“Greetings,” he said. “Please come into the receiving room. Quickly,” the man said, as Katsa stood unmoving, startled by his hasty reception. “We’re letting the heat escape.”

The man ushered them into a dark hall. At first glance, Katsa saw high ceilings, a stairway leading to banistered passageways above, and at least three burning fireplaces. Bitterblue steadied herself on Katsa’s arm.

“I’m Lady Katsa of the Middluns,” Katsa began, but the man waved them forward toward a set of double doors.

“This way,” he said. “My master is expecting you.”

Katsa’s jaw went slack with surprise. She stared at the man, incredulous. “Your master! Do you mean he’s here? How is that possible? Where is he?”

“Please, My Lady,” the servant said. “Come this way. The whole family is in the receiving room.”

“The whole family!”

The man swept his hand toward the doors straight ahead. Katsa looked at Bitterblue and knew that the girl’s astonished face must mirror her own. Certainly there had been time for Po to make his way home; Katsa and Bitterblue had been ages in the mountains. But how could he, in such health? And how leave his hiding place, without being seen? Why, how—

The man shooed them forward to the doors, and Katsa tried to formulate a question, any question.

“How long has the prince been here?” she asked.

“The princes have only just arrived,” the man said, and before she could ask what he meant he opened the doors.

“How wonderful,” a voice inside said. “Welcome, my friends! Come in and take your honored place among our happy circle!”

It was a familiar voice, and she caught Bitterblue and held the girl to her side when the child gasped and fell. Katsa looked up to see strangers sitting around the walls of a long room; and at the room’s end, smiling and appraising them through a single eye, King Leck of Monsea.

Chapter Thirty-five

WELCOME. FRIENDS. Honored place. Happy circle.

Katsa felt immediately that there was something she didn’t trust about this man who said such nice things, and in such a nice, warm voice. There was something about him, some quality that kept her senses strung out to a high readiness. She did not like him.

Still, his words were kind and welcoming, and this room of strangers smiled at him, and smiled at her, and there was no reason for her discomfort. No reason to dislike the man so instantly. She hesitated in the doorway, and stepped forward. She would proceed carefully.

The child was sick. Giving in finally, Katsa thought, to the dizzying steadiness under her feet. Bitterblue cried and clung to Katsa, and kept telling her to come away. “He’s lying,” she kept saying. “He’s lying.” Katsa looked at her blankly. Clearly the child didn’t like this man, either. Katsa would take that into consideration.

“My daughter is ill. It pains me to see my daughter suffer,” Leck said; and Katsa remembered and understood that this man was Bitterblue’s father. “Help your niece,” Leck said to a woman on his left. The woman jumped up and came toward them with outstretched arms.