Captain Bangion’s office in Tham Pethgyl, the Hall of Errands, was a narrow chamber of pale stone with a single window looking down toward the smoke-hazed streets of the Worker’s Tier. Maps hung on the walls, pricked by pins and colored threads tracing the riders’ routes across Gondor. Scrolls and sealed packets lay in ordered stacks upon a heavy oak desk. There was a smell of wax and ink in the air and the sound of steady scratch of quills coming from the adjoining scriptorium.
Lieutenant Cothon cleared his throat.
”Gwathron and Nadhorion finally got lucky, Captain”, he said. ”They heard someone moving behind the wall and realized someone else was eavesdropping on the woman besides them. They reported it to me two hours ago. They asked permission to break the wall to see what’s on the other side.”
”Storm take them!” exclaimed Bangion, the Captain of Tidings of Minas Tirith. ”I thought Gwathron and Nadhorion were specifically chosen to the task because they are fools who could not find their own asses with two hands and a map! This is not good news!”
”Even fools can get lucky on occasion. I sent them to Pelargir.”
”Why?”
”To get them out of the way. If Delioron is there, it will be safer for us to let them take care of him there before he figures out the letters he has been receiving in the messenger station are not from Parthadan at all.”
Bangion was silent for a while. Because Delioron had used the messenger station in Pelargir to contact Parthadan, all his letters had gone through Tham Pethgyl. None of Delioron’s letters had ever reached Parthadan’s hands, and all the replies he had received in the messenger station had been carefully forged by a scribe who could mimic Parthadan’s handwriting. Bangion had personally dictated the letters.
”It is extremely important that Parthadan and Denethor will not learn about Fangnir’s involvement with the business of Haradrim slaves”, he stressed. ”I do not like it that Delioron is getting so close to the truth.”
For the past half a year Captain Bangion had helped Parthadan protect this man Delioron and his woman, both of whom had been marked for assassination by Sauron’s agents in Gondor, but Bangion had not been personally interested in Delioron before he had seen the letters the man had sent to Parthadan – letters naming Fangnir and the Haradrim spy ring. Suddenly Delioron had become very dangerous for Bangion’s schemes.
”It would be better if the Haradrim spy ring in Pelargir took care of Delioron”, Bangion said cautiously. ”Gwathron and Nadhorion can help them clean up the mess, but I would prefer it if they kept their distance from him.”
”Of course”, Cothon said. ”They haven’t left yet so I can debrief them. Do you want me to get a replacement for Gwathron and Nadhorion? To eavesdrop the woman, I mean?”
”Don’t bother. The Withered Tree has has done much better job at it than those two fools ever did, and ever since Mudon located their secret meeting place in the Cisterns we have gotten better reports on her simply by listening in on the discussions between the Sapmaster and the Seedwarden. Turns out Gwathron and Nadhorion spent half their time chugging down ales in The Thirsty Seer anyway – those lazy fools! The quality of men you get these days.”
”Aye, Captain.”
