In perhaps ten minutes, they arrived at their destination, and they were forcefully pulled through the doorway into what appeared to be a suite of rooms. The guard holding Kit snapped out a few sentences, to which she replied with one numb word, and then both of the gulden men tramped out. Nolan heard the lock turn in the door and footsteps fall away down the hallway.

It took almost all his strength to briefly take stock of his new residence. They were in what appeared to be a sitting room, gaily furnished with bright tapestries, rugs, low chairs, cushions, and short-legged tables. One large grilled window let in light and air, though it clearly would not permit a chance to escape. Doorways led off of either end of the main room, most likely to separate bedrooms. Somewhere, Nolan could hear water playing. It did not look much like a prison.

But to Kit, clearly, it was a dungeon in the base of hell. Her face had a smudged, stricken look to it; she appeared to be on her feet only because she was too rigid with shock to crumple to the floor. Her eyes darted from one corner of the room to another, as if seeking the hidden exit, as if looking for the clue, the key, the retraction. Her lips trembled as if she was on the brink of speech, but the audience she required had not yet made its appearance. Nolan had never seen anyone so wretched in his life.

“I’m sorry,” he said to her in his gentlest voice. “I did not realize he would bracket you with me. I did not realize he would consider you guilty of my crimes.”

She looked at him blankly, as if she heard the sound of his voice but could not translate his words. Nolan tried again. “I thought he might throw me into a jail of some sort. He’d be a fool not to! I thought he’d want to test the information and the drugs I gave him. I knew it would take time. But I didn’t think he’d make you suffer with me.” He glanced around. “Though I have to say these are better accommodations than I had hoped for. He must think there’s a chance I’m telling him the truth.”

“He believed you,” Kit breathed. “Or you would be dead.”

“In any case,” he said, “I’m sorry you’re guilty by association.”

“Is it true?” she said, still in that small, almost soundless voice. “Is it true he’s going to die?”

“I believe he’s been inoculated,” Nolan said gently. “I believe my drugs can save him. But all of it is out of my hands.”