“The time is still wrong for a rebellion,” I said. “The harvest was good this year, not only in Shavig, but Tallven and Oranstone as well. My father used to say that full bellies make for happy subjects, and he was right. Jakoven’s tithe is fair. He hasn’t overtly oppressed anyone who would incite the nobles. It’s unlikely Alizon can draw any of the Avenhellish lords away from Jakoven, and the Tallvenish and Avenhellish lords can raise larger, better-trained armies than Shavig, Seaford, and Oranstone combined, even if Alizon could gather them all together—which he can’t. In return for battling a superior fighting force, Alizon offers to replace one Tallvenish king with another, himself. And Alizon is baseborn. I suspect that your father is not the only Oranstonian who’s refused to follow Alizon.”

Her face was carefully blank while I talked. Toward the end of my speech she turned her face away.

I shrugged. “I’ll tell you what has changed, though. Jakoven has made it impossible for me to do anything except join the rebellion.”

Her eyes snapped back to me and ran over my bare chest and shoulders looking for wounds that weren’t there. For all the pain I’d endured, the only blood I’d lost in the Asylum had gone to the lice—and the Bane.

“What did he do to you?”

I smiled at her, but she didn’t look reassured, so I stopped. “He found Farsonsbane.”

She started to look puzzled before the name registered. “I thought Farson destroyed it—or the boy emperor.”

I shook my head. “Jakoven found it while he was rebuilding Estian castle. It needs dragon’s blood to activate it.”

“Oreg,” she whispered.

I felt my eyebrows rise. How did she find out about Oreg? No wonder she’d accepted that I’d met the Tamerlain. From dragons to the minions of gods was a small step.

I could have left off there. She’d have believed that I’d throw myself behind Alizon for Oreg’s sake.

“My blood did something to it,” I said. “I need to keep every person who can claim Hurog blood away from him. If Alizon is ready, I’ll declare for him. If not, Hurog will rebel on its own. It’s that, or allow Jakoven access to the same power that brought down the Empire.”

She stared at me a moment, then said baldly, “The reason I knew how to get into the Asylum is because Alizon is not the heart of the rebellion—Kellen is.”

“Kellen?” I said, startled. The king’s brother—I remembered a quiet-spoken, clever boy a few years older than I. My heart began to race with a shard of hope. Kellen was legitimate: moreover, he had been terribly wronged by Jakoven and had a just cause for rebellion. With Kellen, the rebellion Alizon was leading was much more likely to succeed.