Ehren nodded. “I didn’t want to be within reach when he figured it out. And the best way to do that was to be tucked safely into a grave.” He shifted his weight and winced at his injuries. “Granted, I hadn’t intended my exit to be quite that... authentic. The original plan was for Frederic to find me at the end of the battle.”

“Wait,” Frederic blurted, his eyes almost comically wide. “Wait. Count, sir, you didn’t know about this?”

Count Calderon narrowed his eyes and eyed Ehren.

Ehren smiled thinly. “Sir Frederic, Tribune Harger, and Lord Gram may have been operating under the impression that they were acting under your direct and confidential orders, sir.”

“And what would have given them that impression?” Calderon asked.

“Signed orders!” Frederic said. “In your own hand, sir! I saw them!”

Calderon made a rumbling sound in his chest. “Sir Ehren?”

“When I was learning forgery, I used to use your letters to Tavi for practice, Your Excellency.”

“He gave you those letters?” Calderon asked.

“I burgled them, sir.” Ehren coughed. “For another course.”

Calderon made a disgusted sound.

“I—I don’t understand,” the young Knight said.

“Keep it that way, Frederic,” Calderon said.

“Yessir.”

“Leave.”

“Yessir.” The brawny young Knight saluted and hurried away.

Calderon stepped closer to Ehren. Then he said, very quietly, his voice hard, “You’re telling me, to my face, that you conspired to murder a Princeps of the Realm?”

“No,” Ehren said, just as quietly, and with just as much stone in his voice, “I’m telling you that I made sure a man who absolutely would have killed your nephew could never hurt him.” He didn’t let his gaze waver. “You can have me arrested, Your Excellency. Or you could kill me, I suppose. But I think the Realm would be better served if we sorted it out later.”

Count Calderon’s expression didn’t waver. “What,” he said finally, “gave you the right to deal with Aquitaine that way? What makes you think one of us wouldn’t have handled it?”

“He was ready for any of you,” Ehren said simply. “He barely looked twice at me until it was too late.” He shrugged. “And I was acting under orders.”

“Whose orders?” Bernard demanded.

“Gaius Sextus’s orders, sir. His final letter to Aquitaine contained a hidden cipher for me, sir.”

Calderon took a deep breath, eyeing Ehren. “What you’ve done,” he said quietly, “orders from Sextus or not, could be considered an act of treason against the Realm.”

Ehren arched an eyebrow. He looked down at the stone floor of the fortress beneath him and tapped it experimentally with his cane. Then he looked up at Calderon again. “Did you have orders from Gaius Sextus, sir?”

Bernard grunted. “Point.” He exhaled. “You’re Tavi’s friend.”