Kegellen laughed, her cheeks and chins jiggling with levity. “How delightful! A strong young thing—with burning eyes, no less!—to rub my aching feet and pour my wine.” She glanced about her, false irritation flickering across her face. “And speaking of wine—why did no one think to bring any?”

Kaden ignored the last question. “The council will vote on every law, deciding on the direction of the republic and upon the surest paths to reach our collective goals. I will not be a part of the council. As Servant of the Annurian Republic,” he went on carefully, “I will not have a vote, nor will I have a veto over what you decide. My only role will be administrative. I will call the meetings, and I will see to it that the laws you set in place are executed according to the spirit in which you intended them.”

Fifteen sets of eyes watched him. Kaden forced himself to breathe easily, steadily.

“Why?” Kegellen asked slowly, lower lip turning out in a frown. “Why would you want this? You could be Emperor.”

“I spent most of the last ten years beyond the borders of Annur,” Kaden replied. “I saw another way.”

“Great,” Tevis snorted. “Another way. How enlightened. Or maybe it’s that you lost your power already, let your sister seize it, and now you’re trying to claw back any pathetic bit that you can.”

Tevis’s crack struck close to the bone, but Kaden had prepared for it.

“You’re right,” he replied evenly. “My sister and the kenarang have taken power for themselves. They tried to see me killed, and, if we succeed in what we are doing, they will try to kill you, too.”

The revelation had the intended effect—shocked faces, indignant exclamations—but Kaden rode right over them.

“You are right about Adare,” he continued, “but you are wrong about me. If I wanted power, I would hardly offer myself as your servant.

“Right now, Adare and the kenarang are in the north. When they return, they will either find their power kept nicely warm by their minions here in the city while the rest of you keep meeting in damp warehouses by the docks, or they will find a republic, a ruling council led by you, deciding the fate of Annur.” He shrugged. “Whatever happens, I have no intention ever to sit the Unhewn Throne.”