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take part in a war against the conspiracy. Be it through our own foolishness or the machinations of the traitors, Aneira has been effectively removed from this battle. You’d be the only one of us who could strike a blow.”
    She couldn’t quite believe what she was hearing. “Does that mean you’ll let me go, my lord?”
    He exhaled heavily, his whole frame seeming to sag with his surrender. “I must be mad,” he muttered.
    “My lord?”
    “I won’t try to stop you.”
    Her heart was pounding once more, with excitement, with fear, with the anticipation of war. “And the archminister?”
    “You say that if there’s only one guard up there, he won’t harm the man?”
    “He’d have no reason to.”
    “Save for his hatred of the Eandi.”
    She shrugged, then nodded, conceding the point.
    Before she could answer, there came a knock at the door. Tebeo stared at her a moment, before calling for whoever had come to enter. The door opened and Gabrys DinTavo, Tebeo’s master of arms, entered the chamber.
    Seeing Evanthya, the man hesitated and gave a small nod. Then he faced the duke and bowed.
    “You sent for me, my lord?”
    “Yes, armsmaster.” The duke returned to his writing table and sat, his face pale. “How many men do we currently have standing guard in the prison tower?”
    Gabrys cast a quick glance at Evanthya. “There are four, my lord, two each outside the chambers of the regent and archminister. Plus we have men in the ward outside the tower, and along the corridors that lead to it. That would be sixteen men in all, my lord.”
    “That strikes me as being quite a few.”
    “Yes, my lord. It would be for ordinary prisoners. But these men are far from ordinary. We’ve felt all along that one or both of them may try to escape.”
    “But wouldn’t we be well served to have some of these men working on the ramparts and battlements? The repairs are going slowly.”
    The master of arms looked at Evanthya once more, suspicion in his dark eyes.
    “Perhaps he should know, my lord,” she said, thinking again of the soldiers outside Pronjed’s chamber.
    Tebeo nodded. “Very well.”
    “Know what, my lord?”
    “We intend to allow the archminister to escape. I want only one guard positioned by his door, and I want the south corridor on the ground level cleared of men entirely.”
    To Gabrys’s credit, he offered no reaction, other than to say, “May I ask why, my lord?”
    “This was my idea, armsmaster,” Evanthya said. “I’m going to follow him when he leaves the castle. I believe Pronjed can lead me to … to the leaders of the Qirsi conspiracy.”
    Before becoming master of arms, Gabrys had seemed wary of her, as so many Eandi warriors are distrustful of all Qirsi. But after Tebeo named him as successor to Bausef DarLesta, who was killed during the recent siege, the new master of arms put aside his suspicions, appearing to recognize that Evanthya had the duke’s trust. And Gabrys, of all people, understood how desperately she fought to save Castle Dantrielle. She sensed that he no longer doubted her loyalty.
    Still, she was not yet ready to reveal to him that she sought her beloved. And he was not ready to trust her on this matter.
    “With all respect, First Minister, this is madness. What’s to stop him from killing you once he’s free? For that matter, what’s to stop him from helping the regent escape and allowing the Solkarans to menace us once more?”
    She shook her head. “He has no interest in helping the regent, armsmaster. All he wants to do is go north to join his fellow renegades. As for killing me…” She looked away. “That’s my concern, not yours.”
    “My lord—”
    “I know what you’re going to say, Gabrys. I’ve already argued as you would. But Evanthya has convinced me that we risk more by trying to keep the archminister here. He means to escape, and given the powers he wields, we’ll have a difficult time stopping him.”
    “We can put him in the