“Then you should put yoghurt on it,” said Molly.

Penny and I looked around, and there were the rest of my Inner Circle, staring at us suspiciously. The good feeling from the crimson glow vanished from me immediately. I hadn’t expected this to be easy, but the grim faces on the assembled Circle made it clear this was going to be an uphill battle all the way. I took Penny by the arm and led her forward, glaring right back at the Circle.

“Penny is one of us now,” I said firmly. “A full member of the Inner Circle. And I don’t want to hear any more insults. I trust her, and so should you.”

“Just like that?” said Molly dangerously.

“Yes,” I said.

Molly looked at the rest of the Circle. “I’ll knock him down, you get the straightjacket on him.”

“I need advisors from all parts of the family,” I said patiently. “Including the traditionalists.”

“You mean the ones who wanted you and me dead?” said Molly. “The ones who declared you rogue, and secretly ran Manifest Destiny behind the cover of the Zero Tolerance faction?”

“That’s the ones,” I said. “Except that Penny was never Zero Tolerance. She told me so.”

“And you believed her?” said Molly.

“Of course,” I said. “She’s family.”

“So,” said Penny. “This is the infamous Inner Circle? This is what has replaced the Matriarch’s Council, sanctified by centuries of tradition?”

“Yes,” I said. “Eventually the Inner Circle will give way to a new Council, to be elected by the family. About time we had some democracy around here.”

“Democracy?” said Molly.

“Shut up, dear, I’m talking,” I said. “The old Council had to go, Penny. They were all corrupt. They knew the truth about the torcs, and they never did anything about it. They knew the truth about the family’s true role in the world, and they just went along with it.”

“Elected . . .” Penny said thoughtfully. “By the whole family, or just the ones you end up giving new torcs?”

I grinned at the Inner Circle. “You see? That’s why she’s here; to ask the necessary awkward questions.”

I looked round the Circle, but it didn’t seem that impressed. My Inner Circle consisted of Molly Metcalf, my uncle Jack the family Armourer, the ghost Jacob Drood, the Sarjeant-at-Arms, and now Penny. I could have ruled the family on my own—declared myself Patriarch, or something—but I’d seen where that led. Power tends to corrupt, and the Droods are the most powerful family in the world. So I chose people to advise me who I could trust to tell me the truth, whether I wanted to hear it or not; and who together might just be a match for me, if I looked like getting out of control. Penny nodded formally to the other family members of the Circle, though she couldn’t bring herself to look Jacob in his ghostly eyes; but she had only a cold, distant stare for Molly.