The conversation moved on to other topics, though the chill between Everess and Heron never thawed. Silverdun, however, barely paid attention.
'What the hell was that all about?' said Silverdun. They were at a table at a cafe on the Promenade, just outside the Foreign Ministry building, a few blocks from the Evergreen Club. It was night, and the Promenade Green was filled with musicians, jugglers, and solo mestines. It was dark, the Green illuminated only by witchlit lanterns. Nightbirds sang from hidden perches.
'If there's one thing that ought to be obvious,' Silverdun continued, 'it's that I have no interest in politics or governance. When I left school and took up my title, I sat in Corpus exactly once, and I was so bored I stopped paying attention after about ten minutes. I voted on six bills, and to this day I have no idea what they were.'
'Oh, stop it,' said Everess. 'That's not why I asked you here.'
'Then why am I here? You come to the temple with vague presentiments of doom, talk me out of my cozy monastic life, and now suddenly you're offering me a job as a spy?'
Everess took two glasses of brandy from a passing waitress, a wisp of a girl with conjured wings who fluttered a few inches off the ground. He handed one of the brandies to Silverdun.
'Calm down, lad. There's someone I'd like you to meet before we begin the sales pitch.'
Everess looked up over Silverdun's shoulder. 'Ah. Here he comes now.'
Silverdun turned and looked. At first he saw no one. No one that Everess might be referring to, anyway. A jongleur, a skald, a mestine conjuring dancing bears. 'Who might that be?'
As he said it, he noticed someone approaching, someone vaguely familiar. The recognition of his presence was like that of an optical illusion in which the eye is required to swap the foreground of an image for the background. Two faces or a vase. No one there or someone.
This no one was nearly upon them before Silverdun recognized him. Odd. Not only did his dress and manner cause him to stand out boldly in the mostly upper-class Promenade, but he also walked with a heavily pronounced limp, dragging his left leg behind him, using a thick wooden cane in its place.
'Lord Silverdun, I'd like you to meet Chief Pact. Pact, Lord Silverdun.'
'Hello,' said Paet simply. His expression was affectless, his eyes slightly squinted though it was night. The winged waitress was passing back by, and Paet took a drink from her tray without her noticing. He sat.
'I'm no expert on manners,' said Silverdun drily, 'but I believe you're supposed to bow and tug a forelock when you meet a lord of the realm, Paet.'
Paet looked Silverdun in the eye and shrugged. 'Drag me before the Sumptuary Court then.'
Silverdun looked to Everess, who was saying nothing. 'Well, this is a kick in the teeth, isn't it? Insolent one, this Paet.'
'That's `Chief' to you, milord,' said Paet. His expression hadn't changed at all during this exchange.
Silverdun frowned. 'I believe I'm supposed to kill you for talking to me like that. I'm an iconoclast, however, so I'll wait to hear why Everess here has inflicted you on me before I do.'
Everess laughed out loud. 'Ignore him, Paet. He won't really kill you.'
Paet shrugged. 'He's welcome to try.'
Everess sighed. 'Now, now. This isn't how I wanted this meeting to go at all. Paet, calm yourself. Silverdun, shut your mouth for a moment and listen.'
Paet and Silverdun eyed each other carefully. Silverdun wasn't as disapproving of Paet as he'd let on. The impropriety was nothing; he'd been treated far worse at Crete Sulace, by prison guards who, due to their low birth, could have been hanged for looking him in the eye. It was important to keep up appearances, however, lest someone mistake him for a tiresome social reformer. Still, there was something disquieting about Paet.
'Earlier this evening,' said Everess, 'we discussed the Shadows. The mythical spies,' as you put it.'
Silverdun pointed at Paet. 'Are you telling me that this fellow here is a Shadow?'
'Not a Shadow,' said Paet. 'The Shadow. There's only one. Now, anyway.'
'This is true?' asked Silverdun.
'He's quite serious,' said Everess, nodding. 'When the group was disbanded after the Treaty of Avenus, it was decided to keep one Shadow in service into perpetuity. In case they were needed again.'
