Read Chapter 22: The Peace That Fed War

News came that kings were negotiating peace.

Men celebrated.

The Concord bought grain.

Martin understood before many others did.

Peace threatened the network's profits. Armies would shrink. Garrisons might be reduced. Emergency contracts would end. Prices could fall.

So the Concord began preparing for disorder after peace.

Disbanded soldiers would become unemployed. Free companies would roam. Lords would need protection. Fields abandoned during war would take years to recover.

Rochefort intended to become indispensable to reconstruction.

“He will sell the cure to the disease he helped prolong,” Ysabeau said.

Matthieu brought worse news.

Documents from Amiens showed that Concord funds were being used to hire several large mercenary bands whose contracts would expire with the truce. Their instructions were disguised as security agreements.

“What for?” Martin asked.

“To guard depots.”

“No one hires five hundred men to guard sacks.”

Rochefort was building an army.

Not to conquer France.

To ensure that postwar trade passed through Concord hands.

Martin's Free Hounds numbered just over two hundred fighters.

The Millers' League could raise village militias, but they were not field soldiers. Towns could close gates, not campaign.

Martin needed proof strong enough to force authorities to act before Rochefort's force assembled.

Greybourne sent word from Calais: one of the Concord's English partners was travelling to Saint-Omer for a council meeting.

Arnaud sent a separate message: Count Rochefort would attend the same meeting.

For the first time, Martin knew when the Concord's inner council would gather.

Saint-Omer was too large to attack.

But the council was not meeting inside the town.

It was meeting at the Abbey of Saint-Bertin's outlying estate, chosen for privacy.

Brother Matthieu stared at the map.

“You want to raid a church estate.”

“I want their records.”

“You will be excommunicated.”

“I have been called worse.”

“I am serious.”

“So am I.”

Matthieu sighed.

“I miss when you were merely stealing grain.”

The plan required cooperation from people who officially considered one another enemies.

Greybourne would block the northern road with English patrols under the pretext of customs enforcement. Arnaud would delay French troops south of the estate. Millers and villagers would watch side paths.

The Free Hounds would enter, seize documents, and leave without harming clergy.

“Simple,” Will Hobb said.

“No,” Martin replied. “If it seems simple, we have missed something.”

He was right.

The something was Marconne.

The nobleman, still held under terms of restitution, asked to speak privately.

“Rochefort expects you,” he said.

“How?”

“Because I would.”

“Is the council a trap?”

“Both council and trap can be true.”

Martin studied him.

“Why warn me?”

Marconne looked toward the window.

“Rochefort has begun purchasing my debts.”

Martin laughed once.

“So now you discover solidarity.”

“No. I discover competition.”

It was the most honest answer Marconne had ever given.

Rumours of peace produced a strange panic at Chainbreak. Soldiers who had survived years of battle feared unemployment more than enemy lances. Wagoners wondered whether trade routes would change. Merchants worried prices would collapse. Widows hoped sons might return and feared they would return maimed.

Martin realised war had become an economy large enough that ending it created casualties of another kind.

Rochefort understood this perfectly. His post-truce plans were not irrational. Roads would need guards. Disbanded men would need wages. Fields would need seed credit. Someone would provide these things.

The danger lay in one alliance providing all of them and setting the terms.

“What would you do in his place?” Matthieu asked.

Martin disliked the question.

“Break the contracts apart. No one controls grain, mills, credit, and armed protection together.”

“Then write that.”

“To whom?”

“To everyone who may need reminding after we are dead.”

The monk's answer led to the first draft of what later became known as the Chainbreak Articles: practical rules for public inventories, competitive milling, limits on armed debt collection, and witnessed supply contracts.

At the time they were only notes beside a map.

But Martin had begun thinking beyond the next convoy.