“Hmm. Everyone pressures the duke.” Savony shook her head. “To stand up to the Empire, or to appease the doge’s wrath. To find their missing children, and to punish whoever took them. To pay for their indulgences. To find someone to blame. To make Ardence what it was when they were young. All his court want the duke to be the great man who solves all of their problems for them.” Her gaze met mine, assessing. “But he is not that man. And so it falls to me.”

“That seems quite a task for a steward,” I admitted.

“And that,” she said, “is why I am hoping for help from Raverra, to whom the nobles of Ardence have no choice but to listen. And from the shrewd and wealthy house of Cornaro in particular. Your cousin and I had a plan to save the city, despite Duke Astor. But Ignazio was recalled to Raverra.” By the disapproval in her voice, I guessed she preferred Ignazio as Serene Envoy over Lady Terringer.

“I hope, after the current difficulties are settled, your efforts with him will not be in vain.”

A faint smile touched her severe mouth. “I hope so as well. I will do everything I can to restore peace and good relations between our cities, both for the sake of the present and in hope for the future. I ask you to bear in mind that no solution to the current crisis will work if it does not account for the fundamental problems causing unrest in Ardence: financial ruin and poor leadership. I look to Raverra for help in creating a remedy. I hope you will be part of that solution.”

“I would certainly like to help Ardence thrive again,” I said carefully, wary of stumbling blindly into a hidden agreement lying in her words like a trap.

She gave me a stiff bow. “Perhaps, then, you may be the one who can save my city, Lady Amalia. If you don’t destroy it first.”

The next morning, I cleared my schedule and had my oarsman take me to the Mews. I’d related my interactions with Ruven and Savony to my mother as she was on her way out the door to the Imperial Palace, but I was desperate to really talk to someone about Ruven’s connection to the Shadow Gentry, Duke Astor’s reckless rejection of the Serene Envoy, and what might be done to keep the situation from sliding farther down into the Hell of Madness.