Swamped

She seems to be leading you... to the docks? You're not sure you like where this is going.

"Are we actually slipping out of the base?" you ask.

"Shh! You don't want to get caught, do you?"

"Strictly speaking, I'm in much less trouble than you are," you say.

"We're just going to the barge. Got a bit of a meeting to get to. The barge patrollers will cover for us."

A meeting? Well, this is interesting.

"And you want me there?"

"More of that at this point, I prefer inviting you to letting you stumble on it."

You suppose that makes sense. You follow her into the docks.

Tom Ninth and another knight whose name escapes you wave at you, then lead you to the interior.

"Good luck," Ninth says to Lisa. "Though I suppose you don't really need me to wish you that, do you?"

She gives him a bit of a knowing smirk.

"It's the thought that counts. Warn us if you see anyone coming."

Lisa leads you in, where you see Eighth, Grey, and a few other knights, most of whom you don't recognize off the top of your head. Grey, in particular, isn't happy to see you.

"You brought Sixth along?" he groans. "He'll just blab about the whole thing!"

"Now, look, I can keep a secret when it's important," you say, annoyed. "And if this is about what, or rather who, I think it's about, it's certainly important."

"I was actually thinking we could use his talents," Lisa says calmly. "He's got a good grasp of the rumor mill, even if he just got back here. Could spread word that we want spread, or warn us about what he's hearing."

"Yes, that too," you say. "Although, admittedly, I'm not up to speed on how you organized this."

"It started with the two of us wanting to talk, and we decided to look for other knights we can trust," Grey says. "So this is who we found. Outside of Dean, who's not exactly available right now."

"Marshall, too," Lisa says. "It's really worrying that we've heard so little from the Marshguards. Don't they want their prisoners back, at least?"

"Can we get on with this," Eighth grumbles. "We're already taking a big risk meeting at this hour. Especially since a good chunk of the patrollers are you-know-who's flunkies."

Nobody's naming names. Well, you're pretty sure you know who, anyways, so no need to make a fuss about it.

"Suppose we can't do anything about him now," Grey grumbles. "He's seen who's here, after all. Okay, let's get on with this. Lisa, what did you find?"

"I cracked his code," she explains. "And I found this."

She holds up the wood.

"That looks like ordinary wood," Grey says.

"Yeah. Because it's a hollow container for what the real contraband is."

She demonstrates by taking a small chunk of it out, and pulling out a smaller, significantly less ordinary piece of wood.

Darkwood. You're taken aback, and so is everyone else.

"He's involved with that stuff?" Grey just shakes his head. "Worse than I thought."

"And that's not all," Lisa continues. "There's one other thing I found out."

Now what could that be?