Drust walked over to the windows and peeked through the curtains at the courtyard and surrounding buildings, checking lighted windows and darkened doorways. It was a habit he had never been able to quit, the need to reassure himself of his own safety as automatic to him as breathing.

Satisfied, he sat down in the chair across from the assassin and poured a glass of wine from the decanter. Stoon had already helped himself.

“To our success,” he toasted. They drank, a sip only. Neither man used spirits for anything more than token pleasure. “What have you found out about the Druids?”

Stoon considered. “Not as much as I would like. Our spies cannot get close to Paranor’s walls, let alone think about getting inside. They watch from the air in flits and from more distant stationary points. What we know for certain comes mostly from Arborlon. The Druid granddaughter of the King was there for more than a year searching the Elven histories for references to missing magic. She found something, and arrangements were made to determine what it was. They failed. Spectacularly. She proved more capable than the man I chose. When I pressed the matter with more than two, an Elven Hunter who had signed on as her protector intervened. He was even more capable. We lost everyone and gained nothing. Except that in this last attack, the young woman’s leg was broken.”

Drust Chazhul found himself growing impatient. “Are we getting to the good parts of this narrative anytime soon?”

“Patience, Prime Minister. I am merely setting the stage.” Stoon was calm, unruffled by the rebuke. He knew Drust too well to be offended or troubled by anything the other said.

“When the King’s granddaughter returned to Paranor with news of her discovery,” he continued, “the Ard Rhys apparently woke from the Druid Sleep to determine what should be done about it. After sending the King’s granddaughter back to Arborlon, she and the other Druids went out from Paranor to various places in the Four Lands in search of certain men and women. We don’t know why. Whatever their purpose, it appears to be of no small importance; presumably, it has something to do with what was found in the Elven histories.”

“But we don’t know what that purpose is or who these people are?”

“Not yet.”

“You can find this out?”

“I am in the process of doing so. But it will take time. No one must suspect our interest in this, the Druids especially.”

Drust nodded. There would be no mistakes, no unplanned surprises, and no inconvenient witnesses to anything Stoon was planning. There never had been, not from day one of their unusual relationship, and he didn’t expect that to change now.