The smell of burned wax filled the room of the Watch House in Combe. It was so persistent, as if someone would have set fire to the whole Archive Stair quarters in Bree. Sergeant-at-Arms Saphrax wiped off a tear and stood up, cursing in both two languages that he knew. He turned around to see one of the clerks lighting another candle in his corner.
"Oi, kid! Put that out or crack the bloody door open, damn yer eyes!" shouted Saphrax, taking a menacing step forward. That always worked with youngsters, he thought.
The Sergeant didn't have time to see if the clerk followed his command or not. The door of the office opened with a crrrannnk, and in came a creature made of dust from head to toes. It rushed to Saphrax and once in front of him, started to dust itself off, mumbling and groaning. After some good minutes, from the coat of dust - now piled on the floor into neatly arranged.. piles - emerged recruit Bannister, one of the newer additions to the Watch.
“Sergeant-at-arms Saphrax,” he gasped, “I bring ill news!”and he froze in a posture straight as an arrow’s shaft.
“Ill news, ehm? Splendid.. Spit them out, you lousy mongrel!” barked Saphrax at the recruit, furrowing a brow. Bannister started to melt under the old soldier’s glare.
“Sarge… we’ve got ourselves a m-… a mass desertion within the ranks, ser.” Bannister shivered as he waited until the full impact of his words reached Saphrax. The sergeant’s hand was grasping the hilt of his axe so hard, the knuckles were white.
“Who are those sons of a thousand fathers?! Names!” he growled. Bannister took a step back. Saphrax reached out and grabbed him by the collar. “Names..” he whispered in the recruit’s ear.
“Chief Watcher Kamoba, sir. Recruits Brendmor, Foxwin, Prideth, Alewood and a few others I don’t know. ”
Silence fell as a curtain. You could hear a needle falling in the other room of the Watch House. The Sergeant-at-arms let Ban go.
When he spoke, Saphrax’s voice was hollow and broken, as if someone was talking through a brass pipe.
“Any idea why?”
“No, ser,” answered Bannister, happy to be released from the iron grip. “Someone in Combe told me that chief watch-… the man named Kamoba had received a letter from Captain Sagramore just before he threw his helmet in a window and smashed it. Then they say he threw down his uniform and was joined in this by recruits Brendmor, Foxwin and Alewood. Kept saying something how he was done leading the Watch because he didn’t have enough power.. ”
Saphrax frowned more and more as he heard the recruit’s words. He almost whispered..
“Desertion.. incitement to rebel.. And smashing a window?! With an issued helmet of the Watch?! The man has gone mad! Not enough power?! What the bloody hell!” Saphrax smashed his fist on the table.
“Bannister! What was written in that letter of capt’n Sagramore?”
“I got one too, ser. Said somfin about following the rules and not getting involved where it’s not our business, ser.” Bannister shrugged, a step closer to the door. He was now halfway away from Saphrax.
“Mhm, that fiend of a captain, Sagramore.. Ill tempered, soft as a cushion and lurking with the shadows..” mumbled Saphrax. “Master Bannister, we have work to do, you and me”, he said in a loud, booming voice. “Saddle yer horse, we have a meeting with capt’n Sagramore. Get yer sword, too.”
Later on that evening, Saphrax was sitting at a table full of pergaments, with Bannister in front of him, with a quill and a piece of parchment in front of him.
“Ser? I never heard a man cry so loudly. And I never knew he had so many bad.. sides.. Stealing gold of the watcher’s paycheck?! Murderer! My purse is so happy the mayor sacked him” sniggered Bannister.
“Quiet, recruit, or I’ll send you to sleep in them stables,” huffed Saphrax.
“Ser? Now that you took over the Watch from Se-.. ahem, from Sagramore, what will you do about the men who left?”
“I will give them the chance to come back. New leadership, new times. Write this down.
To William Kamoba, former Chief Watcher of the Combe Town Watch
You have disgraced your word and you have betrayed your oath when you deserted the Watch.
You have rebelled against your rightful commander, to whom you owed allegiance from the moment you signed up with the Watch.
You have failed the faith and the hopes your officers had in you.
You have failed to prove yourself a righteous leader of men, by breaking your word and betraying the oath.
You have led those few who joined you into believing they are out for better life and glory, but they became traitors in the eyes of men.
Beyond this, I give you a chance to repent. Send me word and I will receive it. Bow and ask for forgiveness, and you may join us and perhaps lead us one day.
Signed,
Saphrax Wealdasson, Acting Captain of the Combe Town Watch”
The Captain leaned over the table, read the parchment and asked for the quill to sign it.
„Now run along, lad, deliver this letter to someone who can give it to Kamoba” said Saphrax.
It was well after Bannister had trotted down the path to the Town Crier, when Saphrax sat at the writing table again. He picked the quill and sank its tip in the inkwell.
“Better be prepared for a refusal, anyways. That’s what my father always said..” he smirked, and began writing something on a piece of paper.
“Let there be known far and low across the Bree-lands that the man known by the name Kamoba William, former officer of the Combe Town Watch with the rank of Chief Watcher, is a deserter and an oath-breaker, having left the Watch without approval from his rightful officers. Furthermore, by means of lying and words of power, he has brought about the same sins on the heads of other good men of the Watch.
By order of Acting Captain Saphrax of the Combe Town Watch, the man known as Kamoba is to be arrested on sight and brought to justice in chains. Resisting arrest is an offence punishable by death.
Signed etc etc.”
The soldier looked with pride at his work of art and smirked again. “Just in case we get a No for an answer. And now, for the more shady part..” he said and started writing another letter.
“… you and your organization will be paid the handsome sum of 10.000 silver coins for the head of one William Kamoba, former chief watcher of Combe and quite a thorn in the side of your operations in Combe. Of course, the Watch will provide a certain amount of leniency when confronted with the same operations. Plus….”
Outside, the wind began howling like maddened wolves.
