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folks they were discussing.
    “Thank you for your patience,” King Tedric said then, causing Derian to flush, suddenly terribly certain that the old king had seen how very impatient Derian had been. “Your parents’ knowledge will be of value to us.”
    Shad leaned forward, his elbows on his knees.
    “You see, Derian,” he said, and Derian was reminded of the young man’s earnest preparation in the days before he led a small group of which Derian had been part into the Smuggler’s Light, “we’ve been a bit worried about what might be going on in New Kelvin, even before the Kestrels’ report reached us.”
    Derian frowned. “I’m afraid I don’t understand, Your Highness.”
    Shad waved the formalities aside with an impatient hand.
    “There’s no way you could, Derian. Sapphire and I didn’t understand until King Tedric explained to us. New Kelvin has been an ally of Hawk Haven for years—basically since borders stabilized after the Civil War. We’ve had an embassy there…”
    Derian noted with approval how easily Shad spoke of Hawk Haven as “we.” It reflected well the prince’s identification with his new country.
    “…and a regular ambassador who attends their government sessions. Not only have we had an embassy there—mostly to facilitate trade—but we have had a handful of unofficial observers within the Earth Spires.”
    “Spies,” Sapphire clarified bluntly. “Not to steal anything, just to provide information to balance against what we were being told through official channels.”
    A year before Derian would have pretended not to be shocked, but would have been. Now he wasn’t precisely shocked, but he was curious, and he didn’t hesitate to let his puzzlement show.
    “How could we have spies inside Thendulla Lypella?” he asked, lapsing into the New Kelvinese name for their capital city. “The New Kelvinese are so different , their manners, their way of dressing, their face paints…. If my group hadn’t gotten in and out as quickly as possible, and had the guidance of Grateful Peace, we would have been doomed.”
    King Tedric gave a dry chuckle that ended in a wet cough that made Derian worry that perhaps the old man should be joining his wife under the physicians’ care.
    “Most of our informants,” the king said, “a term I prefer to ‘spy’ in this case, are New Kelvinese. Don’t look so shocked, boy. They’re not betraying anything, not as they see it. Trot out your lessons and tell me about how the New Kelvinese structure their government.”
    “It’s a monarchy,” Derian said, glad to still his confusion in recitation, “yet not like ours. Their king—the Healed One—doesn’t seem to have much power.”
    “He must have some,” Sapphire said dryly, “or Mother would never have married him.”
    Derian decided to overlook this statement.
    “The real power seems to be held by someone called the Dragon Speaker. That’s an elected position, like head of a society or guild, not an inherited one. The Dragon Speaker is the first among a group of counselors called Primes. He—or she, the Dragon Speaker can be either, though the Healed One is always male—rules only as long as he has the support of the other Primes. If they grow unsatisfied with the Dragon Speaker, a new one can be elected in his—their current one is male—place.”
    Derian took a deep breath.
    “There’s more,” he said. “The Dragon Speaker has intimate counselors and the Primes are drawn from different sodalities—those are groups sort of like guilds, but not quite—but essentially those are the basics.”
    Derian paused, ready to add detail if King Tedric required. Before Derian had gone to New Kelvin he had studied only a little about the other land’s weird government. After living there for several weeks and traveling with Grateful Peace—who had been a highly ranked member of the New Kelvinese government—he had learned a great deal more.
    King Tedric, however, seemed