changed.'
'Here we go,' said Heron, her scowl widening. 'Foreign Minister Everess's stock lecture has begun in earnest.'
Now it was Silverdun's turn to ignore her. 'What things, exactly, have changed, as you see it?'
Everess clenched his teeth, looking at Silverdun as though he were a child. 'Everything, man. The balance of power, the status of relations between our kingdom and the other nations of the world and other worlds. The very nature of warfare itself.'
It was true, Silverdun knew. The implications of a weapon powerful enough to level an entire city were enormous. No one, however, seemed to agree on what those implications might be. But clearly Everess was about to tell him.
'Go on,' Silverdun said.
Everess reached for a glass of brandy, took a generous swallow, and launched into what Silverdun assumed was the stock lecture to which Heron had referred. 'Certainly you can see that we have reached the end of an era, Silverdun. A cornerstone of propriety has been annihilated before our eyes. Your compulsory army days were long after my own, but you were certainly taught as I was: cavalry, battle mages, infantry in evenly spaced lines politely slaughtering one another on the battlefield. All those pretty tactics and stratagems, all those brilliant battles of old, always applicable. We used them against the Western Valley upstarts the first time they rebelled; we used them against the Gnomics a dozen years ago, and against the Puktu barbarians in Mag Mell a thousand years before I was born. But now all that has come to an end.'
'I understand what you're saying, Everess,' said Silverdun. 'But what of it?'
'If Mab had one of those things, then she's certainly got more of them. We can only assume that she hasn't got a flying city full of them, or we wouldn't be having this conversation today. We'd be in an Unseelie work camp fetching water, or we'd be ashes in a hole somewhere.'
'It tells us nothing of the kind,' said Heron. 'I believe that what it tells us is that she hasn't got any more of them.'
'What this tells us,' continued Everess, 'is that the kind of war we were trained to fight has become obsolete in a single blaze. This new weapon of Mab's means that an army is no longer necessary at all! All one needs is a trebuchet and a tailwind and he can lay waste to anything he sees fit, from a safe and happy distance.'
'Nothing will stop war,' said Heron. 'And war with Mab will soon be inevitable, as it has been twice before, and nearly was a year ago.
'I could not disagree more,' said Everess. 'We are entering the age of a new kind of war. What matters now is not just where our troops are placed. What matters is information and influence. We need to know what Mab's game is. We need to know what Mab's allies are up to, and where our own allies stand. We need to know how many of these accursed things Mab's got, how many she plans to build, and how long before she decides to fly south and begin incinerating the Seelie Kingdom. And we need to do whatever we can to disrupt that process at all costs.'
He stared at Heron. 'With the right tools, we can prevent that war.'
Everess smiled at Silverdun. 'And I believe that you are just the man to help in that endeavor.'
'You want me to be a spy?'
'More than that,' said Heron drily. 'He wants you to become a Shadow.' Heron made a melodramatic spooky face at him.
'You mean the mythical spies from the Second Unseelie War?' asked Silverdun. 'I was under the impression that they didn't actually exist.'
'Oh, but they did,' said Everess. 'And they shall again.'
'This is a lovely fantasy,' said Secretary Heron. 'But the way to stop Mab is through diplomacy and, if it comes to it, war. All of your playing at spies won't change that, Everess.'
Glennet had been observing without comment. 'I understand your objections, Madam Secretary,' he said, leaning in. 'But I'm afraid that the Foreign Committee in Corpus is willing to give Lord Everess the benefit of the doubt.' He paused, giving Heron a conciliatory look. 'For the time being.'
He looked at Silverdun. 'And for what it's worth, I agree that Lord Silverdun would be an excellent choice.'
'Fine,' said Heron. 'Play your games. But understand that I will expect complete reports of all your activities.'
'Done,' said Everess. 'I'd be a fool not to keep you apprised of our progress.'
'And if I find out you've been keeping vital information from me,' she said, 'there will be repercussions.'
'If all goes as you believe, Secretary Heron,' said Everess, sniffing, 'then there will be nothing of value to withhold.'
