“We can narrow it down,” declared Fisher as he rose and walked to a wall map of Khadora. “We now know the location of the attacks. The ambushers were foolish to allow one of your men to escape.”

“Where was the attack?” asked Marak as he walked to the map.

“At the foot of the Three Sisters Mountains,” Fisher said as he pointed to a spot on the map. “The road is fairly well traveled, but the ambush was timed well. Netura was away from the squad at the time. He was selecting a camping spot for the night. Few travel the road at night, and journeys are normally planned in the mornings, or at least scheduled so that they can be completed by nightfall. Only Imperial troops would travel the road at night. The road was deserted.”

“So they knew the caravan was coming,” nodded Lord Marak. “I suspect they had scouts checking its progress during the day.”

“They may have,” interrupted Lord Marshal Yenga, “but these troops would not be sitting idle at the local estate waiting for your caravans. They would have to know approximately what day the caravan would be passing through the area.”

“But how could they possibly know that?” questioned the lord of the Torak clan. “We do not run our caravans on a schedule. We do not know the day of our departure ourselves until we decide it is leaving.”

“It is possible that they have scouts several days out from the ambush site,” shrugged Yenga.

“More likely,” stated Fisher, “they have someone telling them when a caravan leaves Fardale. That is certainly how I would do it. It would be a simple matter then to know the day that the caravan would pass any particular spot on the route.”

“You understand what you are implying?” inquired Lord Marak.

“That you have a spy in your ranks,” nodded Fisher. “I know that you do not wish to hear such theories, Marak, but that is the most likely of scenarios.”