Barabas stared at me like I had grown a second head. “Kate. Are you trying to tell me that your family comes from Eden?”

“From that general vicinity.”

“So Roland, I mean Nimrod, is actually a grandson of Adam? Real Adam?”

I sighed. “Adam wasn’t a person. Adam was a city.”

He stared at me.

“In the language of the Ubaid, who were there first, Eden means ‘fertile plain’ and Adam means ‘city of the plains.’ There was a real Cain, but he didn’t murder his biological brother. He favored agriculture and was forced out by the hunters and herders who saw his ways as having too great of an impact on their lands.”

He didn’t say anything.

“You asked how my father became what he is. I don’t know all of the details, but at the start, he and my aunt were liberators. They brought freedom, civilization, and enlightenment, but they never stopped. They kept rolling, taking city after city and then snuffing out rebellions when their empire became too large.”

“They were heroes,” Barabas said softly.

“Until they became tyrants.” And I understood exactly how it happened.

“Do you think people tried to stop them?”

“Probably. There must’ve been people who told them they were going too far, but I doubt they survived very long. My father doesn’t like the word ‘no.’”

“I’ll be there to tell you ‘no,’” he said.

“My family history isn’t exactly inspiring. I may kill you one day, Barabas.”

“I’ll take that chance. I believe in you, Kate.”

Curran walked down the stairs. He had to have heard that last bit. The man could hear the oven door opening all the way in the pasture, especially if he was waiting for a pie.

“Alright, then,” Barabas said. “I’ve come to talk about Saiman. The problem, as I see it, is that Roland kidnapped Saiman, according to his own admission, when Saiman was outside your lands. Technically, he isn’t in breach of the treaty the two of you signed.”

“Yes, but if he sits by . . .”—my, no, wrong—“our land and grabs the citizens as they leave, then the city is under siege. A siege is an act of war, so he is in breach, which is what I told him. He didn’t address it, so he knows he’s in a gray area.”

Barabas stopped for a moment. “Kate, sometimes you really surprise me. Yes, you’re right. But it’s still an indirect action. You and your father are in a state of cold war. If you respond directly by attempting to retrieve Saiman by force, the conflict heats up.”

“She needs plausible deniability,” Curran said. “We have to snatch the degenerate back, but she can’t be directly involved.”

“What are the chances that your father would retaliate directly if you weren’t involved?” Barabas asked.

“Slim to none,” I said.