I sank against the hard back of my chair, to the degree possible in a corset, not caring what the doge thought of my posture. So much for my hopes to find a way to ease the tension with Ardence. Now I’d have to help make it worse.

The spark held steady in Niro da Morante’s eyes as he regarded me across a writing table. I’d known this meeting would be trouble the moment I’d heard it would be in his private study. The room had no windows, and the few lamps he’d lit failed to hold back the gloom, though they picked occasional gleams of gold from the shadows.

“You and your Falcon both.” He rolled a pen between his fingers. “Can you control her?”

“Your Serenity, I doubt anyone can control her.”

The pen stopped. “Think very carefully about that statement,” he said.

A cold needle of fear slid through my heart. “Your Serenity?”

“If a fire warlock cannot be controlled, she is a danger to the Empire. It is my solemn duty to eliminate threats to the Serene City.” His voice stayed relentlessly calm—a voice that had condemned people to death often enough that the words would flow familiarly over his tongue. “I ask you again. Can you control her?”

I swallowed. “I can bind her power, Your Serenity. And she can control herself. If we earn her loyalty, that comes out to the same thing, in the end.”

He stared at me for a long time. I didn’t look away, even when I felt like screaming at him to say something.

“Do you understand,” he said at last, “why I am sending you to Ardence?”

“The paradox of force,” I whispered.

“Exactly.” He steepled his fingers before him. “It is my hope, Lady Amalia, we will have no need to unleash your Falcon’s fire and that your presence will serve as a sufficient reminder to Duke Bergandon to behave himself. But if that hope fails, I need to be certain I can carry through on my implicit threat. Especially now, when so many other problems distract the Empire. Do you understand?”

“Yes. But, Your Serenity, someone is trying to goad Raverra and Ardence into fighting. All these other forces disturbing the serenity of the Empire—Leodra, Vaskandar—have helped create this problem.” My corset stays dug into my legs as I strained at the edge of my seat. “You must see that.”

“Of course I do.”

“Then surely you wouldn’t burn Ardence over a needless conflict sparked by deceit. We must find out the truth behind the false Falconer incident, not escalate it to war.”

He raised an eyebrow. “My lady, you mistake the situation, and you mistake me.”

“Oh?”

“This is not a matter of truth,” he said. “This is a matter of dominion.”