“I trust him,” she said in a low voice, and Nolan had to stop breathing to hear her. “I cannot tell you why. I can only judge him by my heart, and my heart has been wrong before. But I believe he is a good man. I believe he has been steeped in kindness. I would be willing to see my life forfeit if he were able to do you harm.”

Nolan stared at her, everything else washed away by stupefaction. When had she developed this opinion, or could she possibly be lying? She was gazing unwinking at Chay Zanlan, her face set and serious, her expression almost fierce. She looked like a true believer. Chay, who had never once glanced at Nolan since this conversation began, gazed back.

“As it would be,” Chay said softly. “Which you knew when you walked in here.”

“As it may yet be,” she whispered. “I know.”

Chay watched her a moment in silence, and then nodded once, sharply. “So. Tell me his name.”

Nolan’s limbs had all turned to yarn and rubber. He felt himself bobbing like a puppet as both of them turned to look at him. “Nolan Adelpho,” Kit said. “A respected member of his race’s nobility.”

Now Nolan looked into those fierce gray eyes, and it was like stepping off a cliff. He felt very much as if Kit had actually shoved him off a precipice on Gold Mountain. “Nolan Adelpho,” Chay repeated. “I understand this is your first visit to Geldricht.”

Small talk, idle conversation. Even now they must spar and establish rituals. “Yes, Chay Zanlan, it is,” Nolan replied.

“And what do you think of it?”

“What I have seen from the train windows is fascinating and complex,” he replied. “I had many questions to ask of Kitrini Candachi. She was an excellent source of information.”

Chay nodded regally. “It is a good sign when a man is interested in learning,” he said.

“I think I have a great deal more to learn, even so,” Nolan said. “I found your land rich with color and ritual and beauty, just from my window. I am sure it would be all that and more if I had time to study it.”

Chay permitted himself a smile. “A gracious comment,” the guldman said. “Your land, I know, has its own riches and beauties.”

“Yes, and I love it with most of my heart,” Nolan said. “But I see now that a man must reserve a portion of his heart with which to appreciate things outside his immediate experience.”

“I confess,” Chay said, “my heart was not much won over by your metropolis. Perhaps I did not stay there long enough.”

“The city is not the true measure of Inrhio’s beauty,” Nolan said, wondering when all this pointless talk would end. “It is the countryside, so unbelievably green and fertile, which holds the affection of most indigo.”