There came a rumbling from under the floor. Gears turned and springs unwound, opening a trapdoor. From this hole emerged a man in red-trimmed yellow robes with a mantle embroidered with the interlocking gears of the Builder’s ineffable machine. His nose was hooked like a vulture’s beak and he walked like someone who had learned to do so by reading a manual, each bit moving in sequence but not together.

A gut punch of recognition made Isabelle’s bile rise along with her anger. “Sagax Quill. I should have thought you’d have been hanged by now.”

“It’s a pleasure to see you too, Capitaine Isabelle,” Quill said, his voice as dry as wind through autumn leaves. “Congratulations on your promotion.”

“I see you’ve met,” Sireen said.

Isabelle said, “The last time I saw this man he was ensconced in the inner circle of the usurper Lael, deep in counsel with Lael’s lieutenant, Hasdrubal.” She hesitated and faced Sireen. “Unless he was a spy of yours.”

“Unfortunately not,” Sireen said. “Or it might have saved us all a great deal of trouble. Also, we do not believe that Quill was in league with the usurper.”

Isabelle wondered who that “we” consisted of, probably Sireen and Comtesse Impervia, l’Empire’s spymaster and Jean-Claude’s sharp and pointy paramour. Isabelle would have to have a word with her before she set sail.

Quill twisted a thumb ring of quondam metal, the sort of trinket only a cleric might possess. “I was there on behalf of my master, the truth. Who is always a third party in matters of politics. I was not privy to Lael’s thoughts or a member of his council.”

Sireen said, “Quill is also a member of the Observationalist sect, currently at odds with the ascendant Traditionalists in Om.”

“On the verge of being labeled heretics, in fact,” Quill said, “which will spark a civil war with no boundaries and no obvious conditions of victory.”

“The only victory in war is not to have one in the first place,” Isabelle said. She’d stood in front of two wars now and put both conflicts back on their haunches. “But that is not the business before us today. Why did you involve yourself in this mission?”

“Madame Sireen requested—”