a piece of parchment he'd been holding and thrust it at Tier. He sat beside him on the bed, started to point at something and then stopped.
"Do you read?" he asked. "Not to be offensive, you understand, but you're dressed like - "
"I can read Common," said Tier. He'd learned under the Sept of Gerant, making him one of the double handful of people who could read in Redern.
Since the Memory, whatever that was, had decided to stay on the far side of the cell, Tier allowed himself to look more closely at the writing on the parchment.
"Look here," said the boy, sounding more authoritative. "This is nominally just a simple award for a job well done. Except that usually properties that belong to one Sept aren't gifted to another - certainly not with a vague 'for services to the Empire.' See?"
Tier looked at what he held with disbelief. It appeared to be a law document of some sort.
First Tier had thought that the boy might be one of Telleridge's wizards, especially with the thing that had followed him in. Then he'd been almost certain that he was one of the Passerines Myrceria had told him about. Now...
He cleared his throat. "Are you a member of the Secret Path?"
"If I'm not, does that mean you can't tell me the answer?"
The disingenuous answer made Tier laugh in spite of his generally lousy mood. The young man gave him a pleased smile.
"Actually, I've never heard of the Secret Path. Though, if you put any three nobles together, they'll start four secret societies of something."
Tier nodded his head slowly. "I'd been given the impression that the Path members had taken over this bit of the palace and made it their own. If you're not one, how did you find your way here?"
The boy shrugged. "The palace has enough rooms to house the whole city and then some. The first fifteen Emperors Phoran spent all their time building the place and the next ten tried to figure out what to do with all the rooms - mostly close them up. At least two of them, the eighth and the fourteenth - or the seventh and the thirteenth if you'd rather not give a number to the first Phoran - were fascinated by secret rooms and passages. By happy chance I stumbled upon the plans of Eight and actively sought Fourteen's. Once I had them, I hid them myself. At any rate, they give me ready access to most of the palace. Not that there's usually much to see."
"I see," said Tier, rather dazzled by all the eights who might have been sevens - there was a song in that somewhere. He hadn't really thought about how the Path had managed to secret off such a big chunk of building. He had a hard time wrapping his mind around a building so large that the Path could use a section for generations and not have it discovered.
"I'm not a lawyer," Tier said finally. "Nor do I know anything about the Septs. I don't see how I can help you."
The boy frowned. "I asked if there was someone who could help me find out more about the piece of land in question. Is there any reason that you would know something about the Sept of Gerant's lands?
"The Sept of Gerant?" exclaimed Tier, distracted from the question of who knew enough to send this boy after him.
"That's right," said the boy. "I don't know him by face, but it sounds as if you've met him."
"He'll not have been at court," murmured Tier, reading the rest of the document rapidly. "He's an old warrior, not fitted for wearing silks and such. The Sept of Jenne, hmm."
"I have this, if it helps," said the boy, and he pulled a small, faded map from a pocket. "I can show you where the land in question is - I just don't know what's so important about it."
The soft hand that handed Tier a map had a signet ring on it. Tier noticed and catalogued it, but he was thinking about the map so it took him a moment before he realized who was sitting on his bed beside him.
The Emperor?
His night had acquired a new level of strangeness. Tier glanced at the Memory. Was it some sort of body guard?
He forced his eyes back to the map. If the Emperor had wanted him to know who he was talking to, he would have introduced himself.