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I am less delicate with my words. “The man spawned from the devil,” I tell Aldwine. “His death was most welcome.”

Aldwine smiles for the first time since we began our story.

“Then you have my congratulations instead,” he says to Hilla.

Aldwine and I share a glance, and a bond is formed.

“I was privy,” I say, continuing my story, “to their planning of the attack at Craighcebor.”

Aldwine thinks on this, his questions coming quickly.

“Silvester condoned killing innocents?”

“Aye. Though he never said as much aloud, it was the only purpose for my presence at that tourney. To aid those who would cause instability between the kingdoms.”

“Why?”

A trickier question. “All have their own reasons for supporting such a vile act. Some, to retaliate against Meria. Others, perhaps, to force Cettina from the throne.”

Hilla shifts in her seat at that.

“But Silvester knows something the Highlanders do not. He knows how close Galfrid is to losing his crown to Hinton. Indeed, since we’ve returned to d’Almerita, the king and the Prima have met, Silvester making his alliance to Hinton clear. As we sit here, the battle has likely already begun.”

But he knows all this. Lord d’Abella came here just months ago to beg Aldwine to return south, to claim his inheritance. But he refused. And will do so again, most likely. Unless we can convince him otherwise.

“Lord Hinton is more malleable than Galfrid,” he correctly surmises.

“Aye.”

“And my sister,” Hilla adds, “a more formidable queen than Silvester imagined. She is not so easily deposed.”

Hilla’s love and adoration for Cettina is so evident, I wonder how I’d ever misjudged her. I could almost laugh now at the idea of her plotting against the queen. The notion is more ridiculous than I could have imagined.

“I can understand,” Aldwine says, “why Lord d’Abella came here. Why Galfrid sends another contingent of men. Lord Hinton’s reputation precedes him. But what I do not yet understand is why the two of you are here to plead his case?”

I cannot tell him that. So I look to Hilla to answer. And she does.

“My sister and I wish only for peace. For the good of our people. And for all those on the Isle, including your own, Master Aldwine. Lady Aedre bid me to come here, saying only that I had a role to play. I know not what that role is, precisely, but I can tell you . . . we are willing to forgive that Galfrid sent his best warriors to Galmouth Bay. We will treat with him still. But we will not forge an alliance with a man like Hinton, who has many times proclaimed his dislike for those who do not hail from Meria. We will not ally with a man who would so willingly forge an alliance with Father Silvester, a man willing to sacrifice innocent men and women to further his cause.”

Her shoulders rising and falling as she leans forward, her hands no longer on her lap, Hilla speaks with conviction. With the kind of passion I now know well.

Aldwine stares at her, unflinching, and Hilla stares straight back at him. How she thinks Cettina is a better choice for queen, I do not know. Her sister has shown herself to be a fine leader, but Hilla would have made just as competent a queen of Edingham.

“And you, Aiken?” He does not use the Elderman title, all pretense of it dropped. For which I am grateful. “Why are you here?” Aldwine asks, finally breaking eye contact with Hilla.

My jaw sets.

“You are not an Elderman. You plead your case for both kingdoms. Why?”

None can ever learn of your true identity. Unless a life hangs in the balance, tis a secret you will take to the grave. Vow it now or forgo your oath.

“I cannot tell you.”

“You ask for me to serve a man who abandoned my mother. Who cares only of my existence because his real son, the real heir, died.” A tic in his jaw reveals his annoyance. “To give up my life, one my parents built for me. My friends. My voyaging. All that I know. To do something I’ve not been trained for. And you will not give me your identity?”

I lift my chin, saying nothing.

“My sister had not been trained to be queen,” Hilla says. “The crown was thrust upon her.” Aldwine turns his head toward Hilla. “I was falsely accused of having an affair and tossed from all that I’d known to live with a cruel man who blamed me for his misfortune. When my father died, I did not run back to Breywood, even though Cettina offered to grant me a divorce. Instead, I remained with Whitley, fed my sister much-needed information from the men who would plot against her. I did it for her, for Edingham. For the good of the people who would have suffered had I looked only to my own comforts.”