We stood silent in the dusty room for a time, both of us following thoughts too dark to share. At last, Laurel spoke reluctantly.

“You understand that Deerkin still has ties to those in the Piebalds. They try to lure him back. He must . . . pretend to side with them. To protect our family. He walks a thin and dangerous line. He hears things that are very dangerous for him to repeat, and yet he has sent word.” Her words trickled away. She stared at the obscured window as if she could truly see what was beyond it.

I knew what she was trying to express. “You should speak to the Queen. Tell her that Deerkin must appear a traitor to the crown for the sake of keeping your family safe. Will you flee, as he bids you?”

She shook her head slowly. “Flee where? To my family? Then I plunge them into more danger. Here, at least, the Piebalds must reach into danger’s mouth to extract me. I will stay here and serve my queen.”

I wondered if Chade would be able to protect her, let alone her cousin.

Her voice was flat when she spoke again. “Deerkin hears hints that the Piebalds are forming an alliance with outsiders. ‘Powerful folk who would be happy to destroy the Farseers and leave Laudwine’s folk in power.’ ” She gave me a worried glance. “That sounds like a silly boast, doesn’t it? It couldn’t be real, could it?”

“Best tell the Queen,” I said, and hoped she could not hear that I did think it possible. I knew I would take the tale to Chade.

“And you?” she asked me. “Will you flee? I think you should. For you would make a fine example of the Piebalds’ power. Exposed, you would illustrate that there are Witted even within the walls of Buckkeep. Quartered and burned, you would be a fine example to other traitors to the Old Blood, that those who deny and betray their own kind are in turn betrayed by them.”

She was not herself Witted. Her cousin was. Even though the magic ran in her family blood, she had no love for the Wit or those who used their magic. Like most Six Duchies folk, she regarded my ability to sense animals and bond with a beast as a despicable magic. Perhaps her use of the word “traitor” should have carried less sting because of that, yet the contempt of the message burned me.

“I am not a traitor to my Old Blood. I but keep my oath where it was sworn, to the Farseers. If Old Blood had not tried to harm the Prince, it would not have been necessary for me to wrest him back from them.”