Raj Ahten leaned forward. “I’m sorry. It was necessary to clip your wings, Earth Warden.” He spoke this title with solemnity, with more respect than he’d shown anyone else this night. “And yet, Master Binnesman, I truly did not want to harm you. There are few notable Earth Wardens in the world, and i’ve tested the efficacy of the herbs that each of your kind grows, studied the ointments and infusions you provide. You, Binnesman, are the master of your craft, of that I am sure. You deserve greater honor than you have been accorded. You should be serving as hearthmaster in the Room of Earth Powers in the House of Understanding—not that fraud Hoewell.”

Iome marveled. Even in far Indhopal, Raj Ahten knew of Binnesman’s work. The Wolf Lord seemed almost omniscient to her.

Binnesman watched him from beneath bushy brows. The wrinkled lines of Binnesman’s face were wise, and after years of smiling, made him look kind and soft. But there was no kindness behind his eyes. Iome had seen him smash bugs in his garden with that calculating gaze. “The honors of men do not interest me.”

“Then what does interest you?” Raj Ahten asked. When Binnesman did not answer, he said softly, “Will you serve me?”

The tone of voice, the subtle inflections, were all such that many another man would have prostrated themselves.

“I serve no king,” Binnesman answered.

“You served Sylvarresta,” Raj Ahten gently reminded him, “just as he serves me now!”

“Sylvarresta was my friend, never my master.”

“You served his people. You served him as a friend.”

“I serve the earth, and all people on it, Lord Raj.”

“Then will you give yourself to me?”

Binnesman gave him a scolding look, as if Raj Ahten were a child caught doing wrong when he knew better. “Do you desire my service as a man, or as a wizard?”

“As a wizard.”

“Then, alas, Lord Raj, I cannot take a vow to serve you, for it would diminish my powers.”

“How so?” Raj Ahten asked.

“I’ve vowed to serve the earth, and no other,” Binnesman said. “I serve the trees in their hour of need, as well as the fox and the hare. I serve men with no greater and no less devotion than I serve other creatures. But if I break my vow to serve the earth, if I seek instead to serve you, my powers would perish.

“You have many men who will serve you, or who will serve themselves in your interest, Raj Ahten. Content yourself with them.”

Iome wondered at Binnesman’s words. He lied now, she knew. He did serve men more than animals. He’d once told her it was his weakness, this peculiar devotion to mankind. In his eyes, it made him unworthy of his master. Iome feared that Raj Ahten would see through the lies, punish Binnesman.