Without sign or warning the fort’s doors opened. Cornet Pitzmun stood there alone, small in that frame, small in the rain. If she was War, the second of the horsemen, she was much diminished in this place.

‘Inspector,’ she said by way of greeting. She looked haggard, with none of her previous enthusiasm or joviality. She was so changed I wondered if I’d been in Drekenford for years, rather than days. I didn’t know what to say to the woman, so we proceeded to the main building in silence.

The colonel was, to my surprise, not reading a Romance when I entered his office. Instead, he was hunched over his desk consulting a number of different maps. He was squinting despite how well-lit the room was; poor eyesight being a hazard of habitual reading. I often struggled with the finer parts of maps myself.

When Cornet Pitzmun failed to announce me, I cleared my throat politely. The colonel didn’t look up. Once again, I waited – though at least this time I was out of the rain.

Eventually, the colonel slumped back awkwardly in his chair and waved me forward.

‘Inspector Morden. Still here, I see.’

‘Yes, sir,’ I said, remembering the colonel’s odd approach to questions. ‘I’m relieved to be able to say the same for you and your dragoons.’

‘Are you now?’ He suddenly stared intensely at me.

‘The pox, sir,’ I said.

‘Yes… Those were a dark few days.’

‘It’s gone?’

‘Along with a quarter of our number.’

‘A fourth,’ I said softly, glancing to Cornet Pitzmun. The woman remained standing to attention.

‘What brings you here, Inspector?’ the colonel said.

‘My investigation,’ I said. ‘For a case such as this I need to understand every aspect of the town, of the community.’

‘And you believe Fort Seeben is part of that community?’

‘Don’t you?’

‘No,’ the colonel said.

‘But soldiers do visit the town, correct?’

‘Not presently, for obvious reasons, but yes. In the past officers have been granted leave to spend an evening as they wish. I understand some chose to do so in Drekenford, though I have always discouraged it.’

‘Why is that?’

He sighed, as a parent might when asked by a child why the wind blows, why leaves fall from trees, or why they can’t remember everything their brother or sister does.

‘This southern border is about to become a site of conflict.’

‘I have heard of the second regiment,’ I said, ‘that is to arrive at the end of the month.’

‘And badly needed they are too. How long this campaign will last, I cannot say, and I doubt the King himself knows. Nor does he, in his infinite wisdom, know what resistance the southern tribes will really present. Perhaps the town of Drekenford will be spared. Perhaps not. It is a mark on a strategic map; that is how my officers must view it.’

‘I assumed the majority of the fighting would take place far from here,’ I said. ‘Drekenford is just a staging post, is it not?’