Jerverm let the silence sit for a dozen steps. "Whatever you believe, the Great Wall has broken and the Guard broke with it. They conscripted half for the front. Maybe ten came home." His voice frayed; he pulled it taut. "That leaves the rest of us running double, triple watches. The raise looks fine on parchment, but I can't spend coins I'm too tired to count. This is my fortieth hour awake."
We walked on. The silos loomed higher at the far end of the yard where the inner curtain of the wall threw a gray shoulder over the complex. A lone sentry paced the parapet toward the corner guardhouse, a dark line against weathered stone.
"Here." Jerverm said at last, stopping before the final silo in the row, "The outbreak was here, two days past."
The smell met us first: roasted grain, wet ash, the sour iron of fear sweat ground into linen. On the silo's flank, a black lipped hole opened low to the ground, the stone spilled outward and glazed like slumped glass.
"Stars above," Annalise murmured, crouching. "How big were these 'bugs'?"
"Twice normal," Jerverm said, hating the words. "We've seen firebugs in bad summers. These weren't that."
"And nobody caught them before the storage?" I asked, tracing the slag's flow with my eyes.
"That's why you lot are here." He snapped, the frustration turned outward to avoid turning inward. "There's inspection in the field, inspection at the gate, and eyes on it when it pours into the silo. We're not fools."
"That's a lot." Annalise said, straightening.
"It has to be," Jerverm replied, "Balu's children crawl through every crack. Food is the last thing you gamble with. The expense is why Puddilock's respected throughout Wolvsbane."
"Any sign of infestation at any stage?" I pressed.
"No." His answer came quick. "This silo was one of the last to be filled, a little under a fortnight ago. For adults that size to erupt and chew their way out here, they'd have been near house cat size going in."
"Which someone would have noticed." Annalise said.
"We would have," Jerverm agreed, "Quillan and Reckon were on watch." He hesitated, scanned the parapet, and lowered his voice. "All right. You didn't hear what I'm about to say."
"Done." Annalise and I said together.
"There's something off." He glanced left, then right, as if the stone had ears. "Reckon vanished two weeks ago. Didn't show for four days. He was never late in his life. Hells, it was one of his policies to arrive early. Said he was sick when he came back. That he was just at home. But…" His mouth tightened. "I grew up with him. When he missed day one, I went by. House was empty. Breakfast on the table, bread still soft. Like he stood to tie his boots and never finished the knot."
He rubbed at the bridge of his nose, words spilling faster now that they had somewhere to go. "I checked daily. No change. On day four he walks in to work and smiles like we're meeting for the first time. He knew the stories, the hunts, the trout bigger than our heads we caught as kids - but he knew them like he'd studied them overnight. Digging, not remembering."
"I went over every day. Never home, nothing changed. When he got back to work on the fourth day. He was different. His fucking smile wasn't right. We knew each other for years, and he acted like we were meeting for the gods damn first time."
"What do you mean, digging?" I asked.
"He didn't know his daughter's name," Jerverm said flatly. "Reckon, who spoke of that brat everyday till all our ears fell off. Reckon, who wrote a song at her first steps. Reckon, who brought his daughter to work on his days off. Stared into the air a full minute to find her name."
"Hells," Annalise whispered.
Bootsteps clinked above. Jerverm's spine snapped straight, and he raised his voice for the benefit of passing ears. "and that's when the firebugs boiled out, but we put them down right quick. Reckon got the worst of it, poor sod, but he'll sleep it off. Captain gave him a potion, so he's just on paid time off."
The sentry passed. Jerverm exhaled through his teeth.
"Is it just Reckon?" I asked, keeping my voice low.
"No. At minimum a handful, maybe more. Good men. Vanish one day and return all wrong the next. We just thought it was a sickness. It seemed too damned near to spread. Friends who visit them 'fall sick' the next day, go missing, and come back with their smiles on crooked. By all the damned gods this isn't some sickness. It feels like something is wearing Reckons gods damn skin."
He took a breath and calmed himself "I separated myself as far from him as possible. At first it was okay, then he came over to my house at midnight. Asking to come in and have a chat. I hid as he continued to knock. An entire hour passed before it stopped. I moved houses without telling anyone, and nothing has happened since."
Jerverm's gaze slid toward the corner tower. "Quillan threw a fit the day the silo was filled. Said something was wrong with grain. Other guards rechecked it and marked it clear. Quillan was so adamant he raised hell to the Captain. The next morning Quillan didn't show."
"Is he back?" I asked.
"Yes. He got back today. He's in that guardhouse," Jerverm pointed up at the corner of the wall. "On break."