Had this man and the others deserved death? She was not the emperor, nor the court of the High Heavens, to pass judgment, nor did she want to be.

“How fortunate that he died quickly,” said the haunt in a casual tone. He had kept his gaze on the Pall all this time, but now he looked at her. “As I was saying, as far as I can tell, from what the others have said and haven’t said, it seems Fulmo was brought into Prince Gevulin’s service by Hemerlin.”

“Hemerlin?” She had to drag her thoughts back to the here and the now. A soldier was dead, along with at least four others, all because they’d tried to kill the prince. The haunt had saved the prince’s party. That was what mattered. She was adept at walling things off. It was how she’d survived.

He went on as if their conversation had not just been interrupted by a grisly death he had himself caused. “I suspect a gagast’s immunity to Pall has to do with their ability to sense poisons in food and drink. But I couldn’t say for sure. There are so many mysteries yet to be unwound! I’m quite agog at wondering what we’ll discover when we reach Far Boundary Vigil. If we reach it. Truly, the prince has determined enemies. I almost admire them.”

He started down again. She climbed after him, mulling over his words. It made sense that a chief menial would seek any means to protect the prince he served.

“I heard the gagast send small tributary groups to the palace. Do you suppose every prince gets one?” she asked.

“I wasn’t aware the gagast of these benighted days distributed their own kin as tribute. They’re a very independent people.”

“All I know of gagast is that they walked out of the Desolation.”

He glanced at her as he picked his way down. “I don’t quite understand this Desolation.”

“The Desolation used to be a Pall. It covered most of Wheathome Province, which ran from the northern coast south into the heartland. The Pall that rose there was really large, like a sea. Then, about thirty years after its rising, it vanished. In just a few months, so the chroniclers write. As if it were being drained. Like—I don’t know—out of a hole in the bottom of a tub.”

“What lies in this Desolation now?”

“In its outer borderlands, there is nothing alive, no animals, no plants, just bare ground and rocks. But no Spore either. After a few years, aivur and gagast began emerging from the interior. They were almost like refugees racing ahead of a storm.”

“You’ve seen this—the Desolation—with your own eyes?”

“No, not me. I read the chronicles and way-sheets compiled from the reports of imperial surveyors.”