Leor Tips Off the Red Riders

Leor Tips Off the Red Riders by acting as their informant at the Sunset Inn, where his apparent ignorance conceals a role in tracking the Grey Knights and Tiuri. His exposure turns an ordinary inquiry into a breach of trust: the Red Riders have eyes among the people the knights meet, and their interest in the approaching party includes the young man carrying a distinctive ring.

The Innkeeper’s Question

When Bendoe asks whether the Red Riders have passed through, the innkeeper cannot answer, but suggests that Leor, his servant, may know the latest news. Leor enters the common room and reacts sharply at the sight of the Grey Knights. Though he approaches with his head bowed, his eyes move from one member of the company to another. Tiuri notices the watchfulness and privately finds him exceptionally suspicious. At this point, however, Leor’s manner is an impression rather than proof of any particular allegiance.

The innkeeper prompts him about riders he may have mentioned before. Leor feigns uncertainty, denies ever having seen riders in red or black, and says he has seen only the gray and blue riders now present. He grins briefly at the company, then lowers his head again, while continuing to watch them. The denial is carefully limited: he says nothing that openly reveals his connection to the Red Riders, and the knights have not yet established what he knows.

Caught Behind the Door

After a pause in the conversation, Bendoe notices the danger of being overheard and silently goes to the door at the back of the common room. He slides the bolt and pulls the door open; Leor tumbles into the room. Bendoe seizes him and demands to know why he was listening. Leor protests that he was not eavesdropping and knows nothing, but Bendoe holds him more firmly and presses him to say who instructed him to spy on the company.

The innkeeper rebukes Leor and says he is ashamed of him. Ristridin then directs the questioning to the Red Riders, telling Leor that he must have seen them. Bendoe’s grim stare helps end Leor’s resistance. Leor admits, reluctantly, that he saw riders two nights earlier, though he initially insists they were not dressed in red. The sequence makes the discovery concrete: his evasions have not merely concealed a rumor; he has been watching the company and withholding information about the riders.

The Warning He Was Ordered to Give

Ristridin explains that the Red Riders have committed a murder and that the Grey Knights, serving King Dagonaut, must punish them. Leor appears affected by this and apologizes to Ristridin. He then discloses what the riders asked him: whether four Grey Knights and their squires had come from the direction of Mistrinaut Castle, and whether he had seen a young man wearing a fine ring. Leor says he had not seen either party, although the knights are now directly before him.

Pressed further, Leor admits that the riders told him to keep watch for the Grey Knights and the young man and to warn them if he saw them. He cannot say how he was supposed to contact the riders or where they are now. According to him, they planned to return to the inn and ask him in person. Ristridin acknowledges that Leor cannot provide the riders’ whereabouts, but orders him to warn the knights if they come back. Leor agrees and leaves. His disclosure gives the company a limited but useful warning: the Red Riders are actively seeking them, yet Leor cannot direct the knights to their enemies.

The Wider Intelligence Network

Later information confirms that Leor’s role was more consequential than his questioning at the inn initially established. The Red Riders had several spies, and Leor was one of them. Through another person, information from him had reached them that the Grey Knights were approaching with the young man they had been seeking for a long time, a youth expected to ride a black horse. The account also establishes that the Red Riders’ leader was angry to learn that the young man was being accompanied by the Grey Knights. Leor himself did not know why the riders wanted the youth, and the extent of the plans behind the request remained beyond what he could report.

The episode therefore reveals both the reach and the limits of Leor’s service. He has helped pass information that identifies the company and its young charge, but he is not shown directing the Red Riders or knowing their purpose. His first false denial, his furtive attention to the knights, and his eventual admission form a progression from suspicion to partial confirmation. The immediate result is not the capture of the Red Riders, whose location remains unknown, but the exposure of an informant and a clearer understanding that the pursuit of Tiuri is being supported by a network of watchers.