Chapter 50: Sniff Around
The thing about a labour levy, Encrid learned, was that nobody ever asked where it went, and it was especially true at the Wall.
Thirty-six men and one woman had come through the gate along with his party - the gatekeeper had entered them in the great ledger, sorted them by ability, and sent them out.
After that, they belonged to the Wall.
No officer tracked them as a group, no ledger held them on one page.
Within a month, Encrid could not have said where more than six of them were.
Or at least that is how it should have been, but instead - Encrid had started to receive reports.
Volk stood near Encrid’s quarters, with mud to his knees.
It was from him that Encrid had known where his labour levy was.
Volk himself and the strong men were assigned to the works, where they hauled stone. The far-watch took Fennick within a week, even when he was initially at Works- it seems like the men there recognized a good scout almost immediately.
Tobb carried timber.
Within a few days, he was carrying it for whichever group was falling behind. He couldn’t stand watching someone struggle when he could help. It was a wonder how a man as kind as himself had been a bandit.
’Truly a mystery.’
Merta was sought after by several groups for her skills and knowledge. But Vess won the argument at last.
Encrid had already received that news a week back. And now, Volk was here with new news.
"Young master."
He had never stopped calling Encrid that. Encrid had told him that no such titles mattered at the Wall, but the man wouldn’t listen - so he had stopped correcting him.
"The Works are being pulled off from the western re-facing."
The words made Encrid stop his train of thought.
"They’re doing what? The Works are booked through spring. I signed the schedule myself?"
"You might have signed the schedule," Volk agreed. "But we’re not doing it. It’s already the third day now. The whole gang’s been moved onto stake-lines at the fifteenth mile, and the watch commander is writing it up as re-facing so the papers stay quiet." He shrugged. "Thought you’d want to know. You’re the one who has to make the timber add up at the end of it."
Encrid sat back slowly.
That morning’s report, on his own desk, said the fifteenth mile was quiet and needed nothing.
’Is the watch commander deceiving the Lord Commander? Why would he need so many extra stakes?’ Encrid thought.
"Volk, how did you find out?"
"I’m on the gang," he said, as if this were obvious, which it was.
’Right!’
Volk was reporting on the location of all his subordinates every week. Based on that, the men had been distributed into far more diverse work than he had expected.
He sat at the desk with a clean sheet of paper and wrote out all thirty-seven names and beside each one, where they were now.
Works: fifteen, across three gangs.
Far-Watch: One. Fennick - he had recently gone out past the stakes and came back - becoming very quiet ever since. Maybe he had seen something that nobody inside the Wall could know.
Timber: Four, including Tobb, who moved between details and was welcome everywhere because he lifted the heavy end.
Kitchens: three.
Lamwrights: Two. Which meant two men who climbed the masts and could see the whole length of the Wall from the top of them.
Drain Watch: Two
Stone-cutting: Five.
Stables and drays: Four. Which meant four men who met every wagon that crossed the span.
Quartermastery: Merta, who now knew what every branch on the Wall was drawing, and when it had started drawing more.
Jin stared at the list for a long time.
’I bought thirty-seven pairs of eyes off a bandit chief for the price of not hanging him,’ he thought. ’And now I have one in every room in the building.’
It was not a spy network.
And they were definitely not loyal to Encrid.
Even now, he knew Volk was only going out of his way to give reports to Encrid because he wanted to stick with him.
Volk was no fool - if he was, then he would have long been dead along the Estren Ridge.
He knew that the Wall posting was not permanent for Encrid.
He was a noble, moreover - son of the Overlord of North - Duke Aegis Von Gannon. He would soon be pulled off the Wall and put into any small territory to man it at the very least.
Volk’s idea was exactly to stick to Encrid when that happens.
He had realized that escaping the Wall by himself was nearly impossible, and even if he somehow did - what life awaited him on the other side of the Darwen span? Nothing.
So he decided to make a bet on the scoundrel of the North.
But that didn’t matter to Encrid.
Whatever reason Volk may have - for now, he possessed a network. Encrid knew how to build on that because his old job had been almost entirely about getting information out of people who had no reason to give it to him.
He started small, and he started honest, because honest things last longer.
He did not ask Volk for reasons or his secrets, he just heard whatever Volk told.
It cost Encrid nothing but attention.
Within a month, he had now started to receive reports from more of the levy men - who almost invented reasons to walk to the third office.
Merta, however, looked at Encrid and said something that made him think.
"Do you know what you’ve built, young master?"
"An information network?"
"A nose." She licked her thumb and turned the page. "I’m not saying that as an insult, my lord. I’m telling you to understand what you’ve got. A man who doesn’t know he has a nose only notices a smell when it reaches him."
Encrid didn’t understand her immediately.
She tapped the page.
"Sniff around. Don’t wait for the smell to reach you."
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