But the Prince! In his youthful naïveté, he assumed that, while it was beyond his means to bring the Prince to justice, still he could go after those who had done his work for him! He began looking for those soldiers who hadn’t answered to his summons that day, and to his consternation discovered not only that all of them were absent, but that they had been tranferred to the far corners of the Elf Kingdom.
It was in trying to find out who had issued orders for their transfer that he was caught.
To his great fortune (or misfortune, depending on which way you examined the matter), the officer who questioned him let slip that he knew, or thought he knew, for whom he worked in this matter and why. This misapprehension both saved and damned him where bringing the Prince to justice was concerned. Quick thinking on his feet and careful answers at that time may have saved his life, but it meant that he was now working for the superiors of this same officer, over a decade later, and they watched his every move. He’d had no time since to pursue the matter.
He was grateful when the old scribe began speaking to his son once more.