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He shakes his head. “It’s insane, but it explains some things.

” Sitting back down, he rests his elbows on his desk.

“I thought the Temple brought in the solari heresy laws as just another way to control people and keep them afraid. If you can unite everyone against one small group, then they’ll focus all their attention on that, and not the real owner of the boot on their neck.

But if he’s really just taking the solari children to harvest them…

” He looks a little nauseated. “And here I thought the Temple couldn’t get any more evil. ”

I nod sadly, and the movement brings his focus back to me.

“So you agree then that Caledon has to be stopped,” he says. He’s steering the conversation back to our negotiation. No one could accuse my brother of being anything less than committed to his goals.

“I do, of course,” I say. “But…” I trail off, unable to find the words to express just how huge a task that seems to me. Three months ago, I barely stepped outside my home, and now he expects me to go toe-to-toe with the most powerful man in the country?

“You’re wondering where we’d start,” Harman says. He steeples his fingers and fixes me with an intense stare. “Well, I have an idea. He’s up to something, Morgana.”

“What?”

“Our spies have reported that teams of soldiers and clerics have been unusually active in various parts of the royal territory since your parents were killed.”

Something distant scratches at the back of my mind.

Wasn’t there a point when Leon, Alastor, and I nearly ran into some royal soldiers?

It was when I’d been down with my fever—I recall Alastor saying we needed to move on quickly because the army was nearby.

We’d wondered at the time what they’d been doing there.

They’d arrived before us, so they hadn’t been looking for me.

“What do you think they’re doing?” I ask Harman.

“I think Caledon is looking for something. Something that can bring him more power. Like I said, the activity started up right after the king and queen were killed—I think it’s why they were killed.

Caledon needed unfettered access to their territory and the manpower to do it.

Sending small patrols of clerics around under the guise of looking for heretics wasn’t going to cut it. ”

“And once Oclanna was in charge, he could go wherever he wanted,” I say.

I think of that time back when Leon first kidnapped me, and we encountered Marlowe, the old head of my guard.

He’d been patrolling the royal territories with a contingent of soldiers.

He’d told me then, right before he died, that they were searching for something important. “But what is he looking for?” I ask.

“I don’t know yet.” Harman leans forward, his voice dropping low with emphasis. “But don’t you want to know what was so important your parents were murdered for it?”

I do. And I want to know what Caledon’s up to. After Respen’s revelations, the man’s been lurking in my thoughts like a black cloud. Maybe alone it would feel impossible to strike a blow against him, but I have Leon and his soldiers, and now I have the Hand of Ralus too.

“Okay,” I say. “So what’s your plan? How do we find out what the king and queen were worth killing for?”

He smiles, pleased that I’m on board. I remind myself that he’s taking a risk telling me what must be carefully gathered intelligence—maybe even more of a risk than I took in trusting him.

It’s clear my brother is focused on persuading me to do what he wants, but everything tells me his motivations are purer than Respen’s.

Even if we’ve only known each other two days, I believe he cares about me.

“I think Caledon has already found the thing he was seeking,” Harman says.

“The troops pulled back from rural Trova last month, and there’s been no similar activity since.

But that makes our mission even more important.

If he already has whatever’s going to give him more power, then time is likely running out before he uses it.

The problem is the only way we’re going to find out is from someone inside the Temple. ”

“A mole?” I ask.

“We’ve tried planting someone like that in the past. Let’s just say the Temple’s recruitment and training process makes it very difficult to get someone inside, or to flip someone once they’re there. We’ve had better luck using people who’re good at getting information from the clerics.”

“With torture?” I ask.

Harman smiles, though I don’t know what’s so amusing. “No. They used more…enjoyable methods.”

I give him questioning look.

“There was someone in Hallowbane who would feed us valuable intelligence from her clients who were Temple insiders,” he says.

“Ah, I see.” Hallowbane is home to two things—gambling dens and brothels. Clerics are supposed to be celibate, but all sorts of Temple laws are broken in Hallowbane. Priests visiting prostitutes is probably the least of them.

“Unfortunately, our contact was murdered by a cleric a few years ago,” Harman says, his eyes dark with anger.

“She was a wonderful, clever woman, and they made her just another brave person lost to the Temple’s evil.

We’ve tried to establish new contacts since then, but we’ve been unable to.

Partly because of the local gangsters. Corrin Wadestaff has most of the city in a chokehold. ”

I sit up straighter at the name.

“I know Corrin Wadestaff,” I say.

Harman raises his eyebrows.

“You do?”

“Yes, we’ve had dealings with him before, when I needed safe passage out of Trova.”

“Do you think he can be reasoned with?” Harman asks.

“I think he’d be interested in helping the future queen of Trova out,” I say, remembering him pretty much saying so when he was our host.

“And is that who I’m talking to?” Harman asks hopefully. “The future queen of Trova?”

I think about the hate that burns in my heart for Oclanna.

I won’t deny that a similar fire now flares when I think of Caledon—murdering my kind, purging my friends.

Will he be the next person on my executioner’s list?

And will I have to be a queen to make sure the axe falls?

If I help Harman with this, at least, I don’t have to make that decision just yet.

And when I do act, I’ll have the force of the Hand behind me.

“You’re talking to someone who’s thinking about it,” I say.