“Might I ask why you-or the commander-picked us?” asked Pharyl. His eyes centered on Quaeryt.
“I asked him for captains who had the most time dealing directly with rankers.” That was certainly true enough, reflected Quaeryt. “I don’t have that kind of day-to-day experience with patrollers … or rankers.”
“What can you tell us, sir, if you don’t mind, before we see these patrollers?” asked Pharyl, wiry and shorter, with jet-black hair.
Hrehn nodded once again.
“Right now there are about half the former patrollers remaining,” Quaeryt began. “Neither the chief nor the captains can be found. According to the patrollers first still in Extela, the one good captain was killed in the ash storm, along with several patrollers. He was trying to help people escape the eruption. The other captain … no one wants to say anything about him. The chief diverted the equivalent of twenty men’s pay into his own wallet, as well as a disproportionate amount of the funds provided for Civic Patrol expenses. No one knows whether he died in the ash storm or scuttled away. The engineers are converting an unused factorage into Civic Patrol headquarters because the old one is buried under the ash and lava. The patrollers first have organized the remaining patrollers into five half-strength patrols. I have my opinions, but I’d like you two to accompany me this morning. After we return, I’d like your thoughts before I make any more decisions.”
The two exchanged glances once more.
“We can do that, sir,” replied Hrehn.
Quaeryt had the sense that both suspected more than mere opinion was likely to be involved, but he wanted to see just how perceptive the two might be. “We might as well get started. We’ll ride over to the patrol station, and if you have any more questions, you can ask them on the way.”
Neither captain said a word more, but followed Quaeryt outside into the courtyard. They’d clearly expected to accompany him, because their mounts were waiting with his, as was a company from First Battalion, led by Undercaptain Sengh.
Only after they were riding up the avenue away from the post did the gray-haired Hrehn ask, “How many patrollers are there now, sir?”
“There were fifty-four yesterday. That includes five patroller firsts. From what they told me, there should have been close to a hundred and sixty patrollers for the entire city, but there were only a few more than a hundred.”
“That doesn’t seem like that many,” observed Pharyl. “Did they just patrol during the day?”
“Two shifts, I’ve been told. Day and night.”
“Fifty men to cover the city,” mused Pharyl. “Were they working in pairs?”
Quaeryt almost said “yes,” except that he realized he’d never asked. “I assumed so, but I didn’t inquire.”
“Most patrols do send out men in pairs, from what I’ve seen,” added Hrehn, “but you never know.”
“Twenty-five teams … What equipment did they have?”
“Truncheons and belt knives … and a small coil of rope. Uniforms, of course.”
“Leather wrist shackles would be better,” offered Pharyl. “Heavy leather’s harder to cut.”
“Why not iron?” asked Quaeryt.
“It’s too heavy, and to equip an entire patrol would take time.”
Quaeryt nodded. That made sense, and he hadn’t even considered it. But then, that was one reason why he’d asked for experienced older officers.
The three reined up outside the patrol station less than a quint before seventh glass, and Quaeryt could see several patrollers walking quickly toward the building.
“They’re the younger ones,” said Pharyl.
The front four windows were now protected by iron grates. Quaeryt wondered where Dhaeryn had found those, since two looked to have come from one source, and two from another. The narrow porch was clean and swept, he noted, as he stepped into the front chamber of the station. The area inside the freshly oiled heavy double doors, now in place and each held open by a square-cut black stone as a doorstop, looked completed, with a long desk counter some five yards back from the doors. The wall behind the counter had a single solid door. Looking closely, Quaeryt could see that the engineers and those locals that they had hired had joined sections of wood of differing sizes and grains, but the workmanship and the dark oil stain minimized the contrasts.
The waiting patrollers stood in five loose formations-their patrols. None stiffened as Quaeryt walked in, followed by the captains, but all conversation stopped. The receiving room was so quiet that Quaeryt could hear the unevenness of his own bootsteps as he walked to a point just before the middle of the counter and turned to face the patrollers. Hrehn took a position to his left, Pharyl to his right.
After a moment, Jaramyr stepped forward. He glanced from Quaeryt to Hrehn and then to Pharyl, his eyes taking in the Telaryn uniforms before he looked back to the governor. “Sir, all men are present. We also have three former patrollers who would like to rejoin the patrol. They were staying with relatives in nearby towns. Word was slow to reach them.”
“Thank you for the report. You and the other patrollers first talk to them and tell me what you think tomorrow morning. Have them report tomorrow, and we’ll let them know then. Oh … and everyone will be paid next Vendrei, and every Vendrei after that.” Quaeryt paused, then went on. “I’ve asked Captain Hrehn and Captain Pharyl to accompany me today. After we inspect the progress of the building, we’ll be meeting with each patrol and its patroller first separately. After we meet with each patrol and go over the patrol routes, I’ll be dispatching each one to cover those routes and familiarize each man with the entire route the patrol will be responsible for. Pass that word to the other patrollers first.”
“Yes, sir.”
As Jaramyr turned, Quaeryt could sense the quick exchange between the two captains, but only said, “Let’s see how the engineers are doing on the back area.”
The door behind the receiving counter opened easily onto a short hallway. As in the walls of the receiving chamber, various sizes and lengths of wood planks smoothly joined and strained comprised the hallway walls. On the right side were three doors, one into a modest study, and two into small studies. Each had a table desk and a single chair. On the left was a single larger chamber, empty of all furnishings. The hallway ended at a cross corridor. There, Quaeryt stopped and looked in both directions at the doorways set at even intervals across the back of the building. The stone and brickwork looked complete on less than half the cells. From what he could tell there were eighteen, nine in the front and nine behind them.
Major Dhaeryn hurried along the cross corridor, coming to a stop before Quaeryt. “Sir … I’d hoped to see you here. Major Heireg and I will be leaving as soon as he arrives to go meet with High Holder Thysor’s timbermaster.”
“Good. Just make sure you get the basis for his costs. He should be fair. How are we coming here?”
“We could only work in eighteen cells. Each should fit two men.”
“That will have to do, then,” replied Quaeryt with a smile. The smile faded as he recalled that he didn’t have a justicer or even a justice hall, because the old justice hall had been on the south side of the old governor’s square. “We may have to use the larger room back there for a justicing hall for a while.”
“I’d thought that might be necessary. The men are working on a small dais that can be put at one end.”
“Thank you.” Once again, Quaeryt felt as though he’d plunged into water over his head and had been rescued by the competence of others. “How are the cells coming?”
“By Lundi we should have maybe half of them solid and tight. Getting the mortar has been the hard part, but you don’t want a cell with anything but brick and stone walls.”
“Don’t let me keep you, Major. You need to work out the timbers and heavy planks for the bridge.”
“Yes, sir. By your leave…”
“Go…” Quaeryt smiled warmly and gestured.
Then he crossed the hall and looked into the nearest cell, one that appeared nearly finished. The cell was roughly three yards deep and two and a half wide. The walls were a mixture of stone and brick, and there were two small openings high in the wall, one in front and one in the rear, and two smaller ones also in front and back, level with the stone floor on which the cells had been constructed.
“Not too small,” murmured Pharyl.
“Wouldn’t want to spend much time there,” added Hrehn.
“This won’t serve the city for that long, sir,” said Pharyl.
