Sereva turned away, pacing down the hall. Kit followed her to Sereva’s private study. “Well, it’s true,” her cousin said. “I can’t count the times you complained about her obsessions with bloodlines and family connections—”

“Yes—I know—there was a great deal we disagreed about, but—Sereva, could you stand still for a minute? She was my grandmother. I loved her. She irritated me. I made her frantic. We were not always on the best of terms. But—but—if she’s dead—”

And suddenly it all caught up with her, the trip, the dreadful revelations, the sense of loss piled high upon loss, and she started sobbing. She put her hands over her face to muffle the sound, to soak up the tears, but nothing could stanch this terrible weeping. Sereva turned to stare at her in astonishment, but only for a moment; only for that long did her coldness last. She ran the few paces back to Kit and pulled her into her arms, hugging her and murmuring endearments. There was no safety in this world—Kit had learned that over the past few weeks—but this felt like comfort. This felt like home, and a place to rest. Kit turned within the circle of Sereva’s arms, and cried till her body held no more tears.

*   *   *

But it was hard, Kit discovered, to try to recount the events of the past few weeks. Sereva called to postpone the lawyer’s visit, and the two of them locked themselves away to talk for the next three hours.

“What I tell you,” Kit said, “you’re going to find hard to believe.”

“Your adventures always are.”

“And you can’t talk about it with anybody.”

“Again, your escapades are rarely things I want to repeat.”

“Oh, my part in the story is the smallest part of all.”

At first she could not think how to begin (“Ariana Bayless has tried to destroy the gulden!”), but finally she started with her visit to Jex and Nolan’s first wild approach. Sereva gasped in fear, but Kit laughed.

“Save your outrage,” she advised. “Nolan’s actions are the least frightening thing that happened.”

It was not hard to draw a compassionate picture of Nolan; it was harder to make him sound merely human. Kit could scarcely conjure up now that first wave of fear and desperation she had felt, when she had actually believed he had the will—and the ability—to destroy Jex. Now he seemed omniscient, virtuous, brave, magnificent. Those opinions were harder to conceal.