Truyde utt Zeedeur is imprisoned in the Dearn Tower after confessing under threat of the rack. She had hired a masterless playing company, the Servants of Verity, to stage an attack intended to convince Sabran of the danger from Yscalin and the Nameless One, hoping to petition Sabran to open negotiations with the East. However, real enemies—including Bess Weald—infiltrated the performance and murdered Prince Lievelyn. Several innocent actors, city guards, two Knights of the Body, and Linora Payling also died. Ead wrote to Chassar about the events. Briar House entered mourning; Lievelyn's body was laid in state, and his sister Ermuna was to be crowned in his place.

Margret approaches Ead with a smuggled letter from Loth, sent from Rauca rather than Cárscaro. Loth reports that Lord Kitston is dead and warns that "Snow" (Sabran) is in danger, urging them to "Beware the Cupbearer." Ead and Margret connect this to Bess Weald's invocation of a cupbearer during the ambush. They decide not to tell Sabran about Loth yet, for fear Combe will discover the letter's route. Ead resolves to investigate the Cupbearer threat. Margret also mentions that her father at Goldenbirch is agitated, insisting he has something important to tell Loth.

Sabran's pregnancy is making her ill, known to only a few. She grows increasingly withdrawn and careworn in mourning. One evening, she surprises everyone by asking Ead to be her bedfellow. Roslain instructs Ead to keep a candle burning all night, as Sabran fears darkness. In bed together, Sabran thanks Ead for her valor during the Quiver Lane ambush and asks if she is the mysterious protector, which Ead denies. Sabran blames herself for Lievelyn's death, and Ead assures her the assassin would have found a way regardless.

Sabran confides that she never wanted to marry and still does not, though she recognizes the political necessity of royal marriage for military alliances. She describes feeling that her body was not wholly her own during intimacy with Aubrecht and now during pregnancy. She fears judgment if she refuses to remarry, believing Inys needs the military guarantees a marriage alliance would provide. Ead responds with compassion, telling Sabran that her fears about pregnancy and vulnerability are natural and that the difficulties of childbearing are the world's best-kept secret. Sabran smiles for the first time since the ambush, telling Ead she doesn't know what she did without her.