“Mosca . . . I am not even certain whither I am wending. What can I offer a secretary but a life of sleeping in hedges, chicken stealing, and climbing out through midnight windows to avoid paying innkeepers in the morning?”

Nothing, except . . . loose strands of possibility snaking like maypole ribbons. Roads fringed with russet bracken, roads sparkling with frost, hill roads split with the rising sun, forest roads livid with fallen leaves, the Crystal Court with its million windows throwing tiaras of rainbow color upon the floor, ladies with legends of days past embroidered along their trains, wine as dark as blackberry juice sipped under a green-fringed canopy, accents as strange as a walking cane worn by another hand, estuaries bold with man-o’-war ships and perhaps beyond it the shimmering, much-dreamed-upon expanse of the sea . . .

“You need someone to look out for you, Mr. Clent. You’re a rotten liar. Good liars lie only when they need to. ’Sides, if I left you with Saracen you’d just eat ’im.”

Mosca held out her hand for Saracen’s leash, and after a moment’s hesitation Clent gave it back to her, with a small but ceremonious bow.

A FEW NOTES ABOUT THE FRACTURED REALM

PARLIAMENT

Responsible for setting up the Committee of Kingmakers, established to decide who is truly destined to wear the crown. But as the decades have passed and no decision has been reached, a fractured realm has been born. The Capital follows Parliament still, but every other fragment flies a flag to a different possible king or queen.

DUKE OF MANDELION, VOCADO AVOURLACE

Rules Mandelion in name only, and petitions for the Twin Queens to be returned to the throne. Lady Tamarind is his sister.

THE GUILDS

With the Realm shattered and no one king or queen to look to, the various guilds of skilled working men have grown stronger. They maintain an uneasy, though jealous, alliance with one another—and so keep a kind of common order throughout the Realm.

THE COMPANY OF LOCKSMITHS—a guild of key and lock makers, led in Mandelion by Aramai Goshawk. No door can be locked against a skilled Locksmith. And their power grows in the light of this knowledge.

THE COMPANY OF STATIONERS—a guild of printers and bookbinders, led in Mandelion by Mabwick Toke. Masters of the printed word and all printing presses. If a text does not bear the Stationers’ seal, it is heresy and must be burned.

THE COMPANY OF WATERMEN—a guild of boatmen, policing the river and those who would travel upon it.

THE BELOVED

From Goodman Palpitattle, He Who Keeps Flies out of Jams and Butter Churns, to Goodlady Prill, Protector of Pigs, these are the gods that the people of the Realm make their berry and bread offerings to. Days and hours are sacred to the different Beloved—babies are named according to the Beloved they are born under and people favor the Goodman or Goodlady of their choosing.

THE BIRDCATCHERS