In the Queen Tower of Ascalon Palace, a masked cutthroat infiltrates the Privy Chamber using a copied key and approaches Queen Sabran Berethnet's Great Bedchamber while she sleeps. Ead Duryan, concealed in the rafters, drops silently behind the intruder and kills him with a blade before he can reach the queen. The assassin is revealed to be a young man, barely out of boyhood, and Ead leaves the body on the floor before retreating into the shadows.

The next morning, Ead follows her daily routine: checking for letters, gazing out at the city of Ascalon, and attending to her duties as a Lady of the Privy Chamber. She reminds the Royal Laundress to check the queen's sheets for poison daily and learns that a wyverling has been spotted stealing livestock from the Lakes—a troubling sign that Draconic creatures are growing bolder. Ead reflects on the palace and its history, and on the disappearance five days earlier of her close friend Lord Arteloth Beck (Loth) and Lord Kitston Glade, who vanished without explanation. Ead believes Loth was forced to leave, likely because his childhood friendship with Sabran made him a political threat to her marriage prospects.

Lady Katryen Withy, one of the Ladies of the Bedchamber, informs Ead about the latest intrusion and reveals that the assassin possessed a key to the Great Bedchamber, meaning someone in the Upper Household is a traitor. Katryen assigns Ead the task of helping dress Lady Truyde utt Zeedeur, a young Mentish noblewoman and maid of honor, before the arrival of her father, the Mentish ambassador. Ead reflects on the pattern of assassination attempts against the Berethnet line and resolves to discover who is orchestrating them.

While dressing Truyde, Ead observes the girl's fatigue and loss of appetite. Truyde asks about the absent squire Triam Sulyard, who left court without permission. Through careful questioning, Ead deduces that Truyde was secretly intimate with Sulyard and that her decline in health coincides with his departure. Truyde reacts angrily to the implication and dismisses Ead. Ead also reveals to Truyde that "Ead Duryan" is not her real name—a name no one at court has ever heard. Ead resolves to uncover the full truth of Truyde's secret, viewing knowledge of court secrets as essential to her work.