What had to be that last word appeared on that wall in fiery letters. Suddenly, Hamnet Thyssen—and, he was sure, everyone else in the throne room—saw that wall and that ancient chamber no more. An enormous set of scales presented itself. In one pan lay a heavy stone weight. In the other stood that curly-bearded king in his odd royal robes.

The scales were free to swing. The one with the weight sank down. The one with the king from those unimaginably distant days rose: he could not measure up to that which tested him.

And then, without warning, the figure on the scale’s rising pan changed. It was no longer the nameless, forgotten king from a bygone age. Instead, it wore Sigvat II’s face . . . and his robe.

Hamnet didn’t doubt what he saw, or what it meant. No one who saw that could misunderstand it. You don’t measure up, either, Your Majesty, he thought. No. Your former Majesty.

As abruptly as it had engulfed him, the vision faded. He was back inside the Raumsdalian Emperor’s throne room with all his senses once more. Along with everyone else in there, he stared at the Emperor.

Under that terrible, merciless scrutiny, Sigvat II went red and then white. A ghastly attempt at a smile played across his face; it flickered and went out like a guttering flame. He opened his mouth to say . . . something. But what could a man say after . . . that? Count Hamnet had never imagined a condemnation straight from God, but that came closer to describing what he’d just witnessed than anything else he could conceive. Sigvat’s mouth stayed open, likely for no better reason than that he’d forgotten to close it.

Without a word, one of the imperial ministers turned away, and then another and another and another. Sigvat did make a sound then, a small one: the sound a wounded man might make when he was trying to hide his pain.

Trasamund walked up to him. With rough sympathy, the jarl set a hand on Sigvat’s arm. “You’d better go now, while you still can,” he said, not unkindly. “You hang around here, somebody’s going to stick a knife in you, and quick.”

“What did I do to deserve—that?” Sigvat’s wave took in everything everyone had just seen.

Maybe he thought nobody would give him an answer, but Count Hamnet did: “You didn’t do anything to stop the Rulers, but after other people took care of that for you you came back and tried to pick up the reins you’d dropped. Lots of people would have thought you had no right, but the folk from the Golden Shrine did more than think. They went and showed you.”

“They went and showed everybody else, too,” Ulric Skakki added. Did he sound amused? Hamnet thought so.

Sigvat also must have, because he started to reply. Trasamund forestalled him, saying, “If you hustle, you’ve still got a chance to get out of the palace alive. Leave your robe for whoever needs it next, go somewhere a long way off, change your name, and try and pretend you never heard of Nidaros.”

That struck Hamnet Thyssen as good advice: better than he would have given Sigvat. It must have struck the suddenly ex–Raumsdalian Emperor the same way. He slid down off the poor makeshift throne and made his way toward the entrance to the throne room. By the time he got there, he was trotting.

Eyvind Torfinn bowed to Hamnet. “What is your will, Your Majesty?” he asked.

“No!” Hamnet said sharply. “No, by God! You can’t make me wear the crown, and neither can anybody else. If you try, I’ll go up to the tallest tower and throw myself out on my head—or else I’ll just fall on my sword.” He’d tried that before, and failed. He didn’t think he would if he tried again. “I’d rather die than be Emperor of Raumsdalia, and I mean it. If you want the job, Your Splendor, you can have it.”

Hamnet remembered that would make Gudrid Raumsdalian Empress. He couldn’t think of a better reason to go see what the hot countries in the distant south were like.

But Earl Eyvind shook his head, even if Gudrid looked furious when he did. “Thank you, but no,” the scholarly noble replied. “The Emperor should be—in times like these, had better be—a stronger man than I.”

“Maybe we can dice for the crown,” Ulric suggested. “Loser gets it.”

“We should care more about the Empire than that.” Earl Eyvind’s voice was starchy with disapproval, but he said no more. How could he, when he’d just turned it down himself?

“Somebody’ll grab it before too long,” Ulric said. Hamnet nodded, but he was thinking, As long as it isn’t me!

XXII

HAMNET THYSSEN DIDN’T linger long in the imperial palace. True, he’d brought bad news for Sigvat II straight from the Golden Shrine. But he had brought bad news for the Raumsdalian Emperor. The aura of glamour surrounding the first was enough to let him get out of the palace unscathed. He didn’t think he would have lasted more than a few hours at the outside had he tried to hang around.

He didn’t see Sigvat alive or dead. Maybe the Emperor really had got away and was busy memorizing his new name. Stranger things had happened. Before Hamnet first met Trasamund, he would have irately denied the possibility. Since then, he’d gone beyond the Gap. He’d climbed to the top of the Glacier and met the folk who lived up there. He’d gone inside the Golden Shrine. All of those were at least a little stranger than the chance that Sigvat might act like a sensible human being.

Ulric Skakki didn’t overstay his welcome, either. He waited impatiently with Hamnet for grooms to lead their horses out of the stables. “Well, Your Grace, what now?” he asked.

“I’m going home,” Hamnet said simply. “Anybody who tries to drag me out again will have to lay siege to the place . . . if it’s still standing, anyhow.”

“What if it’s not?” The adventurer was as full of annoying questions as ever. His twisted grin said he knew as much.

“God knows, in that case.” Hamnet shrugged. “Maybe I’ll keep on going south, the way I’ve talked about. Or maybe I’ll turn around and go up onto the steppe and see what kind of Bizogot I make.”

He was about to ask what Ulric intended to do, but Ulric beat him to the punch again: “And what about Marcovefa?”

“What about me?” Marcovefa asked from behind them. They both jumped. She went on, “Why do you ask somebody else? Do you think I cannot take care of myself? Are you so foolish?”

“Mm—I hope not.” For once in his life, Ulric sounded faintly embarrassed.

“He asked me what I wanted to do, and I told him I was going home,” Count Hamnet said. “Then he asked about you, and you answered before I could. I didn’t know what you were going to say, anyhow.”

“I will come with you. I will see your home. After all, you have seen mine,” Marcovefa said. “Whether I will stay after that”—she smiled—“we can both find out.”

Ulric nudged Hamnet. “Take her up on it,” he stage-whispered. “You won’t get a better bargain.”

“Do you think I’m too stupid to figure that out for myself?” Hamnet said.

“By your track record, yes,” Ulric answered. The worst of it was, Hamnet could hardly tell him he was wrong.

Marcovefa glared at the palace guards and grooms. “Where is my horse?” she demanded. “Do I have to start turning people into voles to get the rest of you to do what you should be doing anyhow?” The servitors all but stumbled over one another in their haste to do what she wanted.

“This is how it ends,” Ulric said, not sadly but in a matter-of-fact way. “We did what we set out to do—enough of it, anyway—and now we go back to taking care of things for ourselves.” He sketched a salute. “Luck, Thyssen. Maybe we’ll run into each other again one of these years.”

“Maybe we will. Nothing would surprise me any more.” Hamnet clasped the adventurer’s hand while grooms led out their horses—and Marcovefa’s.