“Rumors say shadow and smoke. Others claim you are air. Who is to say they are wrong? Anything can lurk behind a mask.”

She is concerned by my identity, Cyrus decided. But why exactly?

“Stories get larger with every telling,” Clarissa said cheerfully. “But there is always some truth among them. If I poke you, will you vanish in a puff of darkness, Vagrant?”

She was pretending to be playful, but Cyrus knew she was responsible for most of the rumors regarding the dead prince’s return. It was a subtle reminder to Kaia that even rumors held truth, even if disguised in a joke about Cyrus’s, or more accurately the Vagrant’s, excessive nature.

“I’ll scatter like birds,” he said, grinning nervously behind his mask. “Little shadow doves to roost across the rooftops, where I can lurk in waiting for another imperial soldier to kill.”

Kaia was far from impressed. She waved over a servant for a drink, something so dark and red it bordered on black, and began to nurse it.

“If only our own troops could scatter and hide as such. My lord has gathered soldiers from across the north, but the larger our forces grow, the harder it becomes to hide them from the prying eyes of the Uplifted Church. I lament a free Thanet requires such secrecy.”

Cyrus struggled to interpret the remarks. Did the complaint about secrecy involve him, or did it speak to concerns with moving troops and working with the Coin through clandestine communications? There were messages being signaled here; he was certain of it. Or did she want to remind him that it was the army who would eventually free Thanet, not his own ruthless efforts?

“A time comes when we will throw aside this secrecy, and crush the empire amid flames of war,” he said. Surely that was simple and safe enough. Thorda liked it when Cyrus made grand, epic statements about the future.

“The flames of war?” Kaia asked. “Are you a poet or an assassin?”

“Perhaps I am both?”

“I pray you are not. The kingdom suffers enough.”

Cyrus blushed, and he doubted even his skull mask would fully hide it. The older woman made him feel so young and clueless. This was not the mysterious killer he was meant to portray. He was quickly learning that keeping his mouth shut aided his efforts more than anything else, but Thorda wanted him to win Kaia over, so he forced himself to continue.

“It is good to hear soldiers still come at Lord Mosau’s request,” he said. “We are ever in need of allies.”

Kaia looped her finger along her glass’s edge. Her gray eyes studied him.

“The people of Thanet are forever united,” she said. “No amount of bodies hanging from the Dead Flags shall break our allegiances.”