But he could almost hear Dean Elcarth’s voice in his ear, because he’d asked Elcarth just this very week what he should do if he was asked to do something that didn’t seem quite right, or if something happened in the course of his duties that seemed odd. One of the older boys had been sent on a very dubious errand by one of the ladies of the Court, and there’d been trouble afterward. The page involved hadn’t had the nerve to tell anyone until it was too late, and by then his memory was all confused. So Robin had asked the wisest person he knew what he should do if he found himself in a similar case.

“Do it, don’t disobey—but remember, Robin,” Elcarth had told him, “remember everything; what happened, who asked you, and when, and why, and who was with them. It may be that what you’re being told to do is perfectly legitimate. You could have no way of knowing. But if it isn’t, you could be the only person to know the real truth of something. You pages are in a very special position, you know, people look at you, but they really don’t see you. So keep that in mind, and if anything ever happens around you that seems odd, remember it; remember the circumstances. You may help someone that way.”

“Isn’t that being a little like a sneak?” Robin had asked doubtfully.

Elcarth had laughed and ruffled his hair. “If you ask that question, you’re in no danger of becoming one, my little owl. Besides, it’s excellent training for your memory.”

Very well then. Robin would remember this.

There was no answer when Robin tapped at Herald Dirk’s half-open door. When he peeked inside, he could see Herald Dirk slumped in a chair at the farther end of the room by his open window. He seemed to be asleep, so Robin slipped inside, quiet as a cat, and left the scrolls on his desk.

Talia didn’t need a summons that morning; anyone with the vaguest hint of her Gift of Empathy would have come running to the Queen’s side. Emotional turmoil—anger, fear, worry—was so thick in the air Talia could taste it, bitter and metallic.

She caught the first notes of it as she was dressing, and ran for the royal chambers as soon as she was decent. The two Guards outside the door looked very uncomfortable, as if they were doing their level best to be deaf to the shouting behind the double doors they guarded. Talia tapped once, and cracked one door open.