Summit House Lodge, Province of Glacierheart, Republic of Siddarmark Your Eminence, how long have I been your valet?” Zhasyn Cahnyr turned to look at Fraidmyn Tohmys speculatively. He knew that long- suffering tone entirely too well. “For quite some time,” he said mildly, at which Tohmys folded his arms and gave him a very stern look indeed. At the moment, the Archbishop of Glacierheart sat in front of a fire barely short of roaring. Summit House Lodge, the name some long- ago archbishop had bestowed upon his summer retreat, lay considerably higher up the mountain behind the city of Tairys than the city itself. The relatively modest lodge was also, despite the steep- pitched, snow- shedding roof all buildings required in these mountains, intended as a summer residence. A place for the archbishop and his favored guests to withdraw into rustic seclusion and relax. (Cahnyr suspected that at least one of his predecessors had also seen Summit House as a secluded venue for drunken parties and the occasional orgy far enough away from his parishioners’ disapproving eyes to avoid any official scandal.) The fact that it had been viewed primarily as a summer residence, however, also meant that even though it was weathertight, it hadn’t really been designed for occupancy in the coldest month of an East Haven winter.
