“I’m sorry,” she said, impelled by a rush of shame and fear. She felt shame that she had concealed so much of their past from a good man who had helped them. But fear overwhelmed shame. What if the intendant decided he could no longer trust her? She had to keep him on her side if she wanted to get Kem out of this. “We were so afraid. And we loved it here. Orledder is the first safe haven we ever found.”

The pressure of the intendant’s regard had its own intimidating weight. He was an intelligent and fair-minded man experienced in the ways of people trying to wriggle off a hook they’d caught themselves on. She thought he was going to ask her about the murder charge, but instead he gestured toward his own forearm. “You never told me how you came to carry such a deadly thing inside you. Out of courtesy, I never asked. Perhaps it is time for me to hear the truth.”

Elen had a story made up about that, too, but her throat closed up on the words. She could not bear to lie to him about it, so she didn’t know what to say.

A shrill horn blast pierced the thick walls of the blockhouse. There came a stampede of footsteps and a clamor of voices outside. The interior gate opened. Captain Jinyan’s familiar broad-shouldered form stood framed in the light.

“Intendant, the prince has returned.”

19 THE OPENING

There it was. The opening. Bold and outrageous, impossible and desperate. But a path, where she’d seen none before.

Elen whispered, “Intendant, how likely is it the prince’s messages went astray by accident? Isn’t it more likely—as you suggested—that the messages were never sent, on purpose, but the prince was told they were sent?”

“Do you mean how likely is it that Prince Astaylin is trying to undercut Prince Gevulin’s status in the palace by preventing him from completing his mission and making him look like an incompetent fool? It could be. It’s also possible Prince Gevulin is incompetent and a fool. But he did send a griffin scout, who, according to the prince, delivered a message at Ilvewind Cross but never arrived here. Usually such matters can be explained by incompetence, but malice remains a possibility.”

“I beg you, Intendant, take me with you to greet the prince.”

“What is it you hope to accomplish? When Lord Duenn sees you, I’ll be taken to task for releasing you from the cellblock. He’ll have another chance to execute you outright. At the least, he will pressure me again to hand you over to him by saying I broke my side of the bargain about keeping you locked up. And he won’t be wrong.”

“I alerted you to the secret, temporary crossing over Grinder’s Cut I discovered months ago.”

“The smugglers’ route?”