“We have investigators coming from Raverra, and the local intelligence agents we already had looking for the children and trying to find Baron Leodra’s contacts in Ardence are working on it.” Lady Terringer shook her head. “Sounds to me like it was the damned Shadow Gentry again. If we can unmask and arrest the lot of them, that should satisfy the doge—if we also get the jess back.”

A twinge pinched my chest. Domenic could too easily get swept up in a move like that, and his brother almost certainly would. Not to mention, from what he’d said, arresting the Shadow Gentry meant hauling off a fair fraction of the Ardentine court. The doge might count himself satisfied, but Ardence would never take it quietly.

I had to find out who exactly had been behind the attack. Gabril’s upcoming party might be our best hope.

I swallowed. “All right. What about the taxes, and giving due deference to you as Serene Envoy? Do you think we can get Duke Astor to return to the Serene Accords?”

“Hmph. He would have already if it weren’t for the cursed kidnapping.” Lady Terringer thunked her cup down on the table with greater force than necessary. “Everything was smooth sailing until then. I made it clear the Empire was not amused at his antics, and Duke Bergandon acted cowed enough. He was ready to drop the taxes on Raverran merchants and step back in line. Then the children disappeared, his nobles got hysterical, and everything went straight to the Hell of Discord. The timing was perfect to destroy everything I’d done.”

“I know what that’s like,” Ignazio murmured over the rim of his cup, “when people blunder in and destroy all your careful work.”

Lady Terringer’s eye twitched.

I ignored his interjection. “So what will it take now to get the duke and his nobles to become loyal subjects of the Serene Empire again?”

“Besides finding the missing children and bringing the kidnapper to justice? I don’t know.” Lady Terringer’s forehead bunched into grim furrows. “Several of the Council of Lords had children or grandchildren stolen, and they won’t listen to anything I say—or let the duke hear me, either.” She turned, with an air of reluctance, to Ignazio. “But they might listen to you. Will you help?”

Some intense emotion flickered through Ignazio’s eyes, but he kept his expression schooled and blank, then carefully orchestrated it into one of dry amusement. “I thought I was removed from my position because my negotiating tactics were too subtle and slow.”