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He’d notified the families of the eight men from Sableton who’d lost their lives to the Amaridians, the process having drained James worse than the battles themselves. What were words and coins compared with a lost husband or son? Nothing was the answer, but words and coins were all he could give.

The clock tower at the center of the city began to toll the ninth hour. The note hadn’t given a location, but James knew that it wasn’t about him finding the agent. It was about the agent finding him.

James reached the end of the street, his skin prickling with the sensation of being watched, and then a soft whistle caught his attention. He turned his head to see a shadow standing between two buildings, and his stomach clenched at the familiar height and breadth.

His uncle Cormac.

Cutting into the gap between buildings, he followed his uncle until they reached a side door, which Cormac opened, revealing a dirty kitchen lit by a single candle. Taking a seat at the table, his uncle gestured for James to sit.

He did so. “What are you doing in Sableton, Uncle?”

“I’d ask you the same, except I’ve heard.” His uncle rested his elbows on the table, face faintly illuminated by the candle as he said, “Scrapping with the Amaridians, the Defiant sunk, dozens of men lost.” Cormac tsked with dismay. “Yet in the midst of all that, you didn’t find a way for the Ithicanian woman to fall over the side so that we might be rid of the problem she causes?”

James realized he was standing, though he had no memory of rising. “I’m not murdering a woman in cold blood.”

His uncle shrugged. “Which is why you should have let the Amaridians do it.”

“Standing by and watching a woman be murdered is no better than doing it myself,” James snapped. “Besides, it wasn’t Ahnna they were trying to kill. It was me.”

That made Cormac sit up straight. “Now, why would they be wanting to do that?”

“You tell me. Because I can think of only one reason they’d try to kill me and frame the Ithicanians, which is that Katarina has discovered our alliance. That she knows we plan to redirect trade north to Cardiff rather than south through the bridge. That she knows I’m at the center of the negotiations, which means she knows that my connections to Cardiff didn’t die with my mother. If Ithicana knew the same, it’s feasible that they’d ally with Amarid to stop it.”

“Do you believe Ithicana suspects? Do you believe they planned the attack together?” His uncle’s voice was toneless, and James’s skin crawled.

“No.” He hesitated, then added, “Ahnna saved my life. If she knew our plans, she’d have let the sharks feast.”

Cormac made a noncommittal noise, then said, “Perhaps. However, the fact remains that promises have been broken, nephew. Your father, through you, indicated that this betrothal would never be seen to fruition. Spoke with such confidence that the Ithicanians would never send their princess, giving him a viable reason to look north to Cardiff as a consequence of the slight. But they have sent her, and if an Ithicanian woman becomes queen of Harendell, everything your mother dreamed of will be dust on the wind.”

James’s mother had died when he was only four years old, but while his memory of her face had faded, how much he’d loved her, and she him, remained as vivid as though it were yesterday. The idea of failing her in any way never ceased to fill James with a desperate panic, as though doing so would erase that love entirely.

“Get rid of Ahnna Kertell,” his uncle said, “or I’ll be forced to report to Ronan that your loyalty to your blood, and to the people of Cardiff, is nothing but empty words. He will not take that news well.”

“My loyalty is as strong as it has always been,” James growled. “But it does not come at the cost of my morals. I will not see any harm come to Ahnna Kertell. There are other ways to break betrothals than murder, none the least that she is a poor match for William.”

“I agree with that. It seems the Ithicanians breed them as fierce and fine as we do in the north.” His uncle whistled between his teeth. “That princess has legs that any real man would dream to have wrapped around him, but William has no taste for a woman he has to look up to.”

James blinked as he remembered the feel of those long legs wrapped around him in the cave under Northwatch. Then his uncle’s words registered. “How do you know what she looks like?”

Cormac shrugged. “Got a good look at the princess as she climbed over the wall of Fernleigh House. She followed you for a time, but then headed in the direction of the harbor. Maybe we got lucky and the princess is boarding a ship to Ithicana, solving our problem for us.”

James was already on his feet, because knowing Ahnna as he was coming to, luck was not in the stars tonight.

“Is there anything else you require from me tonight, Uncle?” he demanded. “Or may we adjourn?”

Cormac spread his hands wide. “I think you have larger problems to manage than mine.”

James was already out the door.