“It might be a good idea.”

“I… always liked to think of myself as fearless.” Selest looked down

at the floor as though she was blinking back tears. “But the truth is…

faced with real danger… I was an utter coward. It is… a hard thing to learn about oneself.”

“If the Great Change taught us anything, it is that the vast majority of us are cowards the vast majority of the time.”

“Not you.”

Savine smiled. Is there anything finer than seeing an enemy humbled? “I have my moments. But we are all offered a new beginning, now. A chance to make ourselves afresh. You may not have covered yourself in glory in the Court of the People, but you emerged alive. You are ruthless, ambitious, clever and persistent. Qualities I could make use of, if you were willing to serve His August Majesty.”

Selest swallowed. “I am eager to serve him, of course.” She looked up nervously from under her lashes. “Or Your Highness.” Which was getting closer to it. “Only… tell me how.”

Probably she feared she would be sent as emissary to distant Thond or put into service in the palace as a carpet. Savine was somewhat tempted. But one must work with the tools one has, as her father had once been fond of saying.

She made Selest’s distress last just a little longer, then tossed it out as if it was nothing to remark upon. “On the Closed Council.”

“But I…” Selest looked as if a fan’s waft could have knocked her over. “Women, surely, are not permitted—”

“I was very careful over the language in the Grand Declaration. The gender of the Closed Council’s members was nowhere specified. We did not get where we are by having too much respect for tradition, did we? I mean to be there, I promise you.”

“Lady Savine… I hardly know what to say.”

“Say nothing, then.” Savine leaned close. “And let your loyalty speak for you.”

“Loyalty is so important, isn’t it?” Savine frowned around to find that stooge of the First of the Magi, Yoru Sulfur, much closer to her than she would have liked.

“Your Highness,” he said, with a stiff little bow. “I have been seeking an audience.”

Savine gestured to the eager crowd pressing in around them, though Zuri seemed to have faded into the background. “I see who I wish to, Master Sulfur. For the rest, no amount of seeking will make the slightest difference.”

She flicked out her fan to bring the conversation to a close, but Sulfur did not take the hint. “Do you imagine that you have won?” he asked.

She smiled at the foyer full of smiles, queen in all but name. “It looks rather like it.”

“Looks can lie.”

“Almost as proficiently as magi.”

He did not like that at all, different-coloured eyes angrily narrowed. “My master will be satisfied,” he said, an edge of menace on his voice. “There is no hiding from him.”

“Who’s hiding?” asked Savine, lifting her chin. “The Breakers did their worst in Valbeck, and here I am. The cannons did their worst at Stoffenbeck, and here I am. Judge did her worst on the Tower of Chains, and even so, here I am. You tried your very best to destroy me, too, as I recall, blabbing my ugliest secrets around town, and it only made me more powerful.”