“Yet here we are, and I am not you, nor have I your compunctions about this matter.” He sat back, as if the matter were settled, and of course it was. He was in the prince’s body now, and she doubted that anyone but him knew how to get him out. “But you seem skeptical, Deputy Courier. As I said, transference is a spell, devised to be carried out freely, without coercion, in times of need. Trust is needed because both parties are, shall we say, asleep to the other. That means I have no access to the thoughts or memories of my host, while my host falls into a state resembling slumber while I walk in his body.”

“So the prince won’t remember any of this?”

“He will not.”

What a relief! “In that case, I see why trust is needed.”

“Regardless, I can’t leave this body. I mean that literally. There is nowhere for me to go, so I am fixed inside this flesh for now.”

“When can you leave it?”

“Do you miss the prince? Do you have a relationship with him?”

“I do not know him at all, nor did I speak to him, nor would he ever have spoken to me. The prince’s fate does not concern me, except insofar as he represents the empire and thus we are required to honor him. He did inadvertently do me a favor, though.”

“Did he? How could he have done that if he never spoke to you?”

First, above all, she had to act to protect Kem. “He accepted Kem—the youth you saw with me—as a warden. This matters because Kem’s sire is a cruel man and far more powerful than I am. He wants to take Kem away and force him to be something he’s not, force him to do his bidding. So I am grateful to the prince for that. As long as Kem remains a warden, Lord Duenn can’t take him away.”

“You care about the boy.”

“I care about him more than anyone else alive. But you didn’t answer my question. When can you leave the body?”

“I’ll keep that information to myself, if you please.”

“I don’t please, but I don’t see I have a choice. What are your questions?”

“Ah. Yes. My many, many questions. I appreciated your quick thinking this morning. You gave me enough information to proceed.”

“You really know nothing of who and what Prince Gevulin is, or where you are?”

“Nothing at all, except such scraps as I pick up as I go along. I need more. Who am I, really?”

“The haunt? You’ll have to tell me.”