He sighed again, deciding that moping was probably the least entertaining thing he could do. Star waited to see if he would say anything else, then left quietly.

I’m so tired.

No, “tired” wasn’t the right word. He was exhausted, worn thin by all the things he had to do and the new things that kept piling up on him. It was almost as if he had been told to climb a high mountain alone, had gotten to the top, then discovered that it wasn’t the top after all, but merely a ledge on the way to the top, and there was more mountain above that. And more above that. And more above that.

And now it was too late to go anywhere but further up, because an avalanche had fallen behind him, and he couldn’t return.

Well, I could. But the result of that would be very bad.

And then suddenly, an idea did occur to him.

What if I don’t leave during the Regatta?

What if I stay here?

If he stayed, the disappearance of the Dolls, the dissidents, and the hostages wouldn’t be linked to him—and thus, to Valdemar. The Dolls would, in theory, still be beholden to obey the Emperor even at the refuge, but it would be a moot point once they were outside the reach of the Empire, shielded from receiving any orders.

So then what would happen?

Well, the place would be in chaos. There would be no Dolls to serve the Palace, no Trap to make more. Supplies would arrive—and there would be no one to move them to where they were supposed to go. The elaborate meals would be impossible with no one to serve them. No one in the Palace would have servants to wait on them—what would they do?

A lot of them, if they have Gate talismans, will go home. But if they don’t? It was the Dolls that created the talismans. Did the Imperial mages still know how to do that? Probably, but it would take time, a lot of time, and they were probably rusty at it. There’d be no horses to take people home, so they’d have to go home by canal on barges. In fact, the Emperor would probably decree that people who were not actually useful go home, because they would be a drain on the resources of the Palace.

The Emperor would get priority on talismans, and he’d probably use them to bring warm bodies in from one of the legions to serve as servants instead of soldiers.

He might dragoon city folk into being servants. But they don’t know how to do that, and they’d be bad at it, and that would mean more chaos.