Page 63 of War Bound

As the door shut behind them and her eyes adjusted to the shade inside, movement drew her gaze. Next to her Farrendel stiffened, though the crackle of his magic didn’t fill the air.

“Essie. Farrendel. I’m glad you’ve returned.” Averett’s voice came from the doorway to the parlor. His tone was low. Serious.

“Did you hear about the attack in the streets? It was scary, but Farrendel stopped the bullet. And I didn’t think we’d caused too much of an incident for the royal image.” Essie tightened her grip on Farrendel’s hand. She didn’t want to think about what might have happened if Farrendel hadn’t been quick enough to incinerate the bullet.

“What about an attack? This is the first I’ve heard of it.” Averett glanced between her and Farrendel. “I take it no one was hurt?”

“We’re fine.” Essie shrugged. “A mob gathered, and a protestor shot at Farrendel.”

“I see.” Averett’s tone said he was making a mental note to follow up with the palace guards for more details. “I’m here for something else.”

That couldn’t be good. Essie gestured to the parlor behind Averett with her free hand. “Is this a sit-down type of discussion?”

“Probably.” Averett led the way back into the parlor. Inside the room, both Edmund and Julien lounged on the padded chairs.

This definitely wasn’t good if all three of her brothers were waiting for them.

Essie sank onto a seat on the couch, leaving enough space for Farrendel to claim a seat next to her. He did, but slowly, as if he would have preferred the floor. Essie glanced between each of her brothers before focusing on Averett. “What’s going on? Why do I feel like you’re about to interrogate us?”

“Nothing like that.” Averett dropped into a seat facing them. “General Freilan completed his audit of the army’s records and inventory of all bases and warehouses. Julien and I have gone over all the reports and agree with his findings. The main army base and warehouse showed they had far fewer rifles, ammunition, and repeater guns than they should according to the paperwork.”

“So someone in the army is the traitor.” Essie’s stomach tightened. “But how would someone manage to sneak that many weapons off one of the most secure places in all of Escarland? That base has better security than we have at Winstead Palace.”

Her brothers all stared back at her, far too serious.

“We don’t know yet.” Julien rubbed the back of his neck. “You’re right. It wouldn’t be feasible for someone, even with a lot of help, to steal weapons to this scale. General Freilan believes the only way this could have happened is if those weapons never reached the army in the first place.”

“He is investigating if someone at the army’s warehouse has been helping to fudge the paperwork to cover up the missing weapons.” Averett leaned his elbows on his knees. “Either way, that traitor or traitors in the army aren’t the ones behind all of this. The real traitor is the person at the factory who is routing the weapons to Kostaria instead of the army.”

Essie’s stomach twisted. Those weapons had been meant for Escarland’s army. That meant Escarland’s people had paid for them through taxes. And instead of dealing honestly, this traitor had sold them to Kostaria, greedily getting paid twice for the same weapons. “Which factory? Do you know?”

“As we suspected, the missing weapons are all from the factories owned by Charles Hadley.” Julien slouched in his seat. “But, besides the fact that he hates elves and the missing weapons came from his factory, we don’t have any evidence to convict him specifically as the traitor. I interviewed him again this afternoon at his factory. He still flatly denies any involvement.”

“While he was shouting at Julien, I took advantage of the distraction and snooped through the books.” Edmund’s smirk was short-lived. “The books appeared to be all in order, as if those weapons had been delivered to the army as promised.”

“Could the weapons have been stolen en route?” Essie glanced between her brothers. Beside her, Farrendel was stiff and far too silent. He was fully Laesornysh as he absorbed this news. “Maybe when the train stopped for coal and water, the traitors could quickly slip some of the weapons off without anyone noticing.”

“We thought of that. There have been no reports of train robberies, and unless the conductor is part of this gang of traitors, I would highly doubt the traitors could get away with that method on this scale.” Averett shook his head. “Besides, Charles Hadley doesn’t ship the weapons on the regular cargo trains. He purchased three trains of his own five years ago. Being able to ship via secured trains that carried nothing but the weapons for the army was one of the things that gained him the army contract in the first place. Last year, he upgraded all three trains to run fully on magical devices so that they don’t have to stop.”

“So it has to be specifically delivered to the border for the trolls straight from the factory.” Essie grimaced. She wanted to reach for Farrendel’s hand, but he was far too stiff and cold at that moment. “I don’t see how Charles Hadley can be anything but involved.”

“It gets worse.” Edmund’s voice dropped into a tone grimmer than she had ever heard from him. “There was something off about how many weapons the books are saying were produced versus the amount of raw materials that they have been ordering. If I were to guess, that factory has been producing far more weapons than the records show. If those weapons aren’t being sold to the Escarlish army, then, my guess is, they have been sold to the trolls. The traitors probably only started skimming from the army weapons recently, once the demand from Kostaria grew higher than what they could produce on the side.”

“How many?” Farrendel’s voice was tight.

“We don’t have an exact figure.” Averett met Farrendel’s gaze without flinching. “But, a lot. Enough to outfit a moderately-sized army, at the very least.”

That was very, very bad. It meant this had been going on far longer and on a greater scale than it had first appeared.

The trolls didn’t have just a few Escarlish weapons. They had enough to wipe out Tarenhiel even with Farrendel’s magic fighting against them. He had been brought down with a single repeater gun. What would happen if he faced several all at once?

He’d die. That’s what would happen.

“Isn’t there anything we can do? Surely this is enough reason to help Tarenhiel against Kostaria?” Essie’s chest tightened, all of her aching with the pain of what might happen to Farrendel, to her new elven family, to the home in Estyra she’d come to love.

“Until I can prove that Kostaria had an active part in this, I can’t declare war on them. As far as Parliament will be concerned, this is a matter of traitors inside Escarland and nothing more. But if we can find the true books or get a confession that shows concretely that Kostaria has been actively seeking Escarlish weapons and aiding the Escarlish traitors, I might be able to make a case for more active help. Maybe.”

“But these are our weapons. Tarenhiel is in danger because of traitors in our kingdom giving the trolls our weapons. Isn’t there something we can do to make this right?” It felt all kinds of wrong that they were this helpless. Averett was the king. Surely there was something he could do.

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