“Remember that fact-finding tour the emperor sent Gevulin on? Simo accompanied him for the entire journey and was elevated to captain of Gevulin’s personal escort after the prince was appointed as all-seeing eye. Simo doesn’t have the backing of a high-status Manor, so he couldn’t ever have expected to gain the rank of captain without the prince’s support. Not that I think Simo doesn’t deserve it. He’s one of the best wardens in the order. It’s just that the promotion makes him personally beholden to the prince, rather than to the order.”

“I heard you’ve been offered a captaincy twice,” said Ipis, “and turned it down both times.”

“Three times,” said Xilsi flatly, as if the topic annoyed her. “And you can be cursed sure I won’t let anyone put that target on my back.”

“What target?” Elen asked.

“Maybe I’ve said too much. It’s one of the reasons I Declared for the wardens. And for the road wardens, not the shadow wardens.”

“The shadow wardens?”

“Forget I said that. The point is, wardens aren’t meant to dabble our toes in the dirty bathwater of palace affairs. But that doesn’t mean we only guard the roads. If you think of the roads as the blood vessels of the empire, then we are listeners of a different kind. We listen to the pulse of the empire.”

“What does the pulse tell you?” Elen asked, remembering the intendant’s fear of spies.

Xilsi peered ahead. They could see the back of the haunt as he sat straight and proud, looking ahead. As if sensing Xilsi’s gaze, Luviara turned to look back. Elen raised a cheerful hand. The theurgist answered with a lively wave of her own.

“That one,” muttered Xilsi. “I wonder about her.”

“Luviara? What do you wonder?” Ipis asked. “She seems harmless. Like a magpie, always looking for treasure. Chirp chirp chirp.”

“I wonder a lot of things,” said Xilsi. “Crown Prince Minaylin is the only living child of the Magnolia Emperor. He’s about the same age as our Kem, here. No longer a boy, and not quite yet a man. The emperor is barely forty, so the crown prince has time to grow and learn, however he may behave now. Still, it’s said character shows early. The Lily Emperor would have weeded out such an undisciplined child from the ranks of eligible princes. Instead, the Magnolia Emperor named him as her crown prince when he was only twelve. She could have named one of her younger siblings, like Astaylin or Gevulin. They are competent adults. They survived the strict regimen of their exalted parent, the Lily Emperor. But the Magnolia Emperor didn’t name either of her siblings. Instead, she placed them in a position to become rivals. I, for one, wonder if it was deliberate on her part to set them at odds. That, Deputy Courier, is the pulse of the empire.”