mouth was stuffed with bread and chocolate. The combination was divine. “One of her brothers used to chase her up trees,” she said through the food. “And then shake them until she was so terrified that she’d do anything he said if he let her down.”
“I thought it might be something like that.”
Judah swallowed. She had eaten exactly half of the chocolate and exactly half of the bread. Opening the jar of meat, she sniffed. Vinegar and pepper; underneath, the carnal smells of blood and flesh. “Did you bring a fork?”
“Spoon. In the bag.”
Good enough. The meat tasted better than it smelled. Some spice in it reminded her of state dinners. “Are you here to talk me into coming down?” she said.
“Not in the least,” he said. “But I think the Seneschal is still expecting an answer to his proposal.”
“Ha.” Now she had eaten half of the meat, too. She found the lid, screwed it back on.
“Being Lady Seneschal doesn’t appeal?”
“I would rather die,” she said, and knew it was true.
The magus nodded. “Wise choice. Don’t trust him.”
“Theron says the same about you.” She lay back down on the cold stone, enjoying her full stomach. The Seneschal seemed a thousand miles away, trustworthy or not. “Of course, Theron also says that being in this tower feels like being stuck in a thornbush, and he gets messages from invisible cats, so probably Theron’s insane.”
The magus lay down next to her. “Theron’s not insane. He’s not normal. But he’s not insane. He’s..plicated. He said the tower feels like a thornbush?”
“Something like that.” Suddenly, she didn’t want to talk about Theron. She didn’t want to think about him. Theron made her sad.
He hesitated, and then said, “Eleanor told me about the stableman. I’m sorry. I thought they’d told you.”
“Were you in on that, too?”
He nodded. “He seemed like a decent person, which is more than I can say for the courtier Eleanor enlisted to help.”
“Firo?” She smiled. “He’s no worse than most courtiers. Better than some, I think. Have you seen Darid? Since then, I mean.”
“No,” the magus said. “Last I heard, he was planning on leaving the city.”
Judah turned back to the clouds. Darid, alive. Darid, out of the city. She pictured him, walking down a dusty road. Passing a green field. The field might be full of horses. The horses might be in foal. “Good,” she finally said.
“You know,” the magus said, “the city wasn’t always the way it is now.”
“I’m sure under Elban, it was much better,” Judah said.
“I’m not talking about Elban.” There was distaste in his voice. “What Elban called his empire was nothing but a group of greedy thugs that more or less agreed not to kill each other. And the Seneschal might think he’s different, but he’s not. I’m talking about before Elban. There were laws, then. Courts. There had to be, to hold together an empire that big. People aren’t all the same, you know. They have different feelings, wants, perspectives. But they’re all people.”
“You weren’t alive before Elban,” she said.
“No, but my ancestors were,” the magus said. “And they passed the stories down to me. Do you want to hear this, or don’t you?”
“Sure,” she said. “Why not? I like stories.”
“Well, years ago, the Lords of Highfall held everything from the Barriers to the eastern sea. Then one of them decided he wanted more. You know about the wasteland in the north?”
“I know there is one.”
“I’ve been there. Nothing grows. It doesn’t rain, it doesn’t snow—most of the time when people say wasteland, they mean desert, but deserts aren’t wastelands at all. Deserts are filled with life. The north isn’t like that. There was a war, a thousand years ago, between Pala and the Temple Argent—”
“They fought a war and destroyed themselves in the process. Everybody lost.” Some tutor had told them about it years ago.
“Yes. Lord Martin—”
“Wait,” Judah said. “Mad Martin? The Lockmaker? Gavin’s however-many-times-great-grandfather?”
“Five. Five times great. Yes. Although he was more like Theron than Gavin, which probably won’t surprise you to hear. He was very interested in history, and he became obsessed with the northern war. Specifically with Pala.” She heard him take a deep breath. “There was a power in the world then. Nobody quite knows what it was, but it was everywhere. Like water, or air. Some used it, some didn’t. They used it to make their lives better; to free time and energy. To give themselves choices. Most rulers don’t like choices. And, of course, the easiest way