"So good to see you, General Mauritane. How goes the war?"
"War only goes one way," said Mauritane.
"It's only an expression, General," said Everess. "Have a seat and let's discuss. Chief Paet here has information that he believes is of enormous significance."
"It is of enormous significance," said Paet.
"It most certainly is," said Glennet, his hands raised. "No one's arguing that. The question is what to do about it."
"Is anyone going to tell me what it is?" asked Mauritane, taking his seat, glowering. "Or am I supposed to guess?"
"The Black Artist Hy Pezho has been spotted alive and well in the City of Mab."
"I understood he was dead," said Mauritane.
"There's a lot of that going around," said Silverdun.
"What this means to you, General," said Paet, "is that if Hy Pezho is indeed alive, then there's every chance that Mab is busily developing the Einswrath as we speak."
"I received a memorandum earlier this morning," said Mauritane, "from you, telling me that there were no Einswrath. I've spent the entire day furiously rewriting my battle plans as a result. And now you're telling me you were wrong?"
"We received new information," said Paet.
Mauritane breathed deeply. "If I am to wage a war, it would be extremely helpful if the capabilities of the enemy did not change from hour to hour."
"The question to you, then, General, is this," said Everess. "Knowing what you now know, do you still support the invasion?"
Mauritane growled. "I've already committed the troops! They're marching now! I can't just call everyone back and tell them to forget the whole thing!"
"Perhaps not," said Paet, "but we could merely fortify the border, rather than launch an invasion that will force a conflict. Who knows how long it will be before Mab crosses the border?"
"In five days' time all of my troops will be fully deployed," said Mauritane. "How long do you expect them to stand around?"
"If we attack Mab now, all of your men will die," said Paet.
Mauritane sat silently, thinking. Everess began to speak, but Mauritane cut him off with a sharp wave of his hand, and Everess faltered into silence. Silverdun had to admit that he genuinely loved his old companion at times.
"I agree with Paet," he finally said. "We should postpone the invasion until we're certain. If Mab's got the Einswrath, then all of my men and women are dead. If not, we may be able to stop a war with diplomacy. As far as I know, there has been no threat from Mab, no declaration of war."
"But she's massing troops along the border," said Glennet. "Any fool can see-
"A fool can see many things," said Mauritane. "But we don't know what Mab is doing. These troop movements could simply be to keep us in check, to test our response. They could be a feint in order to draw out another enemy: the Four Kingdoms, or a foe in another world entirely. Mab is famous for such tricks."
"It's too late for this," said Glennet. "We must invade, and we must do it now before we find Mab standing at the gates of the Great Seelie Keep while we're still sitting here arguing."
"I was against this invasion from the beginning," said Mauritane. "I was against it when we only suspected that Mab still had the Einswrath, and now I'm tempted to be certain of it.
"The only good war, Baron Glennet," he continued, "is the one that's never fought. Everess told me so himself, when he was going about justifying the creation of his Shadows to me. The nature of war has changed. And now you want to go running off into the same old war?"
"It is not me you must convince," said Glennet. "Corpus has decided."
"Then make them change their minds," said Mauritane. "If we move now, we'll be going to our deaths. Even without the Einswrath, Mab's Army outnumbers us. And with the Annwni legions, we'll be totally overpowered. My soldiers are the best there are, but they're still only Fae."
"I'm sorry," said Glennet. "It's too late. The decision has been made."
Paet started to raise an objection, but Everess cut him off. "You heard the man, Chief Paet. Your job is to provide intelligence. You've done that. Now go back to work and let General Mauritane do his job."
"All right," said Paet. "What is it you've been dying to tell me?"
They were in the mission room at Blackstone House. Sela had laid out several documents in front of Paet, while Ironfoot and Silverdun watched.
"I'm curious to know myself," said Silverdun. He'd asked Sela to tell him what was on her mind, but she seemed to be actively pained in his presence since his return. After their night in the Unseelie lands together and her declaration of love, coupled with his recent demise, he didn't suppose he could blame her. Ironfoot, for his part, could barely be torn away from his studies on the Einswrath. Both Sela and Silverdun sensed that he was on to something and didn't want to bother him.
"When we returned from our last mission," Sela began, "you asked me to go through everything I could find to determine who it was that had given away our plans; first in Annwn, and then in the Unseelie. I've come up with something, but I'm not sure how definitive it is."
"Let's have it," said Paet. He was clearly having a hard time concentrating, but Silverdun knew that Paet was not a man who'd ignore important information despite his other worries.
"I began concentrating on dispatches from Annwn, around the time that Silverdun and Ironfoot first went there, and didn't come up with much. But then I decided to check on anything at all that even mentioned Annwn. And I found something peculiar."
She pushed one of the documents in front of Paet. "This is a report from one of your informants in Mag Mell, a barmaid at a tavern on Isle Siolain. She reported in passing a meeting between Baron Glennet and the Annwni ambassador, the same day you arrived."
"Hm," said Paet. "That's not strikingly unusual."
"Not in itself, no," said Sela. "But at this point, I must admit that I was desperate to find out anything at all. So I went back and checked the itinerary Glennet filed with the Foreign Office."
"And?" said Paet.
"And there was no scheduled meeting," she said. "Glennet was supposedly there for a meeting with a mining concern."
"That's what he told us," said Silverdun. "Remember, Ironfoot? We saw him at the locks."
"That's right," said Ironfoot. "There was no mention of a meeting with the Annwni ambassador."
"Indeed," said Silverdun. "And the fact that he didn't mention the meeting is strange, since-"
"Since he was well aware that you two were on your way to Annwn," said Paet. "Glennet receives briefings on every mission on foreign soil. He always knows where we're going, and when. It seems more than a little suspicious."
"The queen's tits," said Silverdun. "Could it have been him all this time?"
"Ah," said Sela. "But there's more. I started going through Glennet's records at the Hall of Records."
"How in hell did you get access to a baron's records?" asked Paet. "I've never been able to get that kind of access."
Sela smiled. "You don't have the powers of persuasion that I have, I suppose," she said. "Either the magical kind or ... the more mundane kind."
Silverdun felt a sudden blossom of affection for her. She looked up at him and gave him an odd look. Had she felt him?
She seemed to lose her train of thought for a moment, but quickly regained it.
"Not long after the Battle of Sylvan, Glennet began investing heavily in the industries of war," said Sela. "He sank enormous sums of money into the Armorers' Guild, the Smiths' Guild. The Textile Guild, too, though I wasn't sure why."
"Uniforms," said Ironfoot. "An army needs lots of uniforms."
"So the baron wanted to get rich off of a war," said Silverdun. "That doesn't necessarily make him our traitor."
"No," said Sela. "That doesn't. But there's more."
She pushed another stack of papers in front of Paet. "These are loan documents, filed with banks in the City Emerald, Estacana, and Mag Mell. Every penny Glennet invested in the guilds was borrowed."