Changes

influence the little’uns as you are. And—and everyone else agrees with him, but they don’t dare tell you. That’s why they pulled you out so fast—something is going on that this just fitted into, and they can’t tell you outright, and they hope you never find out. And that’s why all the people in the know are shielded so tightly. They believe you. They don’t want anything to get out while they try to figure out who it is.”

Mags sat up and stared at Bear, who was still on his back with his hands behind his head, looking up at the rock arch of the grotto. “But tha’s impossible!” he objected.

“Nothing’s impossible,” Bear retorted. “Improbable, maybe. But the second you assume something is impossible, you pretty much open a door for it to come in and happen, because you won’t be guarding against it.”

“There’s a lot of people up here, Mags,” Lena pointed out. “A lot. I know everyone is supposed to be vouched for, but what does that mean, really? Just take the courtiers and the Guard, for instance. Somebody’s uncle who knows their family told the people up here he was reliable, and that’s all there is to it. Same for the servants. Certainly most of them are from families that have served the Crown or the highborn for decades if not centuries, but families die out, and someone has to replace them. That’s just the Palace servants. Some of the highborn who have Palace apartments instead of their own manors bring their own servants. The Hill operates on trust; if you shake that, you upset a lot of people. Do you want to put everyone up here through a Truth Spell to prove they are loyal?”

“No!” Mags retorted, revolted at the idea. Lena was right; the Hill did operate on trust.

“Heralds get a pass because of the Companions, but there are two more Collegia, remember. If you want an example of someone who’s up here all the time and would probably fall right into someone’s hands and babble everything he heard to them if he thought it would get him more adulation, you don’t have to look any farther than Bard Marchand,” Bear continued, with more than an edge of bitterness to his voice. “I’m not saying that he’d work hand in hand with these Agents of yours, not if he knew—but if he thinks they’re just incredibly wealthy and could make him more popular or something, and he thought they were just trying to get a little more influence in the Court, he’d tell them anything he heard and probably help them get on the grounds of the Palace as a bonus. Or take that new protege of his. Where’s he from? We don’t know. How old is he, really? We don’t know that, either. He could be like you, Mags, undersized, and be a lot older than he looks.”

“Any Trainee could, except the Heralds,” Lena replied. “And besides the two Collegia and the servants, there’re all the courtiers, who are always bringing in poor relations, trying to get them advantageous marriages or Crown appointments. For that matter, let’s be really afraid and consider that someone might have murdered a new Guard on his way to take a post at the Palace and taken his place! It’s not as impossible as it seems.”

Mags scratched his head and lay back down. “Reckon not,” he said slowly. “An’ thet business ’bout a Guard... not so crazy neither. Iffen I was t’try an’ git in, reckon tha’s a pretty good way. Guard uniform lets ye inter anyplace on th’ Hill.”

“You know what else I think?” Lena said. “I think the reason Nikolas went all rock-faced on you and you both came back is that what you told him ties right into why they canceled the Healing on Amily’s leg. I don’t think he would have reacted so strongly otherwise.”

Mags opened his mouth—and shut it, without saying anything. It was an unlikely theory—but so was the notion that there were enemy Agents or spies somewhere in the Palace or the Collegia.

And it certainly would explain Nikolas’ stiff attitude.

“Huh,” was all he said.

“I am not gonna tell you to leave it alone, Mags,” Bear said, while he thought about that little tidbit. “But I don’t think you’re gonna get anything out of Nikolas or another other Herald.”

::Rolan certainly hasn’t been forthcoming,:: Dallen put in. ::Which, when you think about it, is interesting. It’s very difficult, even for us, to lie mind to mind—which argues that he is refusing to talk about it because I will certainly know there is something not quite right about a denial.::

“I’ve been thinking about other things too,” Lena said, after another long silence. “I think we’re getting nowhere trying to sort out our own problems. You know, proving that Bear is as good or better than any other Healer, proving that my father is wrong about me, and finding your enemy Agents. I think maybe we should trade problems.”

“. . . just how’s that s’posed t’ work?” Mags asked dubiously.

“Well... look, I have a lot of chances to go just about anywhere up here on the Hill that I want to,” Lena pointed out. “Even Trainees are welcome anywhere they want to go. I know you’ve been training in how to be sneaky, but I’ve been training in how to be welcome. I can literally look everywhere up here for those Agents. What’s more . . .” her voice hardened. “What’s more, I can make people trust me.”

“Wait, what?” Bear asked, startled.

“You know my f—Bard Marchand uses Projective Empathy. They say I have it too, I just didn’t want to... to be so manipulative, so I haven’t gotten much past the most basic use of it, in case I have to use it some day to control a crowd in an emergency.” She lost some of the hard edge to her voice. “So if I really start training in it and use it to make people trust me, the way he does, I can find out a lot.”

An’ ye prove ye gots th’ exact same Gifts’s Marchand too. Aye, I see where this’s goin’. But he didn’t object. On the contrary, this was one of the better ideas he’d heard. And using Projective Empathy for a purpose like this? Not only was it ethical, it was probably something that everyone in the know was wishing Marchand would get off his behind and do himself.

“Ye know what,” Mags said after a moment. “Might could be I kin find out what’s goin’ with yer healin’ kits and mebbe find out why Amily’s Healin’ got canceled too.”

“You aren’t—” Bear began.

“Not a bit,” Mags replied. “They’re expectin’ me t’ snoop an’ listen wi’ m’Gift. Well, I’m still gonna, when I git a chance t’go down inter Haven, but I bet they find reasons t’keep me up ’ere. An’ I ain’t gonna use m’Gift fer that up ’ere. I’m gonna go lookin’ at comin’s and goin’s and records. Gonna chat wi’ Guards. Dependin’ on what I find out, might could tell me if’n some’un makes a lotta liddle trips down inter Haven thesselves that nobody else does. Gonna watch who’s watchin important thin’s—who gits thesselves duty so’s they kin be at partic’lar place. An’ I