:That you aren’t everyone’s favorite Trainee,: Kantor replied promptly. :Elcarth is in line to become the Dean—that’s the head—of the Collegium within the next ten years or so. He doesn’t look like much, but he’s as sharp as a poniard, and nothing gets past him. If he approves of you, no one is going to openly contest your being here.: Kantor paused, and Alberich “felt” him ruminating. :Our Kings and Queens, you see, don’t rule so much as reign, and not at all autocratically. King Sendar will probably have trouble over you with his Council for some time to come. But Elcarth—well. Elcarth comes from one of the most powerful families in the land, and he has a reputation for sharpness, as I told you. The Dean has a traditional place on the Council, but Elcarth is the one who’s actually taking the seat for the Dean in absentia. That gives us a majority if we need it.:

Alberich kept his face straight and showed no sign that Kantor had imparted this amazing information to him, but he had a very hard time doing so. The Priests of Vkandis had things so completely under their hands and wills that he couldn’t imagine a ruler who didn’t rule completely. Oh, of course, there was a King in Karse, too, but he was no more than an impotent figure who didn’t rule so much as preside over a gaggle of wealthy aristocrats and would-be aristocrats with nothing better to do with their time than vie for position in a do-nothing Court that was little better than an elaborate social club. It was the Son of the Sun who held the real reins of power, and behind him, so far as Alberich knew, ranged the solid phalanx of the Sunpriests, who fulfilled the Son of the Sun’s orders with nary a murmur of discontent.

Then again, what do I know of what goes on behind the closed doors of the Temple? It might be the same there. Really, the most astonishing thing might not be so much that there was contention in the King’s court, but that ordinary people seemed to know about it. That would be unheard of in Karse.

So much had happened to him in a few short marks. This morning he had been quite willing to walk out of here forever; now he wasn’t merely a Trainee, he had a real position here. It felt a bit dreamlike, as if days had passed in the course of the morning. He had gone straight into the life of this place without a pause for breath. That wasn’t like him. It made no sense. There was only one way to account for it. That blasted Kantor.