The acolyte quarters were located within the temple complex, meaning he could have taken the lift back up. But instead, his friend walked with Dalliance up the stone stairways and switchbacking paths that formed the fastest route from Water Street to Penitence Hall.

  "That didn’t go so bad," said Earnest. "You’re the one with the body count, and Charity's the one who kept saying sorry."

  He ducked Dalliance's half-hearted jab.

  "You’re forgetting Circe, though," he said, as they resumed the trudge.

  Earnest blinked. "I was," he admitted.

  "She seems so sweet," Earnest mused, "but she could break me in half."

  They approached the hall, its massive cement and brick. "Looks ominous. Is that why you don’t like being here?" asked Earnest.

  "It feels tainted," Dalliance admitted. "Two different times I’ve gone into my room and found a note waiting for me from . . . you know who."

  "I don’t," said Earnest. "Have any idea who."

  "Parsimony."

  "He sneaks into the rooms of teenage boys? I thought he lived in Tolbotton," Earnest said.

  "I don’t know," said Dalliance crossly. "Maybe he enchants the note to fly to me and that’s where it lands. Maybe he sends a runner, or gives it to the matron and she puts it there."

  "That," said Earnest, "is what I'd put my money on."

  "Either way, if it’s that matron entering my room without me knowing about it, that doesn’t make it feel much better. It’s somewhere that I can sleep, but it’s not really mine, is it? So, what did he want?"

  "Both times, he wanted to meet. I still haven't gone yet, after the most recent time."

  "That seems dumb. Or is it about him killing your father?"

  "Or something like that?"

  "Well," his friend said, "there’s nothing saying you have to go alone. It’s not really out of my way."

  And so, against Dalliance's better judgment, they were off to see the wizard.

  "And who are you?" came the voice of Parsimony Pleasant.

  Dalliance gritted his teeth and followed his friend through the curtain. Parsimony looked like he felt as bad as Dalliance had in the aftermath of the ants. Every motion brought a grimace of pain. Tired, sunken eyes in a yellow face stared at the pair of boys at the edge of his sickroom.

  "You wanted to see me," Dalliance said. “Your son, in a manner of speaking.”

  "Extremely funny," Parsimony said flatly.

  "I’m here for moral support," said Earnest.

  "There are matters of which I cannot speak in your presence," said Parsimony. "Family matters."

  Earnest didn't bat an eyebrow or an eyelash. "We've sworn an oath before Firth to safeguard one another’s secrets," he intoned slightly pompously. "I won’t go telling anyone anything. And if my friend wants me here . . . ."

  Parsimony waved a hand. "Your oath will hold you in this," he warned. "Do not think that you can say, 'Parsimony cheated during the duel,' and be released from the effect of implicating Dalliance."

  "You cheated?" asked Earnest, acting impressed.

  Parsimony observed this exchange with a gimlet eye. "I thought you couldn't hurt him?" Earnest said.

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  “He was perfectly capable of jogging the elbows of his batters. Now: if you’re quite finished, boy, I shall not force you to leave, but I shall request silence."

  Earnest seemingly found this to be persuasive.

  "All I have to say shall, regardless, take a very short time. This did not happen, and you will never discuss it with anyone outside your little coven, or we may both fall afoul of public interest and ignorant speculation. Which," he said, "I should find particularly onerous, being an innocent party. Though that is not to say that I do not recognize that my continued health, such as it is, may be traced to you, for better and worse."

  He shifted in bed slightly and let out a groan.

  "You used me as a cat's paw."

  Dalliance saw from Parsimony's interested look that his face failed to remain as still as he had intended.

  "Interesting," said Parsimony. "You’ve heard the term. I am not, I must confess, pleased," he said. "And yet, sitting here racking my brain as to what I could have done to earn your ire this soon after we came to our agreement, I have concluded there is nothing there. Therefore, it was the actions of your father that drove you to this extremity. Which does not excuse your actions in the slightest, but yet I find myself less furious than had this been done from enmity."

  "So what are you going to do to him?" asked Earnest.

  "I didn't say I would--or wouldn't, now did I? This one," said the wizard, "has the instincts of a born scammer. In the future, if you fear that you may attempt to act clever, do us both a service and defer to those more talented than yourself."

  Dalliance ignored his friend's chortling.

  "So?" he said, his voice trailing off into the question.

  "Nothing. I shall do nothing," said Parsimony, "unless you leave me no choice. I’m not wholly insensible of your situation, or my place in it."

  "Well, then," Earnest said, "what happens if the Watch has questions?"

  "I’ll tell them the lad's father stared off at him for an instant, right at the tail end of the duel," said Parsimony. "Because he did. And that I took advantage of his lapse in concentration and took his head, as any competent veteran of the Wall would have done. And I will remind them that in a sanctioned duel, one must keep one’s focus on the opponent rather than the audience, whether one is estranged from an audience member or not."

  He gave them a thin smile. "Which," he said, "is all anyone needs to know from me. There is another matter to hand, however: I have heard that Cadence's remains have . . . mysteriously disappeared. While I am sure I can’t imagine a purpose for your having taken them, I am confident I know the method by which you would have done so, had you done so," said Parsimony.

  Dalliance opened his mouth to protest.

  "Nevertheless, I did check," he said, "and there was no sign of wide-scale aeromancy in the granary, such as all the papers having fluttered everywhere when four hundred mage-pounds of air were released."

  Closer to five hundred, Dalliance noted. It wasn’t really reassuring, the mage having such a good grasp of his spellset.

  "Had you performed [Werewind]—as I am now aware you are capable, do not think there are not eyes upon you on the Wall, boy," he said at Dalliance's slight frown, "should you make use of such a spell in such a place, the outcome is obvious, and in this case, lacking. Nevertheless, I did not observe the site afterward in person. My conclusions would be hearsay."

  Oh.

  "I cannot help you. And . . . I am, truly, disinclined, while we are being honest with one another."

  Dalliance nodded.

  "One hopes," Parsimony said, "whichever back-alley enchanter took his corpse turns his bones into something degrading. Now, our business such as it is being at an end, I would ask that you take your leave."

  Dalliance nodded and did. Earnest followed shortly behind him. There was a brief exchange of words that Dalliance couldn’t hear. Considering asking about it, Dalliance knew Earnest would tell him that Parsimony had merely congratulated him on his stoicism and loyalty.

  "You know," Earnest said, walking away, "I’m a little impressed."

  About the cheating?

  "First rule of keeping a secret," Dalliance quoted. "Don't tell anyone."

  "Got it in one," Earnest agreed. "So. That’s got to be a load off."

  His smile was still slightly brittle. Dalliance wondered if he had wounded him with the lack of trust.

  But his friend didn’t say.