She was quick and drawled, “Does that mean you are choosing to accept the role of Bard of the East?”

“I am in the midst of deliberations with myself,” he said. “But that’s not what we’re discussing at the moment. I just presented you with the possibility that the Breccans are devising to harm you, Adaira.”

She released a deep breath. “I don’t think the Breccans plan to harm me.”

“How do you know that?”

“Because I’m offering them something they can’t refuse. They need our winter stores. They need our resources when the ice comes. Why would they harm me when I am the first Tamerlaine to give that to them?”

“And yet they simply take what they want when winter comes,” Jack argued. “They don’t need you to grant them access.”

“But perhaps they are weary of it,” Adaira replied. “Perhaps they dream of a different life, one where the isle is united again and the two halves are restored.” She stood and walked to the window. Jack could see her reflection, shining in the glass. “In five days’ time, I am to meet Moray Breccan on the northern coast for a trade-by-trial. It’s a test, both to see what the west has to offer us and to measure their trustworthiness before I visit them.”

Jack listened to her every word. He had yet to take his gaze from her, and he didn’t know why his heart was thrumming in that moment, as if he had run from one side of the isle to the other. He wanted to scoff at the fanciful notion of peace, but this was the second time he had been encouraged to think of the isle as one again, its two halves mended.

He could have said many things to Adaira in that moment, and yet the question that slipped from his lips as a growl was, “Who is Moray Breccan?”

“The Heir of the West.”

Brilliant, Jack thought. Although why should he be surprised that the heir would want to meet her?

“So you will support me if I choose to visit?” she asked.

“It depends,” Jack said.

“On what, old menace?”

“On who you take with you.”

Adaira fell silent again. Jack was swiftly learning he didn’t like these silences of hers.

“Who are you taking, Adaira?” he asked again. “Torin and a retinue of guards?”

“No one,” she said.

“I’m sorry?”

She turned to face Jack once more. Her eyes were inscrutable as she looked at him. “They have asked me to come alone, as a measure of my trust in—”

“To hell with that!” Jack cried. The dishes on the table rattled as he stood. “Adaira, you shouldn’t even consider visiting them alone.”

“I know it sounds unwise, Jack.”

“It sounds foolish and deadly. You forget who they are.”