Again Talamir shook his head. “Every servant in a Great House will either have worked for the family for generations, have come from the family’s country property, or have been personally vouched for by other servants. Every delivery person will be from a particular set of shops and will be known to the servants. Even the folk who come to take off the trash are personally known to the servants—what the highborn discard is picked over by dozens of lower servants before it gets to the bins outside, and then the right to cart off what is left is jealously guarded.”

“Hmm.” Alberich blinked; he hadn’t known that. Well, so much for ever trying to insinuate himself into a Great House as a servant! “And the boy could not come to the actor in a more secret way?”

“Hah.” Talamir raised an eyebrow. “Not where they are. And people take note when they see someone richly dressed hanging about a ‘common’ venue. No matter how careful he was, someone would see him. Unless, of course, he was as practiced in deception as you are, which is highly unlikely.”

“And the resources have, as well,” Alberich reminded the older Herald. “Without the Bell, my movements could not possible be.”

Talamir’s lips formed into a thin line. “The question is, what information, why, and to whom is it going?”

“And does the Crown have interest?” Alberich added. “It could be, we need do nothing about it. It could be, this is only to do with the rivalries among the titled.”

Talamir looked thoughtful as Alberich put the empty tankard aside on a little table that stood between their chairs. “It could be, I suppose,” he admitted. “But it seems a great deal of trouble to go to simply to acquire information about a rival. And why the connection with a troupe of common players?” He shook his head. “No. I don’t like it. I scent something else here.”

Alberich was willing to bow to his experience. “So, you think it is something surely to do with a larger issue? Still, it could signify only that someone has an interest, and is not hostile.”

“Or not. The Karsites are not our only enemies.” Talamir looked pensive. “Or it could be agents of a putative ally, who wishes to learn more than we’ve told him. In which case—we need to establish if there is any harm in letting him continue to operate.”

Alberich snorted at that. “Allies can cause as much harm as enemies, and are less suspected.”

“Hmm. There are times, my suspicious friend, when I am glad that you are who and what you are,” Talamir replied after a long silence. “That had not occurred to me.”

Alberich shrugged. “I am, what I am,” he replied. “In Karse, one keeps one’s friends close, and one’s enemies closer.”