“But after I gave the endowment, after his men dragged my body down to the Dedicates’ Keep, I felt as if I awoke from a dream. I realized what I’d lost, how I’d been used.”

“I see,” King Orden said, wondering idly how many endowments of glamour and Voice Raj Ahten had, that he could gain such power over men. “So, what happened here? How did the Duchess manage this coup?”

“I am not certain, for I was weak as a pup in the Dedicates’ Keep, and could not stay awake. I heard only snatches of reports.

“As I understand, the Duke apparently got paid to let Raj Ahten pass through the Dunnwood. But he dared not let his wife know of the payment, and so kept it hidden in his private apartments, not daring to show it.

“After his death, when the Duchess realized that he must have been paid for his treason, she searched his private apartments and found some hundred forcibles.”

“I see,” King Orden said. “So she used the forcibles to furnish some assassins?”

“Yes,” Tempest answered. “When Raj Ahten entered the city, not all our guard was in the keep. Four young soldiers were in the wilds, investigating a report that a woodcutter in Greenton had spotted a reaver—”

“Have you had many reports of reavers hereabouts?” Orden asked, for this was important news.

“No, but last spring we tracked a trio in the Dunnwood.”

Orden thought. “How large were the tracks?”

“Twenty to thirty inches long.”

“Four-toed, or three-toed tracks?”

“Two were three-toed. The largest was four-toed.”

Orden licked his lips, found his mouth suddenly dry. “You knew what that meant, didn’t you?”

“Yes, Your Highness,” Captain Tempest said. “We had a mating triad.”

“And you did not kill them? You didn’t find them?”

“Sylvarresta knew of it. He sent hunters after them.”

No doubt Sylvarresta would have told Orden of the reavers. We might have hunted more than boars this year, Orden thought. Yet this news bothered him, for he’d heard other troubling reports of reavers moving through the mountains along the borders of Mystarria—war bands of nines and eighty-ones. Not since his great-grandfather’s day had he heard so many reports. And on his journey north, while traveling through Fleeds, Queen Herin the Red mentioned problems with reavers killing her horses. But Orden had not expected the depredations to extend so far north.

“So,” Orden said, “you had soldiers on patrol when Raj Ahten took possession. . . .”

“Right. They stayed out of the city, until Raj Ahten left. They saw the Duke hanged, so they sent a note to the Duchess, asking her orders. She sent her facilitator into town with the forcibles, and the soldiers took endowments from whomever would grant them, until they had enough to attack.”

“So they performed an escalade?” Orden asked.