She did not start to doubt herself until she had walked halfway back to her own quarters. More than ever, she wanted to know the name of the hunchback’s talent.

In her rooms, Queen Estie ate a small meal and tried to relax. But she was too restless to settle herself. Instead, she gnawed anxiously on the Repository’s defense. She had missed her chance to find out what the Knights of Ardor had promised—or what contribution Magister Rummage might make.

To one question, however, she could obtain an answer. She asked Crayn to summon sub-Commander Waysel.

Waysel had surprised her by mastering A Complete System with almost insolent ease. And he had proven himself to be a good teacher. Gratefully, she had assigned him to share his skills with her guardsmen. After a while, his proficiency had relieved his earlier chagrin in her presence. He knew how to address her now.

He arrived promptly, ready for whatever his Queen required.

When Estie explained what she wanted, Waysel’s manner changed. An almost boyish eagerness thrust his deference aside as he replied:

—The cannon, Majesty? I should have offered days ago. Forgive my lapse.

Queen Estie reassured him with a touch on his shoulder. Then, bundled in cloaks against the cold, she and her officers left the Repository to stand on the keep’s stone porch.

That plateau was huge, broad enough to hold any number of wagons, carriages, and other conveyances without crowding. To the north, it thinned until it became a passage leading around the Repository and upward into the mountains. On the south, the stone opened for the only road from the caravan-track. Beyond the sheer front of the keep, the roadway began a long, gradual curve back northward as it descended, then wandered away among the foothills.

From the edge of the porch, Queen Estie had a clear view of the smaller plateau that served as Crayn’s training-field. Jutting like a shelf among the hills, it lay at a considerable distance, yet well above the road’s northward line.

Hugging her cloak around her, she looked for the place of concealment that she had been promised. The slopes were littered with boulders and outcroppings, all cloaked in snow. Any or none of them might suffice to hide her.

Along the outer rim of the training-field, Amika’s siege-guns on their trucks were visible only as mounds of snow and ice: four off to Estie’s right, five arrayed directly below her. Pointing, Waysel signed:

—Magister Rummage’s orders, Majesty, conveyed by a man I do not know. We aimed them before we wrapped them in oilcloth. With enough warning, we can have them ready to fire in an hour. The shot and chain are there. The wadding, gunpowder, and fuses are stored in the Repository.