“I don’t know. Perhaps he was captured. He was under our full protection, of course, but was, as I said, betrayed. We think—”

“By whom?”

“The Lothan Aklun. The Auldek. Both. We arrived to find them at war. They both sought to make us pawns. Tricked us. There was a massacre. And, Your Majesty, most important right now: the Numrek have betrayed us.”

Corinn stood still. For a long time she looked like some beautiful, bloodless witch, the type of being who might haunt and excite adolescent nightmares. For a few moments, Sire Dagon felt he might have failed. There was too much to say, too much to explain, too many lies to navigate, even as he created more. For a moment, the idea of Rhrenna slicing his life from him did not seem so bad. At least it would end the complications.

“What do you mean the Numrek betrayed us?”

“They—Oh, it’s hard to explain with a dagger at my throat.”

Corinn shrugged. “Do it anyway.”

So he did. As best he could, flinching often, feeling the trickles of blood that oozed out of small nicks made by the knife. He could smell Rhrenna’s breath—not unpleasant—and hear the moist coagulation of his blood on her fingers when she flexed them. He told of how the Ambergris arrived to find the Lothan Aklun and Auldek in open war with each other. The Aklun were suffering, nearly defeated; Sire Neen tried to arrange a peace, but he failed. The Auldek met with him under the guise of parley, he said, but Calrach chose the moment to switch sides. The Auldek were their cousins, similar in many ways. Together, they slaughtered the entire delegation party. Only a few from the landing party got back to the Ambergris. The vessel stayed a time in Aklun waters, trying to assess the situation. By the time they sailed for home, they believed two things: the Lothan Aklun were all but conquered, and the Numrek were trying to get the Auldek to attack the Known World via the same route they had used.

So he spoke. He did not tell the truth, save for the final point. As an alternative, though, his version of events was no less credible than the real one.

“You are telling me we’re at war? At war with a race I’ve done nothing to? All because of a league gambit gone wrong? All because you couldn’t tell an enemy from a friend?”