:They know,: Cymry told him. :But you’re a Herald, even if you aren’t in Whites yet. You proved yourself tonight. No one is ever going to withhold anything from you that you really want or need to know.:

Well! Interesting…

“Gartheser will be a pool of stillness compared to Lady Cathal,” Talamir observed, with a sigh. “He was a Guildmaster after all, and she speaks for the Guilds.”

“Oh, Guildmaster, indeed,” someone else said dismissively. “Becoming a Master in the Traders’ Guild…” He left the sentence dangling, but everyone—including Skif—knew that the requirements for Mastery in the Traders’ Guild mostly depended on entirely on how much profit you could make. Provided, of course, that you didn’t cheat to make it. Or at least that you didn’t get caught cheating.

“He was,” Talamir pointed out delicately, and with a deliberate pause between the words, “quite… prosperous.”

“And now, know we where the profits came from,” Alberich said harshly. “It is thinking I am that Lady Cathal should be looking into profits, and whence from they come.”

“And Lord Gartheser,” said Talamir. “Since Gartheser wished so sincerely to recommend him to the Council.”

“There is that,” observed someone else, in a hard, cold voice. “And now we know where the leak of Guard movements along Evendim came from.”

“It would appear so,” Talamir replied thoughtfully. “Although… it is in my mind that Lord Orthallen was equally, though less blatantly, impressed with the late Guildmaster’s talents…”

But a flurry of protests broke out over that remark; it seemed that the idea of Lord Orthallen having anything to do with all of this was completely out of the question.

Except that Skif saw Talamir and Alberich exchange a private look—and perhaps more than that. Looks weren’t all that could be exchanged when one was a Herald, and far more privately.

I wonder what all that’s about.

And Lord Orthallen had “particularly” recommended Jass to Vatean…

Well, if he wanted to know—

No, he didn’t. Not at all. He knew quite enough already. All of this was going right over his head, and anyway, there wasn’t anything one undersized thief could do about it even if he did know.

Or—if there was something one undersized thief could do about it, he had no doubt that Alberich would have a few words with him on the subject. And maybe a job.

So, perhaps his roof-walking days weren’t over after all.

Better get myself another sneaky suit.

:I believe that Alberich already has that in mind,: said Cymry.

The little group continued to paw over the few facts they had until they were shopworn, and even Talamir, whose patience seemed endless, grew weary of it.