“The path is too strenuous for me, I fear, Your Highness. I am plagued with weak lungs from a bout of pneumonia, the same that took my wife to the Halcyon Court Beyond the Last Star three years ago. This deputy courier knows the route better than anyone in Orledder Intendancy. It has been her route for ten years. I highly recommend her to you, as you wish to reach the Vigil as soon as possible, not to mention as you also seek to return to the capital in time for the emperor’s naming anniversary—”

The intendant broke off, hearing a clatter of footsteps. A smile flickered as he glanced first toward Elen with a barely noticeable dip of the chin to warn her, then toward the arch.

Lord Duenn marched into the forecourt, looking puffed up with consequence and bloated with impatient fury. He was accompanied by his captain, his interlocutor, a chatelaine, and Kem, who was bracketed by two militiamen, including surly-mouthed Gloves.

Kem wore a mulish expression. A feverishly bright smile tilted his mouth, as if he had thought of something very, very clever, like the Residence cats when they deigned to bring you the gift of a dead rat. Oh dear. This would bear watching. She had to stay on her toes. The speed of events raced like a galloping horse ahead of a blistering storm.

Lord Duenn was on his high horse, already blustering. “What means this? Why have I not been informed that travelers from the palace have arrived? Why have the visitors not called upon me, as would be their duty toward me and my consequence?” He saw the prince and stopped dead, going ashen as the blood bled from his cheeks. Belatedly, he bowed. “Your Highness, Prince Gevulin.”

“I have never seen you before,” said the prince, with a contemptuous twitch to his lips. “Who are you, to claim to know me and to speak so boldly in my presence? Do you not even know the proper protocol? Announce yourself to my interlocutor.”

The Duenn interlocutor said, “Lord Duenn, of Duenn Manor, Woodfall Province.”

The prince’s eyes narrowed. “Duenn Manor. Where have I heard of you before? Ah, I have it! Duenn Manor was among the Manor-born escort who marched in the entourage of Prince Astaylin, Prince of the Third Estate and Exalted General of the Imperial Engineers. That was at the Feast of Lost Couplets, was it not?”

“We were so honored, Your Highness. Prince Astaylin’s favor has been a light in our dark times.”

“I see,” said the prince.

Even Lord Duenn was intelligent enough, past his bluster, to hear the menace in those two words. He hesitated as he tried to figure out what he had said to cause the prince to respond with such a grim expression.