Talia capitulated, letting him push her gently toward the seats at the edge of the floor. She slumped dispiritedly down onto a bench pushed up against the wall as he seated himself beside her. After a long moment of silence, she gave him a brief outline of the morning’s events. She kept her eyes for the most part on a beam of the late afternoon sunlight that fell upon the smooth, sanded, gray-brown wooden floor. No sound penetrated into the salle from the outside, and the ancient building smelled of dust and sweat. Alberich sat beside her, absolutely motionless, hands clasped around the ankle that rested on his right knee. Talia glanced at him from time to time, but his harsh, hawklike face remained unreadable.

Finally when she had finished, he stirred just a little, raising his hand to rub the side of his nose.

“I tell you what I have never admitted,” he said after a long pause, tapping his lips with one finger, thoughtfully. “I have never trusted Lord Orthallen. And I have served Valdemar fully as long as he.”

Talia was taken aback. “But—”

“Why? Any number of small things. He is too perfect the servant of the State, never does he take for himself any reward. And when a man does not claim a reward visibly, I look for a reward hidden. He does not openly oppose the Heraldic Circle, but when others do, he is always just behind them, pushing, gently pushing. He is everyone’s friend—and no one’s intimate companion. Also, my Companion does not like him.”

“Rolan doesn’t either.”

“A good measure by which to judge the man, I think. I believe that your suspicions are correct; that he has been striving to undermine your influence with Selenay. I think that since he has failed at that, he turns to elimiziating your friends, to weaken your emotional base. I think he well knows how it hurts you to see young Dirk injured.”

Talia blushed.

“You are the best judge of the truth of what I say.” He shifted on the hard, worn bench and recrossed his legs, ankle over knee. “My guess—he knows Kris is your partisan; he could not get Kris to repudiate you so he decided to set the two great friends at odds with each other in hopes you would be caught in the middle.”

“Me? But—”

“If he is of the mind to undermine your authority, this is one way of it,” Alberich added quietly, hands clasped thoughtfully over one knee. “To chip away at those supporting you until they are so entangled in their own misfortune that they can spare no time for helping you.”