Colette's Covenant

Seeing the Answer

He started walking down, going over his schedule for the day. He had to deal with one of the dissenters that had made some trouble on shift yesterday and nearly burnt down the kitchen with his purposeful/genuine stupidity. Firmin wouldn't tolerate their stupidity if it was actually causing damage. He was considering whipping the young man that had done it and probably making the others watch so they too would learn.

As he neared the base of the hill, however, he saw the soldiers that were supposed to be patrolling the hills gathered together and whispering. They should have already been at work doing their rounds and not one of them was.

Firmin knew that they knew better than to slack off, so he figured immediately that something had gone wrong. He also knew that it couldn't be acutely serious or they would have come and reported it to him.

That they were just standing around whispering about it must have meant that they were simply confused. Which Firmin didn't like. Things that confused his troop were usually things that were unexpected, and he did not appreciate the unexpected.

As he got in closer, he didn't need to say a word. One soldier saw him then immediately jumped back, spine straight, at the ready position. Seeing his movement was enough to make the others do the same, all of them turning to face him even before they saw him. They were well trained in that regard because Firmin would not accept anything less.

He didn't need to ask what was going on either. The man on the end stepped forward without being verbally prompted to deliver his report.

"Sir," he bowed his head formally, "it's the strangest thing, sir. The town, it appears to be empty."

Firmin's eyebrow rose curiously.

The man cleared his throat. "What I mean to say is, we went to retrieve the ship workers for the day and give the assignments to the others, but when we began knocking on doors, no one answered. So, we busted them down and the houses were all empty."

"Did you check the businesses?"

"All closed down and locked as we left them."

Firmin stared and the man paled.

"N-Not that we didn't check despite the locks, sir. We even looked into the basement rooms that we could find. We found evidence of people having been living there recently, but all of them had been cleared out. The beds were all made and untouched. We don't think anyone even went to sleep last night, sir."

Firmin frowned, thinking quickly. "Did you check the mountain tunnels?"

The man looked to his comrades as though asking them why they hadn't thought of that. Firmin just continued to stare until the man hastened to assure him.

"I-I'll get right on it myself, sir. But, I thought that the cave entrances were all being guarded, and all the tunnels patrolled."

"We do not know every tunnel or entrance, only the ones that have been shown to us." The explanation was cold and expressionless, but the man paled again as though Firmin had threatened his life.

He might as well have. Two mistakes in a row. He hadn't considered the caves as an option to check, and he hadn't considered the obvious answer that they wouldn't know said caves as well as the natives to be able to guard them effectively. Retribution would be forthcoming.

Firmin nodded to two other men in the line, ordering them without a word to go check the caves. He then told the remainder to report their findings to the captains. The young man that had made two mistakes, he ignored.

He rather wished the general would have yelled.

Firmin turned to walk across the single remaining land bridge to return to his ship. All the while, he was frowning as he tried to think of what had changed.