Annika sat down on the carpeted floor and crossed her legs her pose one of meditation. Ragnar gave her and odd look but she ignored the pagan for the moment. Something was wrong with Engel but something was very wrong in this whole city. The Duke seemed mad and unless the did something very soon there was a very real chance a major Hawkwood city would fall to the Vuldrock, a disaster as humiliating as it was likely to be bloody.

"Engel clearly expects us to do something," she mused, trying to center her mind on the facts she knew. By giving them the map it seemed he wanted them to do something military in nature. Engel might or might not be guilty of what she had seen in Ragnar's mind but the fact she couldn't read him seemed to sophisticated a ruse to have been set up to frame the man.

"The Duke hasn't deployed his soliders," she said at last, "we can start there, at least have armsmen in place when the Vuldrock come."

"The thane said the soldiers couldn't be moved without the Lords permission," Ragnar rumbled.

"All the more reason," Annika retorted.

"Whatever happens after that will give us more information, but at least the city wont be defenseless."