Chapters (73)
- Copyright Notice
- Dedication
- 1 ON ORDINARY LANES AND BEHIND UNPROTECTED WALLS
- 2 THE DEPUTY COURIER
- 3 A THIRD PRESENCE
- 4 THE HOLYSTONE PAVEMENT
- 5 THE HAUNT
- 6 THE MOON-BRIGHT MIRAGE
- 7 THE SOLE FRAGILE DEFENSE
- 8 THE SPORE
- 9 THREE WELL-SPRUNG CARRIAGES
- 10 A SWIRLING RIOT OF ACTIVITY
- 11 OF COURSE HE WAS HANDSOME
- 12 A GAMBIT TO RUIN HIM
- 13 A SLICE OF FESTIVAL CAKE
- 14 ORDER CREATES TRANQUILITY
- 15 THE THIRD ATONER
- 16 A FALSE AND ROTTEN HEART
- 17 BAIT
- 18 ALL WE HAD TO LOSE WAS OUR LIVES
- 19 THE OPENING
- 20 THERE IS ANOTHER WAY
- 21 AN EFFUSION OF UGLY SATISFACTION
- 22 BEST ADMIRED FROM A DISTANCE
- 23 SOMETHING HAD CAUGHT IN HIS THROAT
- 24 TO THIS DAY
- 25 THE THIEF
- 26 A PRAGMATIC SUGGESTION
- 27 DESTINED TO BE A CHARMING ADVENTURE AND NOT A TEDIOUS SLOG
- 28 SHOULD THEY LIVE THAT LONG
- 29 A PERILOUS DELIGHT
- 30 THAT UNEASY TIME
- 31 TEARS ARE A LUXURY
- 32 WISHFUL THINKING
- 33 EVEN IF THEY DO NOT LOOK IT
- 34 A SLOWLY HEAVING MOVEMENT
- 35 THE SOBER SEARCH FOR TRUTH
- 36 THE CONUNDRUM SHE WRESTLED WITH
- 37 FIVE BASKETS FULL!
- 38 SOMEWHERE AMONG THE ROCKS
- 39 THE MORNING OF THEIR DEATH
- 40 THE CLOUDBERRY BREW
- 41 THEIR PURSUERS
- 42 A SWALTER DELVING
- 43 THE ROPE BRIDGE
- 44 DON’T LOOK DOWN
- 45 THE MOST EFFICIENT WAY
- 46 A MORE COMPLICATED STORY
- 47 THE AFTERMATH
- 48 INTRUSIVE AND RUDE
- 49 A DOUSE OF ICY WATER
- 50 MORE LIKE A JOKE
- 51 AS THE EMPIRE DECREES
- 52 IF THAT IS YOUR PREFERENCE
- 53 THE VIGIL
- 54 NO ANSWER
- 55 A WILD AND ALLURING STORY
- 56 THE PULSE OF THE EMPIRE
- 57 HALF-TOLD LIES AND FRAGMENTS OF TRUTH
- 58 THE GREAT LINEAGES
- 59 A FUNNEL CLOUD
- 60 BATH
- 61 A PINCH OF JEALOUSY
- 62 TOO MANY BLANK SPOTS
- 63 THE LAST VIGIL
- 64 THE BEAT OF ITS HEART
- 65 THE DISTURBED VIPER
- 66 IMAGINE THERE IS A NAMELESS LAND
- 67 THE PERFECT WEAPON
- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
- Also by Kate Elliott
- ABOUT THE AUTHOR
- Newsletter Sign-up
“I trust the deputy courier to know a way around that.”
“I do, Your Highness,” said Elen, feeling it safe to answer.
“Oh, I know what you’re going to do,” said Kem with his usual grin. Then he remembered how mad he was at her, and blew out a sharp exhalation, clenched his hands, and pretended he hadn’t said anything. He said to Ipis, in a tight voice, “Thanks for the lessons today. I learned a lot of things I never knew before.”
“Your Highness, our novice is a quick learner,” said Ipis. “As well, Kem knows a great deal about mountain craft and even a bit of surveyor lore.”
“I am pleased to hear of the novice’s good progress,” said the haunt loftily. “A very promising start to what it is hoped will be a long and loyal life as a warden in service of the empire.”
Flushed about the ears, Kem set back to his food.
The haunt examined the last hunk of bread and, with great seriousness, plucked it off its platter and consumed the whole in three neat bites, but with an expression of mild distaste. “I don’t understand the appeal of this manner of food,” he remarked before turning back to the fish.
Forgetting herself, and angry on behalf of the unheralded baker, Elen said, “The bread is the best thing here! Uh. Your Highness.”
Everyone stared, except Kem, who pressed fingers to his forehead and pretended he hadn’t heard or seen her appalling rudeness.
The haunt blinked, surveying the varying expressions of the wardens: Simo offended, Ipis shocked, Xilsi torn between amusement and distaste, Jirvy puzzled. Luviara’s gnomic smile. Fulmo’s indifference. He cleared his throat. “It pleases me to remind you all that if the archon is indeed involved with someone who has the power to urge her to violent deeds, she will not attack us in the village with so many potential witnesses. Rather she will wait to strike until we are out on the path again, isolated and alone. Anything else?”
“Your Highness, as a distraction, mention the copper mines as we’re leaving,” said Elen.
“Copper mines?”
“To one of us, as if continuing a conversation. But not to the archon.”
“I see. Very well. We leave at dawn.”