“No. But I … I had to hurt others.” The floor was cold under his feet as he walked over to the boy’s bed. “It’s all right, lad.” He ruffled the boy’s dark hair. “I’m here now.”

The boy smiled at him, a smile that broke his heart. “Da—you won’t die, will you?”

“Not if I can help it,” Arvid said. He blew out the candle. “And so far, you know, I’ve been good at that.”

Young Arvid chuckled.

Arvid lay in bed, remembering how Paksenarrion had looked at him. How she had seen—as he believed she had seen—right down inside him and had not flinched at what lay there.

Nor do I. You are not so bad as you think.

Arvid stared into the darkness, wide awake again.

Nor as good as you will be.

Now that was a terrifying thought. Did he really want to be … however good that was? A chuckle was his only answer. He fell into sleep without realizing it.

The next day the city felt quieter, but up on the hill, Arvid found that the Marshal-General was in no way complacent about the situation. She sent word that he was to attend a meeting with her, and he found himself with Paks, Camwynya, three High Marshals, the Marshal-Judicar of Gird, and the Knight-Commander of Gird. He told what he knew, including the incident in the alley.

“We cannot hope to get through this without conflict,” High Marshal Darton said. “It’s too late for that, when whole granges are declaring that you are not really Girdish.”

“Do you know who started it?” the Marshal-General asked.

“To be blunt, Marshal-General,” the Marshal-Judicar said, “you did. Not the appearance of magery—I know that, though it’s one of their accusations. But you told them something so different from what they believed that they could not take it in.”

“But they killed a child,” she said. “Gird would not do that.”

“No, I agree. And we know from the records that he did not demand death for all mages. Those provisions were added to the Code later, after Luap took the remaining mages away. But we have not taught that history for generations, so people did not know.”

“And they aren’t listening now,” Darton said. “The ones who opposed you, anyway—who questioned that first expedition west, for instance—see this as a way to get rid of you. I’m afraid we face armed rebellion.”

“And Tsaia?”

“Tsaia is different. I’ve always thought they were ridiculous to hold on to that notion of nobles and kings, but right now, their structure is working better than ours. The king and their Marshal-Judicar told them what to do, and they’re doing it.”

“Well, then.” The Marshal-General looked around the table. “If we cannot avoid conflict, how can we cause the least harm while still coming out on top?”

No one said anything for a moment.