“Not if I abuse my privileges.” Nor if I follow in your footsteps, Danjin added to himself, thinking of the enemies his father had made over the years. Powerful enemies who had barred him from trading in certain places.

:Why don’t you remind him of that?

Danjin started at the voice in his mind.

:Auraya?

:Yes, it’s me. Sorry, I didn’t mean to intrude. The Siyee are asleep, and I’m…well…bored.

He started to smile, and quickly schooled his expression.

“…fame and glory have passed,” his father was saying, “you will soon be forgotten.”

Danjin opened his mouth to reply.

:Your father’s right about one thing. We should pay you more.

He choked.

:How long have you been listening?

There was a pause.

:I peeked a while back.

:Peeked?

:To see if you were busy.

“Are you listening?” Fa-Spear demanded.

Danjin looked up, and quickly considered whether he should explain who he had been communicating with.

:Go on, Auraya urged.

:I mean no disrespect, Danjin told her, but you don’t know my family. Some pots aren’t worth stirring.

“I was considering your advice, Father,” Danjin replied.

Fa-Spear’s eyes narrowed, then he turned to Nirem. “Have you seen Captain Raerig lately?”

Nirem nodded, and started recollecting a drunken gathering in a remote town. Relieved that attention had finally shifted from himself, Danjin let his thoughts stray, until he was brought back by the mention of the southern cult.

“He said they’re good customers, these Pentadrians,” Nirem said. “Half of their priests are warriors. He buys Dunwayan weapons and sells them on the southern continent. Can’t sell enough of them. Do you think we should…?”

To Danjin’s surprise, his father frowned. “Maybe. I’ve heard they’re gathering an army down there. Your great-grandfather always said war was good for trade, but it depended on who was planning to fight who.”

“Who are they planning to fight?” Danjin asked.

His father smiled thinly. “I’d have thought you’d know, Adviser to the White.”

“Perhaps I do,” Danjin said lightly. “Perhaps I don’t. Who do you believe they’re going to fight.”

His father shrugged and looked away. “For now I’d rather keep what I know to myself. If there’s an advantage to be gained from this, I wouldn’t want a stray word in the wrong place to ruin it.”

Danjin felt a stab of anger. It was not the veiled insult suggesting he’d leak information that riled him, but that his father knew he had information Danjin needed. Information that the White needed.

Then his anger evaporated. If his father hadn’t wanted Danjin to know about the Pentadrians gathering an army, for fear it would ruin some trade deal, he wouldn’t have mentioned it at all. Perhaps this was all the warning his father could bring himself to give his youngest son.

:Are you listening, Auraya?