“I do not, Your Highness,” said the intendant, eyebrows raising. He did not look at his valet or at Elen, two people he sometimes shared his honest thoughts with.

The theurgist’s mouth twitched, but Elen could not read her expression. Something was afoot.

The prince rattled on obliviously. “Escort me at once to the imperial bathing chamber. Afterward have ready a suitable meal that can be taken quickly.” He pulled out a jewel-studded pocket watch. “We depart in one hour.”

12 A GAMBIT TO RUIN HIM

Elen had never seen the inside of the imperial suite. At every Halt, an entire wing of rooms in the imperial quarter was set aside in case any member of the inner palace were to pass through. According to Joef’s aunt, the last time the suite had been opened was fourteen years ago, a few months before Elen and Aoving had walked into Orledder thinking they would stay in the Halt overnight before moving on. The visitor then had been merely an official of the second rank in the palace censorate, not even a prince.

As he had not been dismissed, the intendant was required to escort the prince as if he were himself a menial. In the hierarchy of the imperial administration, he was. The local interlocutor stayed behind. An intendant’s interlocutor hadn’t enough status to speak on behalf of a prince.

To Elen’s surprise, Cariol, the intendant’s valet, beckoned her to come along. She’d never expected to see the inside of the imperial wing, and she had a distrust of enclosed inner wings of highborn compounds, which could be prisons as much as they could be palaces. But she didn’t protest or try to slink away. She had to let the intendant know about the Spore as soon as possible. Every delay felt like another spine in her throat. The viper slept, untroubled by her agitation. Eating the Spore had satiated it, although it could wake again in a heartbeat if she needed it. She did not want to need it.

Also, she was curious.

The imperial wing did not disappoint. As with the intendant’s Residence, the arrangement led from outer public rooms to inner private sanctums. Each was more spectacularly decorated than the last with lovely floral set pieces, as well as wall paintings featuring ethereal clouds amid tree-dappled peaks, and hungry panthers tearing apart their grateful prey.