped hollow in the far wall.
The Hidden Voice
You found the throat beneath the crossing. Captain Odran Vey is dead, but his command still serves me.
Celia raises her death-marked blade as she enters behind Elianor. Maurice blocks the stair above, watching the darkness beyond the hollow.
The Hidden Voice
Bring the marked woman closer. Her living gift can open what the dead cannot.