It had not occurred to Kit that she might become a heroine. Half the partygoers, it seemed, flocked instantly to Aliria’s side, but the other half surged around her, calling out questions and expressing their fury. Kit felt swamped and panicked, and looked around desperately for Sereva. Who broke through the crowd moments later to sweep Kit into an embrace.

“Oh, honey, what happened, what did he say to you, are you all right?” Sereva demanded in one breathless sentence. “Why did you go dance with him like that, I was so worried—”

“I thought he might—I wanted to distract him,” Kit said, stumbling over the words. Sereva was shaking her or—no, that was her own treacherous body, trembling with a fever ague. “He had a dagger, I thought he might hurt Aliria—”

“A dagger!” “A knife!” “The gulden had a dagger?” The cries and questions swept around the circle hemming them in. One voice rose a little more clearly than the others. “Did you see this dagger?”

Kit nodded but addressed her reply to Sereva. “I saw him shake it into his hand. That’s why I went over to him. I thought if I could just get his attention, someone might get Aliria safely from the room—”

Sereva clutched her more closely; it was hard to breathe. “Oh, my brave girl!” her cousin murmured into her neck. “Weren’t you afraid?”

Actually, yes. “A little,” Kit admitted. “But he wasn’t really focused on me.”

She heard fragments of talk as her story was circulated among the onlookers, and there was an entirely unexpected murmur of approval that drifted back. “Quick thinking!” “There’s a smart girl.” “It’s that Candachi, isn’t it? Solvano’s daughter?” Then, more ominously, “And he just strolled out the door! That’s not right! Someone better notify Ariana Bayless. A gulden man attacking a woman right here in an indigo house—!”

“Damn guldman’s got to be brought to justice. Now, before he gets too far—send out a search party—”

Kit freed herself from her cousin’s arms and surveyed the crowd, trying to discover who was talking. The last two had been male voices, but everybody in the crowd looked wrathful.

“You won’t find him,” she said quietly. “He’ll probably go straight back to Geldricht tonight.”

One of the men snorted. He was a short effete man with pale blue skin and lackluster hair. “He’ll stay to brag to his gilder friends how he insulted an indigo queen.”

Kit’s voice cut through the small chorus of agreement. “He’s gone,” she said decisively. “And if you bring in the wrong guldman for punishment, can you guess what kind of trouble you’d raise in the city?”

That created an uneasy stir in the crowd. Kit pressed her advantage. “Would you recognize him, if he was brought to you tonight in the company with three other gulden men? I don’t think so.”