A day and a bath later, Lian Momin paused over her report to the emperor and leaned back in her litter, wincing at the pain in her ribs. What should she write?

In the eleven years Lian had served as the Imperial eyes and ears in the Souran Queendom, she’d never found it necessary to be entirely truthful in her reports. Her predecessor had warned her that while emperors claimed they wanted to know everything that happened beyond their borders, but they only really wanted to hear validations of their impressions. That was lesson her predecessor’s own predecessor had learned the hard way when he’d told the sitting emperor that the Souran monopoly in the Ilyon Sea couldn’t be broken and gotten executed for his trouble. Besides, it was in Lian’s best interests to keep the fact that her cover was blown secret as long as she could.

Still, she had to write something. Maybe she could mention the new “infused” magic goods coming out of Vanuria, get Boar something to do.

Something rustled in the desert bush. Grimacing, Lian put down her pen. “Stop.” When her litter came to a halt, she dropped to the ground. “Stay here. Eyes forward.”

Her litter bearers obeyed and kept their eyes on the southeast horizon. Good. Lian didn’t want to have to replace them. Leaving them behind, she walked straight west, following her ears to a bare rock formation a dozen wirs from the litter. Slipping on Rabbit, she stepped up to the formation’s shadow. “Such sloppiness is an insult.”

The shadow sighed. “I was hoping that you hadn’t come yourself.” Her fellow spy and competitor was wrapped from head to toe in bandages, which were designed to conceal the shape and sex of their wearer, and their voice held a pitch that was slightly too high for your average man, slightly too low for your average woman.

Lian had her guesses as to why this spy was dressed so, but they weren’t relevant. “Why is the Circle taking an interest here?”

“I don’t have the authorization to respond to that question.”

A pity. She’d have to reveal her hand. “Then I’ll trade. One question for one question.”

The other spy stiffened. “You’re willing to go so far?”

Lian raised an eyebrow. “You’re not?”

“I am.” The other spy weighed their question. “My question is this: where is Lord Kalan’s party going?”

Lian let only an instant of surprise pass before answering, “To Walton.” Soura’s Royal Sorcerer had said that he needed his apprentice and his niece to help him with something there although she thought it was more likely that he was trying to find something safe for them to do after this fiasco. His niece was writing to her mother after all.

Lian’s musings didn’t keep her from noticing how the other spy stiffened and, oh how she desperately wanted to ask why they had, but such a question would give away too much information. She went with a safer yet more urgent question. “Are you following the Li siblings?”

“No.” The other spy’s response was quick, definitive, dismissive. The Circle had no interest in the Li siblings. Their mistake. While her brother wasn’t worth the clothes on his back, the hunter was something special.

“Then I’ll leave you to it.” Lian turned east, and by the time she’d taken off her mask and reached her litter, she couldn’t hear anything from the rock formation behind her.

She stepped up to the front-left litter bearer. “Go to Bradford and tell my agent there that ‘After settling some accounts in Adua, I’ll be checking up on our operations there.’” That code phrase would command her agents to start investigating Circle activities in Bradford. She wished she’d developed assets in Walton, but the capital and Adhua demanded too much attention of her attention. Walton was on the Vanurian border though. Perhaps Boar would hear something.

As her man ran north and east, Lian climbed up into her litter and settled in, allowing herself a small smile. Looks like she had something to report after all.