He and the king looked at her as if she could move it with a touch. Dorrin almost laughed but laid her hand on the chest.

“Is it talking to you?” they asked.

“No.” I am here, she thought at it. The chest trembled beneath her hand; her hand tingled. She took her hand away; the chest lurched a little toward her.

“I saw that,” Seklis said. “I can hardly believe it, but—ask it to open, Duke Verrakai.”

“Please open,” Dorrin said, laying her hand on the top of the chest. With a sound like ripping cloth, a crack appeared around the chest where the opening had been before. Dorrin said, “Thank you,” and reached forward; the top lifted without her assistance.

Inside, the contents appeared as they had before, wrapped in clean white linen, the oblong shape of the box that held the rings and bracelets, the shape of the cup, and the irregular shape that held the crown.

I am yours. Take me—put me on. The crown in its wrappings lifted in the chest. Dorrin put out her hand to hold it gently in place, and the light of its jewels blazed through the cloth.

“It’s—doing that again,” Mikeli said. He sounded more interested than angry.

“It is not yet the time,” Dorrin said to the crown. “But as I promised I would return, so I have returned. I would see you again, and the others.”

A sense of sadness, of yearning.

“I wish I knew where you came from,” Dorrin said. The colors shimmered through the cloth. Take me. See me clearly. “I cannot wear you now,” Dorrin said, “in courtesy to the king of this land. But I will unwrap you and look.”

She took the crown in her hands and set it in her lap, unwrapping it. The jewels blazed. See us all. To Mikeli she said, “It wants me to unwrap them all.”

“Go ahead,” Mikeli said. “We must learn what the mystery means, and at the moment no assassins are with us.”

One by one she lifted the other items out. She ran her thumb along the pattern on the box of regalia and lifted out the rings, the bracelets. She set the cup atop the chest and laid the other things to either side.

“You are beautiful,” she said to the array. “But I do not understand you. I do not know where you come from, or who made you, or what you truly are.”

The light from the jewels brightened even more, shimmering on the walls and ceilings of the treasury like reflections of sunlight dancing on moving water. Dorrin looked at them more closely than she ever had. Blue of deep water … clear as water, as well. The jewels of other colors on the goblet and on the top of the velvet-lined box seemed garish in combination with the blue and clear.

What could it be? Fire and water? Air and water?