Bifalt tried to forestall his friend. “What is there to understand? I am what I am. I have no surprises in me.”

Over his shoulder, Elgart glanced at Bifalt, cocked an amused eyebrow. “Do you mean no surprises like the time you refused mortal combat with me and instead gave the book on cannon to Commander Forguile? That astonished me. I imagined then that I knew you at last.”

He turned his head back to the fire. “Now I know better. There is more.” After a pause, he said, “You look like a man who has taken a beating. The bruises are deep. They do not heal.”

Spinning on his heel, he confronted his King. “I call myself your friend. Tell me, Bifalt. I know that Magister Facile is gone. I have eyes. But where is Queen Estie?”

Bifalt looked away. He had expected Elgart to ask this, and still he did not want to face it.

“Please, Bifalt,” breathed Elgart. “If you cannot tell me, who can you tell?”

Who? thought the King. Hells! No one. Everyone else already knew what they needed to know. He had told Klamath more than enough. In Klamath’s place, Elgart might have guessed Bifalt’s secret for himself. But everything was different now.

Elgart had been an effective spy. He probed when other men kept silent. He would know the truth when he heard it.

Another challenge. King Bifalt met it as he had so many others. “Do you think I have taken a beating?” To himself, he sounded like a cornered animal, fearful and fierce. “You have no conception.”

Elgart waited. Half of his face smiled gently. The other side twisted in sorrow.

Snarling deep in his throat, Bifalt said, “Queen Estie has a gift for sorcery.” That fact still hurt him like the thrust of a pike. “All of her life, it was nameless. Too dangerous to awaken. But visible to other sorcerers.

“Of course, Smegin saw it long ago. But he said nothing. She knew nothing until Magister Facile ambushed her with it.

“Now she has gone to the Last Repository. To become a sorceress.”

A woman he would be forced to loathe.

Watching closely while he listened, Elgart settled his expression. The cut halves of his face seemed to merge, making him one man where he had been two a moment ago. When he replied, he spoke cautiously, but without hesitation.

“At one time, Majesty, you despised Amikans. Now Commander Forguile is a friend. Even a sorceress may earn your regard in the same way. And leaving her realm while her people and yours are on the brink of war—” For an instant, he made his eyes wide. “That woman has courage. Whatever she becomes—and however you choose to think of her—you cannot deny—”