“Argent Hall is too busy looking for some manner of treasure that my allies in the North seek. Something valuable taken out of the Hundred years ago that they have reason to believe has been found and brought back.”

The smoky-voiced man’s laugh was sarcastic. “Silk? Gems? A rare cutting from one of the Beltak temples’ Celestial Golds? A stallion for stud?”

“I don’t know.” This was said brusquely. “It’s not my responsibility, but if you want to keep your eyes open at the border crossing it wouldn’t hurt to get word of such a thing before anyone else did. I don’t mind telling you, I don’t trust that new marshal, Yordenas.”

The other man hrhmed thoughtfully under his breath. He seemed distracted, perhaps spinning out fantasies of treasure and wealth as the other man—Feden—went on impatiently.

“I don’t mind telling you I think the entire cursed mob of them are hatching a plan to overthrow the Greater Houses.”

“The reeves of Argent Hall?”

“Neh, neh, the Lesser Houses and those ungrateful guildsmen. After everything we’ve done to make Olossi prosperous and safe! If we kill just one man, one of the ringleaders, it may make the rest hesitate.”

“Because they’ll see you can get away with it?” asked Smoky Voice with sharp amusement. “Don’t they already know that you in the Greater Houses can do what you cursed well please?”

Water splashed on rock and poured away as hands emptied a bucket over stone. A door slid closed with a slap.

“What if we ran away?” the youth demanded in a husky whisper. “We could go to Toskala, make a new life there for ourselves.”

“Dearest,” she replied breathlessly, still recovering from her drawn-out pleasure, “the roads aren’t safe. Anyway, they’d send agents after us. How can we hide from them?”

That piece of practicality silenced the idiot, thank the gods. Marit wound a path past his unsteady breathing, past the chuckling of the young fools planning their latest smuggling venture for no better reason than the lark of evading the militia, pinched out the low-voiced argument of a man sure sure sure that the gift he had proffered to the Incomparable Eridit had been rejected because she thought herself unworthy of his attentions while his friends, lounging with him in the baths, assured him rumor had it she wicked anyone who was to her taste, so gifts were meaningless because she had rejected him merely because he was one ugly Goat.

There.

“I’ll do it, then. But if you get any word about what the treasure is, you’ll let me know.”

“Don’t tangle with the Northerners, Captain. Don’t try to take what they want. You’ll regret it.”

“Only if they know I have it. If the Argent Hall reeves are so busy patrolling the Barrens and the Spires, who’s to say they might miss what passes right under their talons, eh?”

“Do you envy the reeves, Captain? Is that resentment I hear?”

“I have a sword, and you have your coin and your clan’s power. Don’t think we’re friends to share confidences. Just allies of convenience, that’s all.”