“Hired orphans?” Lady Madeline exclaimed, eyebrows rising. “What luck! I suppose parents prove inconvenient when you pay children to overhear conversations and peep through windows. But relatives needn’t always function as barriers. Lady Fink’s daughter, Emilia, is expecting a child. Should I inform them that you are recruiting?”

“Thanks for your understanding,” Skye said. “Your mockery is exactly what we all needed after being robbed.”

“I was merely commenting on your life, dear,” Lady Madeline said. “If it comes across as ridicule, perhaps you should reassess your choices.”

Skye sighed wearily. “My involvement in the resistance has only led to hardship. I came here looking for honest employment. I hope to find work at the Silver Lining.”

Laying a hand on her bosom, Lady Madeline leaned her head back for a prolonged, joyless laugh. “If a confidence lounge has become your idea of honest work, let us pause to lament how far you have fallen.”

“The Silver Lining operates with approval from the champion, the alderman, and the High King,” Skye said. “Have you never crossed the threshold there? How many of your friends have abstained? The Silver Lining needs talented illusionists, and I’m one of the best.”

“You have talent,” Lady Madeline said sadly. “It only emphasizes your squandered potential. You could have had all the right people on your side. Instead, you willfully made enemies of them. Do I believe for one instant that you have changed? We both know the Silver Lining is where revolutionaries go to die. Like moths drawn to a bonfire, they are lured in by a lust for secrets, and they are inevitably destroyed. If you go to work at the Silver Lining, you’ll end up in Blackmont Castle before the week is out.”

Her harsh attitude about the Silver Lining made Cole anxious, though he tried not to show it. Skye didn’t think they could reach Dalton without her mother’s aid, but Lady Madeline didn’t seem willing to help them. They were so close! Would they be defeated here, in a stuffy parlor in the middle of the night?

“I want to interview for employment there,” Skye said. “My reputation was bad at Wenley, and not good in Carthage, but here I can use my actual name and wear my true face.”

“In other words, there are no warrants for your arrest in Merriston,” Lady Madeline scoffed. “No bounties on your head. Not yet, at any rate. Nobody trusts you, Skye. Your reputation is spoiled.”

“Not with everyone,” Cole said, unable to contain himself.

Lady Madeline regarded him coolly. “Your opinions hardly count if you’re paid to have them. Don’t forget that you’re also paid to hold your tongue when in the presence of your betters.”

“It’s all right, Cole,” Skye said. “You don’t need to defend me. Mother, are you saying Gustus wouldn’t consider me?”

“I could set up an interview for you with Gustus at my leisure,” Lady Madeline said. “He might even hire you. But it would only be to put you under constant watch. You will enter to spy, but the opposite will happen. All your dealings will be laid bare to them. It would be the end of you.”

Skye approached her mother and took one of her hands in both of hers. “Mother, listen. I need your help. An interview with Gustus is important to me right now. I’m no novice. I’m not going to try to beat the owners of the Silver Lining at their own game. But I am strongly considering a return to Merriston. An interview with Gustus will teach me volumes about my standing here.”

“You don’t need an interview for that,” Lady Madeline said. “I do not overstate the matter when I say your reputation is utterly ruined. Using your true identity, you would be under surveillance every hour of the day and night. You might even be detained on sight. Were you really assaulted by the Rogue Knight? Will that outrageous tale be confirmed?”

“I was,” Skye said. “Those two boys both took up arms against him. He left them with their lives. The Rogue Knight stripped me of promissory notes and cash amounting to over three hundred platinum ringers. I still have major holdings in Carthage, though they are under assumed names.”

“Three hundred platinum!” Lady Madeline exclaimed. “Did you plunder the hoard of some pirate king?”

“If you must know, I ran a successful dazzle show.”

Groaning, Lady Madeline covered her eyes. “Skylark! I would prefer a dozen spies to an entertainer.”

“She’s really good,” Cole said. “The best. You should have heard the people applaud!”

“You certainly have support from the hired orphan.” Lady Madeline moaned. She placed a hand to her forehead. “Skylark, I don’t believe I can take much more.”

“I used assumed identities,” Skye said.

“You must have, or else I would already be the laughingstock of Elloweer. Child, how could you?”

“Sometimes we do what we must to survive,” Skye said. “And sometimes we do what we must because of what we believe. Do you truly love the High King, mother?”

“What does it matter?” Lady Madeline exclaimed. “The sun shines. Sometimes it burns too hot, sometimes it bothers the eyes, but it is a reality of life, and so we live beneath its glare and seek shade and shelter as needed. The High King rules. He is not perfect, he sometimes elevates buffoons, he indulges his vanity on occasion, but this is the world we live in. Why not prosper in spite of him? Must he become an excuse to destroy ourselves?”

“Some people can turn a blind eye to what’s wrong in the world,” Skye said. “Some people cannot. I have my flaws, Mother, but I can honestly tell you that I try to do what I think is right.”

“You are a bothersome child,” Lady Madeline said. “You need fewer opinions and more practicality.”

“I need an interview with Gustus,” Skye said. “I want to bring my two young servants with me. They could help out behind the scenes at the Silver Lining.”

“Far behind the scenes, I hope,” Lady Madeline said. “Wearing gags.”

“We’re right here,” Cole said.

Lady Madeline ignored him. Setting her cane aside, she patted her daughter’s hand. “I fear that Gustus would gladly give you enough rope with which to hang yourself.”

“What I do with it may surprise him,” Skye said.

“I take it I will have no peace until I grant you this favor,” Lady Madeline said.