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She grasps his forearm. “As you say. I will trust your word. We will make ready to storm the Ascension.”

Xan nods his agreement.

It isn’t until after Inga has left that Longwise gives Xan a long, serious look. Longwise knows him well. Knew his father. Years ago, when Xan had told his father he did not wish to marry the girl his father and mother had chosen for him, and why that was, it was Longwise who calmed his father’s rage and given himself as an example of how a man of Xan’s bed chamber tastes could still fight for the glory of Pluma. And now, Longwise looks at Xan. And he sees it. “So what is the problem?” he says in his blunt, deep voice.

“Trysta. You were right. She will be executed at the ascension. If we wait until then for the Mortingales attack, she will likely already be dead when we take the city.”

Longwise nods.

“Then why did you not agree with Inga’s plan to attack sooner?” says Heb, reaching for the bottle on the table to refill his cup.

“Because the Ascension is the right time. ”

“But you fear you have doomed your sister by telling her so,” says Longwise, calmly.

Xan takes a breath. He feels strangely like he should not share this, however, this new thread in the complex fabric of destroying Azuria is the reason he came to his crew for advice. “However the new Emperor still wants to negotiate something.”

“What,” says Heb. “What can he want? Does he want Pluma to kneel? I hope you told him that Plumians will never kneel.”

“He has asked me to seduce a priest he wants to tarnish.”

Longwise frowns. “Seduce a priest? He wants you for this. He could use any whore for such a thing.”

“This is true. But this priest is very difficult to seduce. And he has told me if I do it he will free Trysta and give me Pluma.”

At this Heb and Longwise gasp. Even the cook, bustling behind them, stops what she is doing and turns.

“So you must seduce this priest and free Pluma,” says Heb, looking delighted.

Xan feels his heart sink. But it is true. The priest is one man. How could Xan choose to protect him at the cost of every man, woman and child on Pluma.

Longwise says, “Free Pluma how exactly?”

“He said he would make me king.” Xan shrugs. “Although I am not sure if he meant it.”

“You?” Longwise says.

Xan shakes his head. “He plays with me. This Emperor. He offers this deal in secret. Without witnesses. It could be a simple trap.”

“A trap or a clever game. Perhaps he knows something of our plans and means to undermine them,” says Longwise. “If we have freedom for Pluma, what do we need of the Mortingales? If we take his deal it would be better for us not to be involved in these riots that they plan to start for fear that Atticul will retract his offer.”

“This is true,” says Xan.

Longwise continues, “The Mortingales are our allies. It would be dishonourable to turn our backs on them just because we have been offered what we want.”

Xan sighs. Longwise is right. He had not considered the dishonour of this deal even if it were offered plainly. He has no head for politics. What is the right path here?

Strangely, the one person he thinks would be able to advise him is the little priest.

“And if this deal is made in secret, who can say whether Atticul will truly free Pluma, or even if he can. And if he does, what he would expect from us as an ally, instead of an enemy. Perhaps we ought to consider the bargain as simply the priest for Trysta,” says Longwise.

Xan looks at Longwise. “You are right,” Xan says. Does that make things simpler? He had thought the choice Atticul had offered him was a single life or a whole land. But if it is not, if it is a life for a life… “If I were to choose between Trysta and the priest, I must surely still save my sister. “

Heb says brightly, “So you seduce the priest.”

“I suppose I must,” Xan replies.

Longwise says thoughtfully, “Have you asked yourself why Atticul wants this priest dead?”