“Your Majesty!” Dagon bowed quickly, sucking a few breaths as he did so. “I am here to tell you everything. Everything, without the slightest deception. First, though, have you a secret room? A safe room?”

“What—”

Moving toward her, he said, “You do, of course! I know you do. A room that you can enter from these chambers, that only you have the key to and that you can lock. Where is it?”

“Sire Dagon, I—”

“No!” he said. “Not now. In a safe place. Get us there. Then we talk. Please, Corinn. Your very life is in danger. Please!”

The queen crossed her arms. “I’m in my chambers, with my guards but a shout away. From whom am I in danger? I see only one madman at the moment.”

“Oh, you stubborn thing! Fine.”

As she watched—now visibly shocked by his outbursts—Sire Dagon brushed past her. He inspected one corner of the room quickly, looking high and low. He measured a few steps to the side, and then grasped the tapestry he found there along its bottom edge. With a flourish, he flung it to the side, sending the needlework depiction of a sunset behind the Senival mountains rippling toward the floor tiles. And there it was! As he knew it would be. Nothing more than two depressions at waist height in the stone, each about the size of the heel of a child’s hand. He pressed his against both and pushed. For a moment the wall was as immobile as it looked. He cursed. He heard one of the women whisper something. He cursed again. And then remembered. He pressed harder on the right hand than the left. Of course. A door-sized portion of the wall gave way, suddenly smooth and light before his hands.

“There,” he said, turning, panting. “Now you know that we know of this. Would I betray that information without cause? Please, come in with me. I’ll tell you everything once we are inside.”

The queen glanced at Rhrenna. Sire Dagon knew some message passed between them, but he was too fatigued to riddle it out. Not that he needed to. By the Giver, he had just revealed a secret hundreds of years old, one that by itself changed everything about the trust between the Akarans and the league. He hoped it worked. Of course, if it did not, the queen would likely be dead within the hour.