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done?”
    “His Majesty Kâna’s.”
    “Very well, what else?”
    “We should like—that is to say, we would hope—”
    “Come, come, my young friend. Say what you mean.”
    “His Majesty Kâna should like an apology, from Your Majesty, regarding the way the Lady Illista was treated.”
    “An apology?”
    Udaar bowed his head.
    The King frowned and considered for some few moments. “I am not accustomed,” he said at last, “to apologize for my actions. Moreover, I do not understand why this concerns your Kâna in any way.”
    “If Your Majesty wishes, I will explain.”
    “Do so.”
    “We require Illista’s aid in our endeavors, because she is very nearly the only remaining Phoenix, and the other is so far from aiding us that it is useless to ask.”
    “And she will not aid you without this apology from us?”
    “It is not that, Your Majesty.”
    “Well?”
    “It is that, with the apology, her aid would be more meaningful. To receive public aid from a noble of the House of Phoenix would have great influence with the other Houses. But if it came from a Phoenix who was disgraced—”
    “Ah. I understand. You are working your own intrigues, and you wish for my aid to second them.”
    “That is exactly the case, Your Majesty. In addition—”
    “There is more?”
    “Your Majesty will see. In addition, we offer to Elde, as a token of good-will, Spaire Island, which has been in dispute between Elde and the Empire for thousands of years.”
    Corthina considered. “I confess,” he said, “that it would be good to end these arguments over Spaire Island. The wood there is of immense value in building ships, and we all know the value of watering rights.”
    Udaar bowed.
    “Concerning other matters,” continued the King, “the supposed insult, if you will, was given by my predecessor, not by me.”
    “And so?”
    “And so, this is my decision: If—I say,
if
I choose to aid you in your military endeavors, I will accompany this aid with the apology you request, in language that will be all you could wish. If I do not give you the other aid, then neither will I give you the apology.”
    Udaar bowed. “I do myself the honor of saying that Your Majesty’s decision is full of sense.”
    “And,” continued Corthina, “as to the question of giving you the assistance you request, I will give you my answer to-morrow.”
    “Very good, Your Majesty.”
    “Is there anything more?”
    “That is everything on my part. But is there anything Your Majesty wishes to know of me?”
    “No, my dear sir. I believe I comprehend the situation tolerably well.”
    “Then I eagerly await hearing from Your Majesty to-morrow.”
    Corthina nodded, and signed that the interview was now at an end. When Udaar had gone, the King retired to a more private chamber, there to consult with certain of his advisers, eat a meal he had long delayed and which included immense quantities of seafood and even more immense quantities of drawn butter, as well as dried fruit (the fruit being now out of season) and a mince pie of prodigious size. By the time he had finished eating and talking (Corthina was notorious for consulting with his advisers while eating) he had made his decision.
    Gardimma was sent home the next day.
    The following day the King spread the word that the army was to be rebuilt: For the first time in recorded history, Elde was preparing to invade the mainland.

Chapter the Seventy-First
    How the Viscount of Adrilankha
Took to the Life of a Road Agent
    I t was early in the morning on a Marketday near the end of winter of the first year of the Empress Zerika the Fourth’s reign that Piro, the Viscount of Adrilankha, rode away from the public market in the village of Nearby in Mistyvale County, along with his friends and a pack mule which contained no small number of goods purchased at this market. Many of the items in the market had gotten there by trade from traveling merchants; there were also some items drawn from