"I'm well aware of what Jorlanna has done," Ashara said.
Cart nodded. When the first King Galifar united the Five Nations under his rule, he signed accords with the leaders of the dragonmarked houses that prevented such close ties between the houses and the crown, but in the chaos of the Last War those agreements had grown increasingly tenuous.
"Of course you are." Harkin sneered. "But fourteen other dragonmarked barons are watching very carefully. Some of them have been stretching or outright breaking the Korth Edicts for years. There's no way Lyrandar's operations in Valenar are legal-they have a standing army there, and a fleet of flying warships. Aurala even married an heir of House Vadalis-and now she's gone and destroyed the city Vadalis calls home. No wonder some of the Houses are very nervous about what could happen if Aurala or some other sovereign starts getting ideas. House Orien's headquarters are down in Passage, and I know they're worried that Aurala's going to annex them next. More than any other House, Orien needs to be able to operate across national borders-that's the whole point of the Mark of Passage, right?"
"What are you getting at, Harkin?"
Harkin leaned over the table. "There's a war brewing, Ashara, and we're right in the middle of it."
"The barbarians? What-"
"Not the barbarians. The Houses. Look around you. House Cannith is about to split like Phiarlan and Thuranni did, if it hasn't already. The rest of the Houses are lining up on one side or the other, some trying to preserve the Korth Edicts, the rest trying to continue tearing them down until the dragonmarked rule Khorvaire."
Cart shifted in his seat. Harkin's words rang true, and Cart suspected that this dragonmarked war ranged farther than Harkin was aware. Did he know about the Dragon Forge and Phaine's involvement in it?
"Where does House Thuranni stand in all this?" Cart asked.
Ashara looked at him thoughtfully, but Harkin seemed annoyed at his intrusion. "They haven't made their position known," he said.
"You're thinking of Phaine," Ashara said. Cart nodded. "He was part of Jorlanna's plan, but that doesn't mean his whole house was involved."
"Phaine?" Harkin said. "A Thuranni?"
"Yes," Ashara said, still looking at Cart.
Harkin snorted. "If one Thuranni is involved, you can be sure their baron knows about it."
"But why was he involved?" Cart asked. He was trying to piece it together in his mind, but he felt as much adrift as he had when he was working with Haldren-caught up in political games far beyond his expertise. The night before, in the Ruby Chalice, Gaven and Ashara had been talking about what might happen if the dragonshard ended up in Phaine's hands. Perhaps, he thought, House Thuranni sought to undermine House Lyrandar, or maybe they hoped to build more Dragon Forges and steal marks from all the Houses. He wasn't sure if that had anything to do with the Korth Edicts, though. And he didn't want to talk about it in front of Harkin.
Ashara seemed to share his reluctance, which made him strangely glad. She reached across the table and took Cart's hand. "I still don't see what this has to do with me and Cart."
Harkin looked down at their hands as if he were regarding a dead thing on his plate. "Don't you? Aurala and Jorlanna have just thrown the Korth Edicts out the window. The vigilant protectors of the Korth Edicts are the Sentinel Marshals of House Deneith. Or, as some people like to say, House Deneith uses the Marshals to make sure that nobody else violates the Edicts by creating an army that could challenge Deneith. So the Sentinel Marshals are looking for a way to interfere with Jorlanna, to get Cannith West back where it belongs-in a private enclave, and out of the government."
Cart shifted uncomfortably at the mention of the Sentinel Marshals. At Haldren's command, he had attacked the Sentinel Marshal who captured Senya. That was not one of his proudest moments.
"There's a marshal in town right now," Harkin continued, "quietly asking questions about this whole affair, and by now I expect she's heard quite an earful about the Cannith heir seen walking through the streets this morning, hanging on the arm of a warforged. The key question, I think, is whether she knows that the baron declared you excoriate. If she doesn't, she might try to use you to trap Jorlanna. If she does, she might be asking for your help."
"I don't want to talk to a Sentinel Marshal." Ashara groaned.
Harkin smirked. "That, my dear, is why you should have kept a lower profile this morning. Now, it's too late. The Sentinel Marshal I spoke of has just walked into this bakery."
Ashara looked at the door, over Cart's shoulder, and her eyes widened. Cart turned in his seat and saw them as well. A tall human woman wearing gleaming chainmail beneath a leather overcoat, resting a hand on the basket hilt of a rapier, cast her eyes around the room until they fell on Cart. She gestured to her companion, a female dwarf whose scarlet silk shirt provided stark contrast to her deep brown skin, and the two of them made their way to the table where Cart and Ashara sat.
CHAPTER 28
Senya tucked her feet under her and smiled. "So why did you come here?" she asked.
Gaven leaned back in his chair and sighed. Why had he come? "I'm not sure, actually."
"Really?" Senya shifted forward slightly. She wasn't mocking him-she seemed genuinely intrigued.
"Well, I got to thinking about what your ancestor said to me in Shae Mordai. 'The third time, you will finally find what you seek.'"
Senya nodded. "'Twice you have come to me now,' she said. You never did explain that."
"The first time, it wasn't me. A dragon disguised in human form went with Mendaros to see your ancestor."
"What? If it wasn't you…"
"That dragon's memories took root in my mind. That's why-well, basically that's why I went to Dreadhold. So when you took me before your ancestor, she recognized the dragon in my mind. That was the second time."
"The dragon's second time."
Gaven frowned. "Sort of." It didn't make sense, as he thought about it. The dragon had visited Senya's ancestor once, four or five hundred years ago. If Gaven's visit was the second time, then the ancestor had been talking about the dragon, not Gaven. Perhaps he'd been fooling himself to think that Senya's ancestor could give him anything he sought.
"So that's why you asked about Mendaros," Senya said.
"Yes. When we were in Shae Mordai, I was overwhelmed with the memory of being there before, walking up those stairs with Mendaros beside me. I remembered him as a good friend."
"A good friend to a dragon. Hence his disgrace in our family."
"Yes. You said that he opened the door for an invasion of dragons."
"He did. I have learned more about him in the last few months, if you're interested."
Gaven leaned forward. "Quite interested. Please."
Senya smiled. "Well, Mendaros Alvena Tuorren was born in 398, in Galifar's reckoning, just over six hundred years ago. He was born in Shae Cairdal, but by the mid-four hundreds he was wandering around Khorvaire, already sort of an outcast from the family. He was evidently very interested in the Prophecy of the dragons, and in 512 he was involved in the construction of an observatory in the Starpeaks."
"King Daroon's observatory?" Gaven said. As ruler of Galifar, Daroon had grown obsessed with predicting the future by studying the moons and stars.
"I suppose so, yes. It's not clear to me what his involvement with it was, and I don't know what his connection to the king was."
"I might have known once." Gaven wasn't sure how he knew about King Daroon. Was that something he had learned in his studies, or the echo of the dragon's memories in his mind? He shook his head.