Rudolfo couldn’t be here that long. He couldn’t be here even close to that long.

Pope Resolute leaned forward on his desk. “I’ve brought you here, Lord Rudolfo, to outline the next steps of this investigation.”

“You do not intend to recall the Writ of Shunning?” Rudolfo asked.

“I have no evidence indicating I should do so,” Pope Resolute said, moving papers across his desk.

Jin Li Tam spoke, her voice sharp. “And you have no evidence that you should not. The mechoservi? Thstitor corroborated-”

“The mechoservitor corroborated only what Rudolfo had told him. I do not doubt at all that Brother Charles’s apprentice changed the mechanical’s script. I do not doubt at all that this mechoservitor spoke the spell and destroyed Windwir. Beyond that, I know nothing.”

Jin Li Tam’s fingers moved along the arm of her chair. He stalls.

Yes, Rudolfo signed. “I can appreciate your position, Excellency,” he said. “Please continue.”

“In light of this, you will continue to be my guest. We continue to gather our people and our resources-every day, a few more respond. Soon enough, I’ll be able to convene a Council of Investigation.”

Rudolfo nodded. “A fair solution, I’m certain.”

There was a knock at the door. Resolute looked up. “Yes?”

An aide materialized, moving quickly to the Pope’s side and leaning down to whisper in his ear.

I cannot stay, Rudolfo signed.

I concur, Jin Li Tam signed back.

When the Pope looked up, his face betrayed surprise. The aide left quickly, and Resolute released his held breath. Rudolfo thought he might even look more pale than usual. He glanced at Rudolfo, then stared at Jin Li Tam.

“I have surprising news,” he told her.

But before he could continue, the doors opened. Pope Resolute stood, and Rudolfo took it as a cue to the same. Jin also rose, and out of the corner of his eye Rudolfo saw surprise now color her face as well. A slight man in saffron robes and short red hair shot through with gray entered the room. Two young men dressed in black silk accented with saffron colored sashes accompanied him, and Rudolfo immediately saw the resemblance in the faces and the posture. Brothers with their father, he noted.

But he saw more than that. He glanced at Jin Li Tam again to be sure, and there was no doubt. They had the same eyes.

“Lord Tam,” Resolute said. “It is an unexpected honor to meet you.”

“Some messages should be delivered personally,” the slight man said, his eyes sharp and hard. “I will be brief, Archbishop Oriv.”

Cu?s Nll rious, Rudolfo thought, that he does not address him as Pope.

Resolute noticed it, too, he realized. The man’s eyes narrowed. “When I’ve concluded my business with-”

Vlad Li Tam waved aside the words like so many gnats. “I believe you will find that my business takes precedence.” He looked at Rudolfo and offered a tight smile, then he looked to his daughter and the smile widened. “It is good to see you, daughter.”

She bowed. “You also, Father.”

“I promised to be brief,” Vlad Li Tam said, turning to Pope Resolute.

“I will have my guests escorted-”

Again, Lord Tam waved the words away, interrupting. “That will not be necessary, Archbishop. What I have to say is for their ears as well.”

Resolute sat heavily, a dark look crossing his face. “Very well.”

“The matter of your succession to the throne of Windwir and the Holy See of the Androfrancine Order appears to be in dispute,” Vlad Li Tam said in a matter-of-fact tone. “There is another Pope-one with a more direct line of succession. I can personally verify this.”

Rudolfo watched Resolute’s eyes widen. “Another Pope? How is that possible?”

Vlad Li Tam shrugged. “Those questions are for another to answer. But as a steward of the Androfrancine treasury, I am required to inform you of this officially before suspending your access to the Order’s holdings. I could have sent a courier but I felt such news should come directly from me.”

“Where is this Pope then? Why has he not announced himself?”

Vlad Li Tam smiled. “I cannot say. He remains… discreetly anonymous. In light of recent events, I’m certain you can appreciate that discretion.”

Resolute sat back in his chair. For a moment, he looked deflated. Beyond him, framed in the glass door, dark clouds broke open and rain fell. “This is highly irregular,” he said. “And you claim he has clear rights of succession?”

“It is not for me to make that claim. I simply say it is a more direct line of succession. It will be a matter for the Order to investigate. It would be improper for me to speculate further on the intricacies of Androfrancine law.”

Resolute’s face went red. The surprise is wearing off, Rudolfo thought. Anger touched the edges of his voice. “Certainly, there will need to be further investigation,” the Pope said. “Meanwhile, I have an Order to rebuild and that requires access to funds. How do you propose I handle that?”

“I would not presume to tell you,” Vlad Li Tam said. “I am merely fulfilling my obligation to convey this information to you.”

Resolute glared. “This is entirely unacceptable. You can’t-”

For a third time, Lord Tam dismissed him with a gesture of his hand. “It is,” Vlad Li Tam said slowly, “what it is.” He paused and Rudolfo knew that it was not to choose the right words but to set the stage for them. Vlad Li Tam’s words were chosen before he’d left his office on the eighth patio of his seaside manor. “You of all people should appreciate the importance of taking great care with what little remains of P’Andro Whym’s Order.”

The Pope looked from Vlad Li Tam to Rudolfo. Then he looked at Jin Li Tam. Rudolfo watched him calculating, saw the hardness growing in his eyes. “I understand entirely,” he said, his jaw tight.

Vlad Li Tam inclined his head. “Excellent. I have urgent matters to attend to. I’m afraid I must return to the Emerald Coast immediately.”

Without a word to his daughter, Vlad Li Tam spun and strode out of the room. Rudolfo caught Jin’s bemused look out of the corner of his eye.

Resolute looked again at Rudolfo and Jin Li Tam. “I will have you escorted to your quarters, Lord Rudolfo. I’d speak with Lady Tam about this unexpected turn of events.”

Rudolfo stood and smiled. “If Lord Tam speaks true, your Writ of Shunning has no teeth.”

But the two Gray Guards that stepped quickly to either side of Rudolfo, hands on the pommels of their short swords, were all the teeth this pretender required.

Jin Li Tam waited for the archbishop to speak. Her father’s sudden arrival had surprised her. His sudden departure had not. He was a man given to a strange blend of effectiveness and attentiveness. He would ride the length and breadth of the Named Lands, deliver his message and then ride back.

And the news of another Pope also surprised her, though it was no shock at all that her father knew of it. He was ever at the center of the web-and often, the web was of his own design.

“This i?"› amp;eb s most unexpected and unacceptable,” the archbishop said. “How are we to resolve it?”

Jin Li Tam pushed a strand of hair back from her face. “I am my father’s daughter, always about his business. But the matter of succession is not my matter to resolve. My interest lies with Lord Rudolfo and the Ninefold Forest Houses. I want him released immediately.”

Resolute chuckled. “When I needed your father’s good favor that might have had clout with me.”

The insolence stunned her momentarily. When she spoke, her voice was low, even menacing. “You will always need my father’s good favor,” she said. “And you will never have his without mine.”

“Regardless,” Resolute said, “Rudolfo remains with me. As does the mechoservitor.” When she opened her mouth, he continued, not giving her a chance to interject. “Do you dispute that this mechanical belongs to the Androfrancine Order? Matters of succession aside, I am at the very least an archbishop of the Order and the ranking member accounted for thus far.”