"No! Nyal said to speak only to you."

"You have my word, my lady, as long as whatever you have to say doesn't put me at odds with my loyalty to Princess Klia."

"Loyalty!" she exclaimed softly, wringing her hands. "You must be the judge of that, I suppose. Ulan i Sathil has summoned certain khirnari to meet with him tonight at his house. My husband is among those who will be there."

"I don't understand. I thought he and your husband were enemies?"

"There is no good feeling between them," Amali admitted, looking more distracted than ever. "That is why it worries me so. Whatever Ulan has to say, it cannot bode well for your princess, yet my husband will not tell me what the purpose of the meeting is to be. He has been so—so very upset by all this. I cannot imagine what would convince him to go to that man's house."

"But why tell me?"

"It was Nyal's idea, as I said. I spoke with him earlier. 'Bring this to Alec i Amasa as soon as you can! he said. Why would he send me to you?"

"I can't say, my lady, but I give you my word that your secrets are safe."

Amali clasped his hands between hers for a moment, tears standing in her eyes as she searched his face. "I love my husband, Alec i Amasa. I wish no harm or dishonor to come to him. I would not have spoken if I did not fear for him. I cannot explain it—there's just been such a weight of dread on my heart since this whole dreadful debate began. Now more than ever, he is Klia a Idrilain's best ally."

"She knows that. When are the khirnari to meet?"

"At the evening meal. The Viresse always wait until after sunset to dine."

Alec stored away this information. "Perhaps you should return to the hall now, before you're missed?"

She gave him a small, grateful smile and slipped out. Alec waited a few moments, then went out to the barracks to find Nyal.

The Ra'basi was playing bakshi with Beka and several of her riders. As soon as Alec appeared in the doorway, however, he excused himself and walked with him into the stable.

"I just spoke with Amali," Alec told him.

Nyal looked relieved. "I feared she would not go to you."

"Why, Nyal? Why me?"

The man gave him a wry look. "Who better than you to act on such information? Unless I'm mistaken, you and Seregil have certain—

talents, shall we say? But Seregil is bound at Klia's side by duty and blood ties, and by other concerns you are well aware of. You aren't."

"Concerns such as atui?"

The Ra'basi shrugged. "Sometimes honor is a matter of perspective, is it not?"

"So I've been told." Alec wondered if he'd just been insulted or shared a confidence. "What's the purpose of this meeting? Amali seems concerned for her husband's safety."

"I have no idea. I'd heard nothing of it until she came to me. Ra'basi was not included in the invitation."

Ah, so that's your angle! Keeping the thought to himself, Alec went on ingenuously, "That's odd. Moriel a Moriel still supports Viresse, doesn't she?"

"Perhaps Viresse grows arrogant," said Nyal, arching a sardonic eyebrow. "Perhaps Ulan i Sathil forgets that Ra'basi is one of the Eleven and not some minor clan who owes him loyalty."

"And if I do make use of this information, what then? What do you want from me in return?"

Nyal shrugged. "Only to know of anything that affects my clan's interests. Or Akhendi's."

"Akhendi? You ask that on behalf of your khirnari?"

Nyal colored visibly. "I ask for myself."

Alec frowned. "Or for Amali a Yassara? How many lovers do you have, Nyal?"

"One lover," he replied, meeting Alec's look without flinching, "but many that I love."

Alec was waiting for Seregil when he emerged from the receiving chamber late that afternoon. Drawing him aside, Alec quickly repeated what Amali and Nyal had told him, then held his breath, waiting for Seregil to come up with some reason for him not to investigate. Not that it would stop him from going, of course.

To his relief, Seregil finally gave a reluctant nod. "Klia must know nothing of it until you're back."

"Easier to apologize than to get permission, eh?" Alec grinned. "I suppose you can't—"

Seregil dragged the fingers of one hand through his hair, scowling. "I hate this, you know. I hate not being able to act, being so damned constrained by honor and law and circumstance."

Alec raised a hand to his friend's cheek, then let his fingers trail

down to a fading bruise just visible above his collar. "I'm glad to hear it, tali. You haven't seemed yourself since we got here."

"Myself?" Seregil gave a mocking laugh. "Who's that, I wonder? You go, Alec. I'll stay here and behave myself like a good little exile."

They slipped into Klia's darkened receiving room just after nightfall. Alec felt a bit guilty, but elated, too. Beneath his cloak, he wore an Aurenfaie tunic, trousers, and loose sandals, filched by Seregil from some servant. His tool roll, rescued at last from the obscurity of the clothes chest, was secreted once more inside his tunic. It was a risk to bring it, which is why he hadn't bothered to tell Seregil, but he felt better having it along.

I'm doing this for Klia, whether she wants me to or not, he thought, quelling any doubts.

They lifted aside the screen covering the window and Alec threw one leg over the sill. A sudden rush of excitement left him a little giddy. Finally, after all these weeks, here was some useful work. A stray thought sobered him for a moment, however. "No sen'gai!" he whispered, raising a hand to his head.

"I didn't know if I could still wrap one properly," Seregil admitted. "Besides, going bareheaded will make you all the more anonymous in the dark—just another servant out for an evening stroll."

"I'm always a servant," Alec complained jokingly, trying to simultaneously whisper and whine.

"Breeding tells," Seregil shot back, clasping him by the back of the neck and giving him a playful shake. "Luck in the shadows."

"I hope so."

It was a short drop to the ground, and Alec managed it soundlessly. This side of the house stood perpendicular to the street and overlooked open ground. Following it back would take him to the wall of the stable yard. Either direction meant passing sentries. He could hear Arbelus and Minal talking somewhere out front. Waiting until they'd wandered back toward the door, he quickly crossed the grassy verge and blended into the shadows beyond.

Following Torsin weeks before had been an impulse, a fluke. This time, he had a mission and it felt as if he were seeing the place through different eyes, overlaid with memories of similar jobs carried out in Rhiminee. Here there were no cutpurses and footpads to avoid, no City Watch to evade. No whores of either sex called to him from the shadows. There were no lunatics, beggars, or drunken soldiers. The makeshift taverns had none of the disreputable reek of the raucous establishments of Skala.

Instead, the strange quiet that overlay the city tonight pressed in on him, and his imagination conjured ghosts in shadowed doorways. Never before had he been more aware that this was a city of the dead, tenanted only occasionally by the living. It was a relief to meet other people along the streets, though he kept his distance.

He had an uneasy moment as he passed Haman tupa. Movement in a side street to his left caught his eye. He continued on to the next building, then ducked around the corner and looked back, waiting for any potential stalkers to betray themselves. No one appeared. Nothing but the call of a night bird broke the silence.

Shrugging off a lingering sense of being watched, he continued on, running now to make up for lost time. It wouldn't do to arrive late even if he wasn't invited.

Ulan i Sathil's grand house stood on a small rise overlooking the Vhadasoori. According to Seregil, who'd known the place in his youth, it was laid out around a series of large courtyards, not unlike the clan house at Gedre. As he surveyed its imposingly plain walls from the shelter of a nearby alleyway, he longed again for Rhiminee's villas, with their tall, well-tended trees and usefully ornate exterior carvings. If the Viresse house ran true to form, however, whatever it lacked in handholds was more than made up for by a scandalous lack of walls, dogs, sentries, and locks. At least this place had a few accessible windows.