Chapter 14: Tyrwick Makes a Choice He Will Later Regret

Tyrwick had spent forty years cultivating the art of leaving rooms at precisely the correct moment, and it was therefore a source of particular private irritation that he had remained in this one for the last twenty minutes longer than wisdom recommended, apparently unable to stop refilling a glass of wine he had no intention of drinking.

The wine was excellent. The Arbour vintage, which Cerissa's cellars possessed in sufficient quantity to outlast most dynasties. He had poured his first glass with the casual ease of a man conducting a social call, which was what this had been, nominally, when he arrived. Lord Tyrwick Lanneth to call upon First Counsellor Edwyn Stark, entirely unremarkable, nothing to note in the household ledger beyond the hour and the duration. He had intended twenty minutes. Perhaps thirty. Long enough to reassess the situation at close quarters and determine whether his private arithmetic still required revision.

The situation, he had discovered, did not require revision. It required considerably more dramatic intervention.