Her delicately pointed eyebrows rise. “Spying? What does that entail?”
“Sneaking around and getting information. Killing people. And before you say anything else, I was good at it.”
“Okay,” she says. She knew something was up with me, but from her face, I can tell that in a million years she wouldn’t have guessed this.
I go on. “And I discovered that Madoc is going to make a political move, one that involves Oak.” I explain once more about Liriope and Oriana and Dain. By this point, I have told this story enough that it’s easy to hit only the necessary parts, to run through the information quickly and convincingly. “Madoc is going to make Oak king and himself regent. I don’t know if that was always his plan, but I am sure it’s his plan now.”
“And that’s why you’re not coming to the hum
