Mienthe couldn’t help but laugh again. “No!”
“Good,” said Tan, and bit with enthusiasm into the roll.
“I’ll go,” Geroen said. “I should report.” He gave Erich a significant look.
Erich gestured acknowledgment. “I’ll stay,” he assured the captain.
“Good to have that settled,” Tan said cheerfully.
He wasn’t at all as Mienthe had expected. Bertaud had told her that spywork was hard and dangerous, and that good spies saved a lot of soldiers and should be respected. And Erich had pointed out that everyone knew Linularinum had lots of spies in Feierabiand, so really it was only fair that Feierabiand have some in Linularinum.
Mienthe supposed that spywork must be frightening and dangerous and difficult. It must be hard to find out secrets and sneak away with them—Mienthe had a vague idea that spies slipped through darkened rooms and found secret ledgers in locked desks, and thought she would die of fright if she tried to sneak around that way. But worse than that would be making somebody trust you when you knew all the time you were going to betray their trust. That would be hard. Unless you really didn’t like the person you were betraying, but then pretending you did would be worse still. She had wondered what the kind of man who would do that might be like. Tan wasn’t at all what she had imagined.
“Tan…” Mienthe said curiously, wanting to hear him speak again, to see whether she could hear any deceit in his voice.
“Esteemed lady?”
Mienthe asked, “Do you never tell anybody the rest of your name?”
“Not often,” Tan said mildly. He didn’t seem in the least offended or embarrassed, and there was nothing secretive or deceitful in his manner, even when he was explaining straight out that he kept secrets. He said, “I’ve offended people, you know. There are plenty of people I’d prefer not know my mother’s name.”
“Oh. Of course.” Mienthe was embarrassed that he’d needed to explain that, and embarrassed again because he’d said he didn’t want to give his mother’s name. She guessed his father must have been careless. She didn’t know what to say.
Erich said, rescuing her, “His Majesty said he doesn’t think he’s ever had a confidential agent bring him such a coup, and for all the difficulty it will cause him, he is glad to have a way to set the Fox of Linularinum at a disadvantage.”
Tan gave Erich a thoughtful look. “I’m sure that’s so, Prince Erichstaben. Yes, I suppose now he has a considerable advantage over both his neighbors.”
That was barbed, but Erich didn’t seem offended. He only said mildly, “I don’t mind. Anyway, I’m going back to Casmantium in two years.”
“Are you?” Tan said, with just the faintest edge of doubt in his tone.
Mienthe started to say something sharp, she didn’t know what, but Erich said, his tone still mild, “You’ve been in Linularinum too long, maybe.”
After a moment, Tan laughed. “Perhaps.”
Mienthe looked at him, puzzled.
“Ah, well,” Tan said to her. “You’d think Feierabiand would be closely allied to Linularinum, wouldn’t you? We share a common history and a common language, which you’d think would make us far more like one another than either of us is like Casmantium, and there’s quite a lot of shared blood along the river and down here in the Delta.” He gave Erich a little nod and went on, “But in some ways, I think Casmantium is far more Feierabiand’s natural ally. We’re alike in our straightforwardness and love of honesty, which aren’t qualities Linularinum admires.”
There was an odd, wistful tone to his voice when he said that last. Mienthe said, “But you loved Linularinum, didn’t you? And then you had to leave it. I’m sorry.”
She seemed to have taken Tan by surprise. For a long moment, he only gazed wordlessly at her. But then he said slowly, “I suppose you’ve heard all your life, living on the border as you do, about Linularinan haughtiness, how the people of Linularinum look down on the people of Feierabiand as so many unlettered peasants. About how secretive and sly they are, and how they never use one word when they can fit in several dozen. And there’s some truth to that. They love poetry—”
“Oh, I know!” Mienthe exclaimed, and then blushed because she had interrupted. But Tan only lifted a curious eyebrow, so she said, “I think everyone on both sides of the bridge reads Linularinan epic romances. All the girls in the great house read them—I read them, too. All we can get, I mean. They’re wonderful fun.”