Jem dropped Katsa’s coins into the captain’s outstretched hand. “There’s plenty more of it, too, Captain, in this purse.”

The captain considered the gold in her hand. She raised narrowed eyes to Katsa and Bitterblue. “Where did you get this?”

“We’re friends of Prince Greening of Lienid,” Katsa said. “It’s his gold.”

The big sailor beside the captain snorted. “Friends of Prince Po,” he said. “Of course they are.”

“If you’ve stolen from our prince—” Jem began, but Captain Faun held up a hand. She looked at Katsa so hard that Katsa felt as if the woman’s gaze were scraping at the back of her skull. She looked at Katsa’s coat, at her belt, at her trousers, her boots, and Katsa felt naked before the intelligence of those uneven eyes.

“You expect me to believe that Prince Po gave a purse of gold to two raggedy Sunderan boys?” the captain finally asked.

“I think you know we’re not Sunderan boys,” Katsa said, reaching into the neck of her coat. “He gave me his ring so you may know to trust us.” She pulled the cord over her head. She held the ring out for the captain to see. She registered the woman’s shocked expression, and then the outraged cries of Jem and Bear alerted her to the room’s sudden descent into bedlam. They were lunging toward her, both of them, Jem brandishing his knife, Bear swinging his sword; and the sailor beside the captain had also pulled a blade.

Po could have mentioned that at the sight of his ring his people devolved into madness; but she would act now and contemplate her annoyance later. She swirled Bitterblue into the corner so that her own body was between the child and everyone else in the room. She turned back and blocked Jem’s knife arm so hard that he cried out and dropped the blade to the floor. She knocked his feet out from under him, dodged the swing of Bear’s sword, and swung her boot up to clock Bear on the head. By the time Bear’s body had crumpled to the ground, Katsa held Jem’s own knife to Jem’s throat. Hooking her foot under Bear’s sword and kicking it up into the air, she caught it with her free hand and held it out toward the remaining sailor, who stood just out of her range, knife drawn, ready to spring. The ring still dangled from its cord, gripped in the same hand that gripped the sword, and it was the ring that held the gaze of the captain.

“Stop,” Katsa said to the remaining sailor. “I don’t wish to harm you, and we’re not thieves.”

“Prince Po would never give that ring to a Sunderan urchin,” Jem gasped.

“And you do your Graceling prince little honor,” Katsa said, digging her knee into his back, “if you think a Sunderan urchin could’ve robbed him.”

“All right,” the captain said. “That’s more than enough. Drop those blades, Lady, and release my man.”