“You’re lying,” she said. Her hands had clutched, clawlike, on the arms of her chair. He took a brief moment to reflect that a mortal threat brought out the animal characteristics of even the most sophisticated woman.

“No, I’m not,” he said, still in that easy, unconcerned voice. “I expect tomorrow will be an interesting day for both of you.”

Now he had silenced her; she stared at him as if he were the face of evil itself. He waited a few minutes for her to speak, then shrugged and climbed to his feet. “So, that’s what I thought you’d be interested in hearing,” he said, ambling for the door. “Aren’t you glad I came by?”

“Get out of here,” she whispered. She was still clinging to the chair which looked, by some amazing alchemy, to have swelled around her to twice its original size. Or perhaps she was shrinking, her bones contracting and her flesh drawing itself close for protection. “You—you—”

He paused at the doorway. “Oh, and one more thing,” he said casually. “I gave Colt the formula for a new virus. But this one attacks indigo only. And so far I don’t have an antidote.”

Her mouth opened but no words came out; she had been robbed of the ability to speak.

“They might ask you to stay on at the lab until the cure is found,” Nolan continued conversationally. “Or they might like the irony of asking Pakt to find the antibiotic that will save the indigo. Although he might not be too keen on the task. He might be one of those who hopes we all succumb to infection and die wretched deaths. To save the gulden, you know, from our dreadful indigo taint.”

“You have betrayed your race,” Cerisa breathed.

Nolan opened the door. “No, Cerisa,” he said. “You have.” And he walked out the door, down the elegant stairway, and out into the spangled night.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Kit stayed in Geldricht for ten days after Nolan left, no longer as prisoner but as favored guest. She was not deceived, of course. She knew that Chay’s guards followed her anytime she left the mansion grounds, but she took every opportunity to leave anyway. Chay, who had always spoiled her, had given her a substantial gift of money. So she browsed the markets for a few days, mostly buying clothes, because she was heartily sick of the few outfits she had been revolving for the past weeks.