eyes shone with intelligence. She cast a slight disapproving glance at Everess, who did not miss it. Silverdun liked her already.
'Come, Silverdun, sit,' said Glennet. 'We've much to discuss!' Glennet had a long reputation as a conciliator; he'd engineered any number of compromises within the House of Lords, and between the House of Lords and the House of Guilds, two bodies that could scarcely agree on the time of day, let alone governance. He too was old, but his exuberance gave him a semblance of youth.
'I'm afraid my conversational skills have atrophied in recent months,' said Silverdun, sitting. A waiter noiselessly placed a bowl of broth in front of him.
'Ah, yes,' said Glennet. 'The aristocrat monk! I'm pleased we were able to steal you from your contemplation for dinner.'
'It would appear that monastic life does not suit me,' said Silverdun, a bit embarrassed and trying not to show it.
'Well, you are to be commended for attempting such an ... unusual path,' said Heron. 'But I believe that the wider roads are wider for a reason, if you take my meaning.'
'Of course,' said Silverdun, taking her meaning and liking her somewhat less as a result.
'I'm just glad Baron Glennet was able to pull himself away from the card table in order to join us,' said Heron.
Glennet's easy smile faltered. 'We all have our little sins, Guildmistress.' Not 'Secretary.'
Secretary Heron was about to comment further when waiters appeared, removing the broth and replacing it with roasted quail, in a sauce of raisins and bee pollen and a liquor Silverdun couldn't identify. He took a slow bite and waited for someone to tell him what the point of this dinner was. Not a social gathering, to be sure, as Everess and Heron clearly disliked one another.
Glennet dabbed at his chin as though it were a fine art. 'Secretary Heron,' he asked, 'what news have we of Jem-Aleth? Has his social life improved at all?'
'No,' Heron said primly. 'Our beloved ambassador to Mab continues to be politely tolerated at court, mostly ignored, and never invited to state dinners. Or teas. Or children's spinet recitals.'
'He told me that a city praetor invited him to a mestina once,' said Everess, 'but it was one of the bawdy type and he left ten minutes in.'
'Yes,' said Secretary Heron, rolling her eyes, 'but what Jem-Aleth didn't tell you is the that only reason Praetor Ma-Pikyra invited him in the first place was that he'd confused him with somebody else.'
Silverdun watched the back-and-forth, mildly interested in the idle chatter, but his thoughts were more concerned with the reason for his own presence here. 'I knew Jem-Aleth in school,' he said, reminding them that he was still in the room. 'Nobody liked him then, either. The reason for the Unseelie cold shoulder may be personal as well as political.'
'Quite the contrary,' Everess said, unable to allow Silverdun to have useful information that had not come from him. 'Before last year's Battle of Sylvan chilled our relations with our Unseelie neighbors substantially, JemAleth was quite well liked in the City of Mab. Though whether that's a com pliment to Jem-Aleth or an insult to the Unseelie, I can't say.' He chuckled, looked around for an answering chuckle, got none, and plowed ahead. 'Regardless, we've received not a whit of useful information from him in a year. He sends his dispatch each week, filled with scraps of information culled from publicans, maids, and would-be courtiers and sycophants, but even if there were anything useful buried in them, we have no method of responding to them in ... useful ways.'
Everess shot a glance at Silverdun and narrowed his eyes, smiling at Silverdun as though he were a prize pupil. 'And there could not be a more urgent time to follow up, I fear. Don't you agree, Silverdun?'
All eyes turned to Silverdun. He flashed his trademark charming smile, but he found Everess's look discomfiting. What was Everess getting him in to?
'I've been indisposed, Lord Everess,' he said after a long sip of wine. 'Perhaps you'd care to educate me.'
Everess sighed, annoyed.
'You are aware, perhaps, that the Seelie Kingdom was nearly dragged into a full-scale war with Mab last year. You were there when it happened, after all.'
'I seem to recall, yes.'
'And you recall further that during the course of that altercation, the Unseelie unleashed a weapon so powerful that it destroyed the entire city of Selafae in a single blast?'
Silverdun's smirk faded a bit. 'Yes. I remember that as well. The Einswrath, I believe they call it?'
'Yes,' said Secretary Heron, scowling. 'After the Chthonic god of war. Most unseemly.'
Everess ignored her. 'Then you are aware, Silverdun, that things have
