“Damnation,” she muttered.

“What’s wrong?” Cade asked.

“I am tired of hiding. I want my sword. We might as well go up to the front door of the palace and knock on it for all the good this waiting around is doing us.”

“That would be one approach,” Cade said, “but I don’t think it would accomplish what you hope.”

“I know, I know.” Karigan flung her arm out in frustration. “I feel like I want to do something.”

Cade raised his eyebrows and looked like he had a suggestion, then clamped his mouth shut. Instead, he rose and strode over to her. He wrapped his arms around her and rubbed her back. “Let’s see what news Luke brings back.”

She was too wound up to feel comforted, but said, “All right, all right. I just hope he returns soon.”

A couple hours passed, and just as their supper was being delivered to their doorstep, Luke grabbed the tray from the startled servant, stepped inside, and booted the door shut behind him. After he set the tray on the table in their sitting room, he lifted the lid off the pot of the main course and an offensive odor wafted out. “Oh, my favorite,” he said. “Boiled dinner.”

Karigan groaned.

“How was the city?” Cade asked.

Luke straightened. “Very interesting as a matter of fact. I have some unexpected news. The city is abuzz with rumor.”

Karigan and Cade glanced at one another.

“Well?” Cade asked.

“From what I was able to pick up,” Luke replied, “the emperor has awakened early.”

A WAKING DREAM

“The emperor has awakened?” Cade demanded, aghast. “Early?”

Luke nodded and began to dish himself some boiled dinner. “That’s the rumor going around. Or it may be he hasn’t awakened quite yet, but the palace is making ready.”

The professor had told Karigan that the emperor—Amberhill—slept at intervals of ten years. He had not known the reasons for such extraordinary sleep periods, but he’d told her that the emperor’s wakeful periods were to be feared. Even so, she was just as glad. Trying to get answers out of a sleeping Amberhill would not have yielded much satisfaction.

“But rumors,” Cade said.

Luke dropped into a chair at the table, ready to dig into his meal. “Rumors with an element of truth. Certain foods known to be the emperor’s favorites have been ordered into the palace kitchens, there’s been extra activity in the emperor’s quarters, extra attention paid to his horses, and certain officials have attempted to flee the city . . . There are enough servants, and others who work in the palace, to note changes in its daily routines, and of course they mix with people in the city and the word spreads.” He took a bite of corned beef. “Mmm. Just like my wife’s.”

In that moment, he looked forlorn and suddenly much older. He must miss her very much, Karigan thought. He had spoken little of his family on their journey, but perhaps it was his way of coping with the separation.

Karigan and Cade joined him at the table, Karigan picking at potatoes and trying not to be repulsed by the cabbage. Luke told them of his outing, of having sent his letter off to Webster Silk, and then of lingering in an open air market and a tavern to hear the news of the city.

“It sounds as if the Eletian is definitely at the palace,” he told them. “People described a closed circus wagon with lions painted on it, making its way through the city and to the palace just a couple of days ago.”

Karigan nodded. “He was kept in one like that at Dr. Silk’s party.”

“Yes, well, there was much speculation over what was to be done with the Eletian. One gent referred to him as ‘a priceless treasure.’”

Karigan hoped that Cade was right about Dr. Silk’s being a collector. It might prevent harm from coming to Lhean, at least for a while.

“There was nothing about Arhys and Lorine?” Cade asked.

Luke shook his head. “They would seem to be inconsequential in comparison.”

“That’s good,” Cade said. “It means they’ve not discovered Arhys’ secret.”

“Overall, I’d say the mood of the city is edgy,” Luke continued. “People are trying to go about their daily routines, but it’s as if they know a storm is brewing.”

“To be expected if the emperor is indeed awakening.” Cade shook his head. “And why early?”

As the two men mused over the possibilities, Karigan investigated the contents of a crock that had arrived with the boiled dinner, to see if it was anything more palatable. It was a steaming blueberry crumble and now it was her turn to think of home. Her Aunt Stace made wonderful crumbles during summer when the low lying bushes around the G’ladheon estate were filled with tiny blueberries. Picking the wild ones had been a nuisance until Aunt Stace acquired a hand rake like those used by growers out on the cultivated barrens. Not to mention, more blueberries usually ended up in Karigan’s mouth than in her bucket when she “helped.”

Hastily she scooped a heaping mound of the crumble into a bowl and drowned it in the heavy cream that came with it.

“Hey!” Cade said. “You hardly left any for us.”

“You can have my share of the boiled dinner.”

Luke chuckled, and Cade glowered.

While the crumble was wonderful, it could never be as good as Aunt Stace’s, but at least it was made in Corsa, even if Corsa was now called Gossham.