Rhosnyn's corroboration arrived faster than any of them expected, delivered by a merchant contact who had risked considerable danger simply crossing the province border with the information intact, and by the time Elira finished reading the detailed account of Halvard's dealings, she understood the shape of what they now possessed had grown into something considerably larger than a single minister's convenient greed.
"Three separate merchant houses confirm it," Rhosnyn said, laying out the additional documents across her desk with the particular grim satisfaction of a man whose suspicions had proven not merely correct, but understated. "Halvard didn't simply profit from the southern harvest failures, Elira. He orchestrated the specific timing of grain shortages in at least two provinces,
