It had already been two days since they hadn’t seen anyone coming or going on the road. This wasn’t all that odd by itself as in the middle of their second week they had three days where nobody else approached them. The difference now was that they were within half a day's journey of a rather big city and having nobody traveling in their direction meant one of two things.

First something happened in the direction they are coming from and nobody wants to go there. This is very unlikely to be the case as they hadn’t noticed anything amiss. The second option is that something happened up ahead that stopped people from coming this way and it was the most likely of the two.

Far in the horizon the silhouette of the impressive wall surrounding Lordin could be seen atop the hill even through the foliage they were surrounded by. The city wasn’t fully contained inside the massive walls as Lordin was also a keep but the surrounding city and smaller walls were blocked from sight by the trees.

Despite being a forest road, this was an official road and the caravan easily spread to moving their carts in double coulombs and still only took up half the road. As the trees were about to give way a small contingent of guards appeared blocking the path.

“Halt” the one marked with the rank of captain shouted.

Being part of the same kingdom, all city guards shared the same command structure, with basic guards, sargets, captains, majors, commanders and finally a warden overseeing each city. It was odd to see a captain leading only two squads outside the gates of the city, not only that but the state of their armor left quite a bit to be desired.

“Start getting your armor on.” Hatchet whispered to him.

As the cart they both traveled on was towards the end of the caravan they were out of sight and Ajax started tightening the straps of his gear without questioning Hatchet.

“What is going on?” he whispered back after he was fully equipped and had both his hammer and axe ready. His sword would be the least effective against the heavy armor of the group stopping them so he went with the other weapons.

“Something isn’t right.” Hatchet answered “ They have too few men for a captain to be present, not only that but their gear is a little uncared for them to be guards.”

As Ajax was getting ready and discussed things with Hatchet the group blocking their path wasn’t sitting still. The leader was talking to the head of the convoy as well as Jones at the front but the rest of the men started surrounding the caravan.

“Be careful and stand ready.” one of the caravan guards who wasn’t part of the Collectors called out from behind Ajax.

The shout put everyone on edge as weapons were pulled out of their sheaths and combat stances were taken while most of the merchants huddled towards the middle. Ajax wanted to pull out his bow but wasn’t comfortable leaving Hatchet to fend for himself with just one arm so he put himself between him and the closest surrounding guard with axe and hammer in hand.

The guards also drew their weapons at the shout, but surprisingly they backed away slightly instead of swarming them with the element of surprise. The guard standing a few feet from Hatchet took one look at Ajax and his eyebrows made a break for his hairline as his eyes threatened to pop out.

“What’s happened?” Jones shouted from the front as he pulled the convoy head back and placed himself between him and the man dressed as a captain.

“They’re inspecting us with some skill.” The veteran guard shouted back and this made all the caravan defenders take a stronger defensive formation as well as putting them on edge.

“We have a three bar here.” the man closest to Ajax called out as all the guards close to them backed up further and took a glance towards him.

Ajax knew exactly what that meant. It was code for someone that needed to be handled by a captain. He knew this because his brother was part of the guards and he taught him most of the codes while he lived with him. But this begged the question, if they really were guards, what were they doing?”

“Everyone stand down.” The voice of the captain wasn’t loud but it carried clearly all the way from the front to the back of the caravan, doubtless a skill was involved. “I am captain Dorian Grasswealth from the city of Lordin. We mean no harm to anyone and are here only to ensure that the caravan stops at the gates of Lordin.”

With that statement he unstrapped the sword from his side and handed it off to one of the guards near him before approaching Jones and the head of the convoy once more with his hands slightly raised in a placating gesture. Ajax took this time to quickly start firing off [Judge Threat] at the surrounding guards.

Most of them came back as a low threat. Ajax judged them to be somewhere in the low forties, the one exception was the man marked as a sergeant whom he judged to be in the low fifties. The sergeant also frowned and locked eyes with Ajax a moment after he used his skill on him, letting Ajax know that his actions were noticed.

“Let's head up there. See what is happening” Hatchet said as he placed his arm on Ajax’s shoulder. This broke the stare down between him and the sergeant and the two headed up to where Jones was.

“... just here to ensure nobody is taking a detour.” the captain was saying. “You also won’t be able to enter the city.”

“What, that makes no sense.” the caravan leader said but both Jones and Hatchet frowned at the words.

“The city is under quarantine.” the captain continued. “Nobody is allowed to enter or leave. That being said, we are in need of supplies as such you will be stopping at a safe distance from the gates where you will be uploading some of your wares.”

“Oh no I will not.” One of the merchants that had gathered some courage to step away from the huddle in the middle all but shouted from behind Ajax as he heard the conversation.

“Here is an order signed by Duke Axebane. It is by his authority that provisions be appropriated from merchants, all inventory is to be recorded and compensation for it can be collected either in the capital or any other city in his territory." The captain produced a scroll filled with small print and a large emblem at the bottom.

Ajax recognised the sigil of house Axebane from his studies of the map during the journey.

“Lead on captain.” Jones spoke up before anyone else could say anything after he took a quick glance at the document. “ Everyone get moving, we are to stop a little outside the gates of the city.”

“That is not your decision to make.” the caravan leader growled at him.

“It very much is.” Jones answered in a cold tone. “Should you or the other merchants decide not to follow my advice, and that is what it is, advice, then you shall do so by yourselves. We were hired to protect you from bandits and beast not fight a lawful order.”

Ajax had no idea what the big issue was. From his perspective everything was odd but not so much as to prompt this response from the merchants. Nevertheless that was not his issue as Hatchet led him back towards their cart.

Their driver was one of the first to move as he exited the formation and headed to the front of the caravan as the rest of the carts slowly started moving. A few minutes later they were all stopped outside the gates.

Looking inside through the gates Ajax saw all the way down one of the main streets of the city. It looked like a ghost town with nobody walking in the street despite it being almost evening, a time when most got off work and headed for the tavern.

“Unload your food and drink.” A guard said as he approached the cart noticing that Ajax, Hatchet, nor anyone else was taking things off their cart.

“We are not merchants” Hatchet answered back. “We are simply traveling with the caravan.”

“Your employer can resupply further down the road adventurer.” The guard moved forward aggressively only to find himself pulled back by his partner whose eyes were locked on Ajax and the hand he rested on the hammer's handle.

Ajax wasn’t even following the conversation, he trusted Hatchet’s judgment in this situation. Instead he kept his eyes on the guards and was ready to engage at a moment's notice should the situation turn violent.