“Not me. I’m sorry for him, but I’m not sorry for refusing to be the one he’s looking for.”

“You’re the sunniest person I know,” he said with a considering tilt of his head, “but then I think you are also the most merciless.”

She laughed. “You ever tried sitting on bare rock, under a hot sun, for an entire cloudless day, without water?”

“No.” Another sharp look. “Have you?”

“Think it over. Now hush. Once we reach the promontory, no talk.”

“No talk? What does that mean?”

“Haunts are attracted to the sound of voices.”

“Haunts?” He cast a newly apprehensive glance toward the towers as the path began to level off. They’d reached the top of the slope. “There’s really a haunt there?”

“Do you doubt Joef?” she said, stifling a laugh.

“I don’t know. Joef tells all kinds of stories and says they’re true. Is it safe for us?”

“As safe as anything in this world, which means it isn’t safe.”

“What about the wardens and the circle of warding?”

“There is a circle of holystone pavement. I don’t know if it was put there by imperial wardens, or if it’s always been there since the towers were first built. Stay inside its boundaries, and no restless soul can touch you.”

“So there is a haunt in the Spires?” he demanded.

“There’s a presence, although I couldn’t say what. A haunt is as good a name as any.”

“How do you know?” His mouth twisted. “Never mind. Of course you know every single little thing along this circuit.”

“I doubt I do, but not for want of trying. There’s something I want you to see, something beautiful in the towers you can’t see anywhere else, except maybe in another set of Spires like these.”

“There are other Spires? In other places?”

“Why would this be the only one?”

“I don’t know. I could ask Joef, but he doesn’t have access to the surveyor maps.” He paused before asking, “Why are surveyor maps locked away from the archivists?”

“Up-to-date maps are for the use of the empire’s armies, not for its historians.”

“Oh. Huh. The same way you can’t share the information you hear in Map Hall.”

“That’s right. While it’s true an intendant is the chief magistrate and justiciar for an intendancy, it’s really a military position. Keeping the peace locally and supervising scouts, surveyors, couriers, and I suppose spies, although I don’t know about spies. Maybe only the palace has charge of spies. And never say I said that to you. It could get us both in trouble.”

He nodded. “Do you think Elder Marsilion’s story is true? About the haunt who possessed the youth?”

She smiled. “We’ll be fine as long as you do what I tell you for once. To start with, no talking.”