Petra Lorne wanted the crown of Jademarsh, and she could not ask a single soul for help winning it. She stood at her window and watched the marsh swallow the last light. Her throne room stank of wet wood and old rot. She ruled this drowning duchy alone, and alone she meant to bind every noble house under one throne. But she could not take a throne without a house behind her. And the moment she courted the wrong one, they would name her ambition aloud, and the others would band together to crush her. Three houses could carry her bid. She had studied all three for a year. House Vell held the grain roads. House Mireau held the coin. House Serrick held the swords. Whichever she chose first would learn her secret first. If they betrayed her, she was finished before she began. She crossed to a wide oak table covered in letters. Each house had sent her polite words this season. Polite words hid nothing useful. She needed to know which house was strong enough to survive backing her, and desperate enough to try. A crow landed on the sill behind her. A pale crescent marked its black head, bright against the dark feathers. She had raised it from a chick for exactly this purpose. It carried what no messenger could be trusted to carry. She untied the scrap of paper from its leg. The note came from her spy inside House Mireau. Three words. "Mireau is bankrupt." Petra read it twice. House Mireau held the coin, or so every noble believed. If the coin was gone, then Mireau needed her far more than she needed them. A desperate house keeps a secret to save itself. A rich house sells it for profit. She fed the crow a strip of dried meat and stroked its crescent-marked head. Then she wrote one line on fresh paper. "I know your ledgers are empty. Back my claim, and no one else will." She tied the note to the crow's leg and sent it into the dark. The choice was made. She had picked her house, and she had chosen it because it was weak. By morning the answer returned on the same black wings. The paper held a single word in an unsteady hand. "Yes." Petra let the note curl in the fire. She had her first house. But she had bought them with their own shame, and a house that keeps its ruin secret will not want the one person who knows. House Mireau would back her now. They would also spend every hour after looking for a way to bury the woman who held their secret.