He’d been second-guessing himself ever since he’d said no to Raisa in her bedchamber two nights before. His body complained to him all night long. And a voice in his head whispered, Fool! Who do you think you are? A romp on the down-low is the best you can expect from a blueblood queen.

To make matters worse, he’d said yes to attempting the impossible—winning the vote for High Wizard.

“Alister,” Crow said softly, startling Han back to the present. He looked up to meet unexpected compassion in his ancestor’s eyes. “Think. There must be something you’ve overlooked—some way to win.”

“There’s this,” Han said. “The Bayars have plenty of enemies, but for centuries, nobody’s dared take them on because they seemed invulnerable to attack. If I discredit Bayar, it puts a chink in that armor. It may be enough to persuade people to vote my way.”

“And how do you propose to do that? Discredit him, I mean.”

“I need to get Fire Dancer and his mother into the Council House on Gray Lady,” Han said. “You need to tell me how.”

“You’re going to bring copperheads onto Gray Lady?” Crow lifted an eyebrow. “They’ll never make it out alive.”

“We have to risk it,” Han said. “We’re going to confront Bayar in front of the council.”

“To what purpose?” Crow asked. “Aside from the entertainment value, I mean.”

“This is about justice,” Han said. “It’s about righting a wrong.”

Crow laughed. “Politics is not about justice. It’s about the settling of personal vendettas, under a thin veneer of civilization. All politics is personal.”

“No problem,” Han said. “This is personal.”

“Even if you discredit the Bayars, even if you win the post of High Wizard, the Bayars will find a way to win,” Crow said softly. “The only way they’ll give is if the alternative is too terrible to contemplate.” He put a hand on Han’s shoulder. “Trust me, I know. I was the last person to confront the Bayars, and look what happened to me. Now you have both the Spirit clans and the Wizard Council to contend with. If wizards support you, the copperheads will oppose you. And the other way ’round.”

Right now, neither one supports me, Han thought. “What do you suggest?”

“The only way to get what you want is to make them more afraid of you than they are of each other. Give them a demonstration. Destroy the Council House. Blow up one of the copperhead camps. Show them you mean business.”

“My first priority is winning over the queen,” Han said. “She wants to bring the factions in the Fells together, not split them apart. Blowing holes in the queendom is unlikely to help my case.”