The look in his eyes said to stay back, to stay out of it, that there was no reason for both of us to get pulled into whatever the hell this was. I bit my tongue for the moment.

  I stepped back toward the crowd and felt someone grab my arm. I turned to see Alex, out of his uniform and in a cheap black suit, with a finger to his lips as he tugged me away from the open space.

  Guards pushed through the party-goers to reach the middle of the hall, after which they held up shields and edged towards Drifter, wary like they were approaching a great predator of the wilds. Drifter, for his part, wasn't armed, but he knelt down on the ground and placed his hands behind his head. Seeing that he was submitting, the guards rushed in to cuff him and placed a paper talisman on his back. The talisman's ink glowed then Drifter stiffened up and fell to the side.

  As he was dragged away Alex whispered in my ear, "We'll discuss more tonight, for now play along like you know nothing."

  It was easy enough as I did know nothing. I looked across the hall to see the guard captain Even being berated by the Regent, and him responding in the calm moments of the furious tirade.

  My suspicions were sort of correct, in that this was a trap, but I was struggling to make it add up. Why only Drifter, and why was I seemingly part of the plan, and as my brain caught up to the situation, who was this Henry Noman character?

  The whole party was in an uproar, and a few people around me had turned to me for answers I didn't have. Alex had already disappeared, leaving me to my own devices, and I decided to follow his advice: I professed ignorance, telling the story of our travels, and most especially how I really had no idea who Drifter was. I asked as many questions as were asked of me.

  Thus, in the global confusion, I was able to learn that Henry Noman was a captain of the guard in Beorne a decade earlier. He served for five years, having appeared from nowhere to be recruited into the city guard and then climbing up the ranks in a hurry. That all ended when he killed the Regent and fled in disgrace, though. No one could catch him, and no one knew where he ended up.

  Well, we now figured he had ended up with me. It was an incomplete story, but good enough to get me on my feet, context-wise.

  At the front of the hall, the Regent had finished screaming at Even and seemed to have calmed down. Lady Emilia took a moment to unruffle his frills and smooth out his coat, then he turned to the crowd and spoke into his amp once more. "My dear guests, it seems there were circumstances around this bounty that we were unaware of before this evening. My guard captain here has just told me that this is an even greater achievement than we had previously thought - not only has Varys the Vagabond been felled, but we have caught the vile murderer Henry Noman in a carefully laid trap!"

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  This was tracking with my suspicions, but not so much with Alex's appearance at my side just before. Was I still being manipulated? And for what purpose?

  "I would ask Virilus Legafil to step forward once more," Lord Edgar pronounced with an outreached hand.

  The people around me shuffled away, leaving an obvious path back towards the center of the hall. I begrudgingly followed it. When I returned to the spot where Drifter was dragged away, I bowed my head towards the Regent and placed my fist over my heart.

  Everyone in the room was silent. I was sweating through my clothes. My panic was well-hidden, at least, with my wide-eyed stare glued directly at the stone tile beneath me.

  After the longest second of my life, the Regent proceeded: "For you to risk yourself deceiving a horrid criminal for months on the road is worthy of great commendation, even greater than what was offered to you for the body of Varys." At this time I went as still as possible, hoping the buckets of sweat coming off my body didn't hit the floor. "Your undercover work for our City is more appreciated than you can know. The horrors that monster wrought upon my father have been a shame to this city for my entire reign, and at long last justice has prevailed."

  I glanced up at this point, confused but feeling somewhat more safe, to see a guard stepping towards the Regent with a patterned wooden box. He lifted the lid and Edgar pulled out a large golden amulet in the shape of a tree, inlaid with small red rubies among the leaves, and showed it to the party. "On top of the reward he has been promised, I present to Virilus Legafil of Docet Barrington the Root of Beornia award for service to the Regency. You will always be recognized as a friend to this land."

  The audience clapped and cheered as the Regent put the amulet away again. People surrounded me with congratulations, claiming I even had them convinced (which was not hard, as I spoke the truth, not whatever this all was). A band settled into a corner of the hall and music rang out, causing some to start dancing and others to start drinking more aggressively.

  I continued following Alex's advice to play along, lacking a better option. Confusion was becoming less a feeling and more an overarching state of being.

  Eventually a bell tolled the hour and Alex appeared at my side once more. I had been drinking, trying to ride the line between sober enough to keep my wits about me and drinking enough to push down the stress of the situation, and I had mostly failed. My wits were shot and I was stressed, to boot.

  "Well well well, the local guide finally shows up again," I slurred at him once I noticed his presence.

  He was stone-cold sober and more ready to go than I was. "We need to talk."