Therefore, True nodded to his captain and looked around the table, asking, “We have men on the temples?”

“Yes,” Bram answered. “Business as usual. Thus, I’d like to send them in for a search. Though to do that, the edict has to come from your father. That said, this is risky. If it’s done overtly, they would be aware we’re onto them. If it’s done covertly and the crown doesn’t know about it, and our man was discovered, we’d be hard-pressed to explain why we acted without the knowledge of the king. Thus, putting the realm at odds with a nation of priests who most think are harmless, but others subscribe to their beliefs.”

“And what about Gal and Brix?” True pressed on. “Any word from them? Could they infiltrate the Go’Doan temples?”

“No word. According to a pixie sent by Baldrick, they’re ‘deep under,’” Wallace shared. “I don’t know what that means, but I can send a message to Baldrick, see if he can get one to them and set them on the temples.”

True nodded his acceptance of that suggestion, drew in breath, let it out, and sat back.

It was glaringly apparent with his recent proclamation his father would not wish to entertain a request to search the temples from True. Even if the attack in Firenze made it expedient to do so, and the Go’Doan would understand why it was done, and if they had nothing to hide, they would have no protest.

True didn’t endorse the idea that every temple and every priest in every realm should be under suspicion, watched or searched.

But that didn’t mean questions shouldn’t be asked.

And those questions should have been asked in Wodell already.

They had not.

Carrington had used Cassius’s regency to his advantage and True had inadvertently fallen in with this plan by taking this journey for Farah.

He would not change his decision about the journey for Farah.

He’d change the advisor his father trusted.

True had never been “in,” as such, with his father.

Now it was clear, in very important ways, he’d been cast out at the worst possible time for his realm.

“We have a much more immediate problem,” Florian put in. “This gold being demanded, ostensibly for your wedding, is not being taken very well. The pixies report there was a great deal of excitement in the city. Now there’s a great deal of grumbling. So much, it could turn and quickly. Against you.”

“Taxes having been raised steadily every year over the last five years, though income has not seen the same increases,” Luther added. “This addition to royal levies that had already increased this year, I’m not surprised there’s grumbling.”