She walked slowly around the room as if admiring the furnishings. “How long have you lived here, Your Majesty?”

“For a very long time, my dear,” Rhazat said, turning back to the window.

“With no servants or tiring women?”

The other woman smiled. “As you saw with poor Phania, it’s hard to keep good help here.”

“Who does the cooking?”

“It’s taken care of.”

Klia walked to the window next to the one Rhazat stood at. “Another grey day. Why aren’t there any birds?”

Rhazat smiled as she gazed up at the sullen sky. “Such fragile creatures, birds.”

Seizing the opportunity, Klia pulled the gorget out and held it so she could see Rhazat’s reflection in it. It was an imperfect mirror but what Klia could make out sent a blade of ice through her heart.

Rather than a woman, a horrid, wizened corpse with long black hair stood by the window, dressed in a tattered cape. As Klia stared, trying to make sense of what she was seeing, Rhazat turned and smiled at her. “I wondered when you would think to use that.”

Klia clutched the gorget to her heart and looked up. The necromancer was a young, beautiful woman.

“What in Bilairy’s name are you?”

Rhazat smiled her beautiful smile, making it hard to believe what Klia had just seen.

“I’m a very old necromancer, my dear, called in the parlance of my kind a dyrmagnos.”

“As powerful as you are, your magic can’t hide from a mirror.”

“No. My, but you are like her.”

“This person I remind you of?”

“An ancestor of yours. Not that you look like her—she was beautiful—but you have the same unbending spirit. It was the death of her, in the end. Let that be a cautionary tale.”

“Who was she?”

“Have you never heard of Nhandi the Wise?”

“No.”

“She was the last Hierophant, my dear, and the one who condemned me to this place, along with a good many of her own people.”

“The townsfolk here?”

“Yes, and many others in the surrounding area. You have figured out by now that they’re all dead? She condemned them all, just to keep me here. How could a leader called Wise be so heartless?”

“How did you survive for a thousand years?”

“Has it really been that long? Dear me. As to how, my kind are tenacious, and very, very patient. I had a lovely nap, then your predecessor, Governor Toneus, was kind enough to make a start on my release.”

“You can get out?”

“Not yet, but you are going to help me with that.”

“Never.”

“Oh, you will. But now it’s time for lunch, then I think we’ll take a ride. Wouldn’t you like a change of clothing? You’re looking very rumpled.”

“I’m fine as I am.”

“As you wish. Come along.”