The Toll-Books of Hewngate

aka the honest accounts, the take

The keep's true accounting, kept fair to the copper: what the chain takes, what it pays out — and a standing line of coin and grain sent up the castle road to a post the clerk was never told the purpose of.

HEWNGATE — RECEIPTS AND DISBURSEMENTS, kept true by the captain's order. TAKEN: toll at the chain, ransom on the roll, cargo unransomed and fenced (see the loose chits). PAID OUT: Wages, the garrison — weekly, in full. He pays them to the copper; it is why they stay. The clerk — kept, not paid. See below. STANDING: up the castle road, to the Foldfast post — a share of every take, and grain, and once a month a cart the captain loads himself and tells no one the contents of. Marginal hand, the clerk's, tight against the edge: "I balance this book because Coldhand demands it balance, and I have learned there is a mercy in a true number. But the Foldfast line does not balance for me. He sends more up that road than the post could eat or spend. He takes a fair toll on a stolen road to feed something further up it — and whatever that is, it is the reason for all of this, and I do not know its name."

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