Finally her older sister spoke. “All right. You are never to talk to anyone about this except for me, Kordas, and Hakkon,” she said fiercely. “And only when we tell you that we’re safely under ward.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Delia replied meekly. This—fierceness—was a side of Isla she had never seen before.

“Not even the Circle,” Isla prompted. “Nor Jonaton, nor any other mage at Valdemar. Not unless they bring it up first.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Delia repeated. “But—they know this? What you’re going to tell me?”

“Yes, they do. But they have ways of knowing when it is safe to talk, and ways to make sure it is safe to talk, and you don’t.”

Not for the first time, Delia regretted her lack of mage-talent.

“Yes, ma’am,” she said for the third time, and followed it with, “I promise.”

“Delia, this is the kind of promise that you’d rather be maimed or exiled for, before giving it up. You need to be certain that you have that kind of strength. There are people in our world who’d treat us all like moths in their web the instant they knew. Are you sure?”

Delia felt Isla’s grip on her hands and knew this was nothing near a joke. She shuddered and responded, “I swear.”

“All right, then.” Isla sighed, leaning back, and her eyes lost focus. “We are escaping Imperial reach. We are taking as many allies and resources as we can with us, and it will probably be within the year.”

“What?” Delia stared at her sister. “But—where—how—why—”

“This was Kordas’s father’s plan,” Isla interrupted her. “He became convinced that no matter how small and insignificant we try to make ourselves look here, eventually the Emperor would give the Duchy to one of his favored underlings, or strip it bare of everything worth having. Valdemar isn’t essential to the Empire, but the Empire consumes all it can reach. Valdemar has hidden away as unimportant, but land is land, and if we aren’t stripped bare by the Empire, we’ll just be given away to someone the Emperor favors the moment he runs out of plums to pass out. This was begun, as a concept, before Kordas was even born.”