“Do not play with us, Duke Verrakai,” Mahieran said, turning sharply to face her. “Do you so distrust the prince and his closest companions—?”

“I distrust the air itself,” Dorrin said. “I believe this matter will and should be made public, but what I think of these things will be nothing to the experience.”

“Then let us go to your house here in the city,” said Duke Mahieran. “Or just me and High Marshal Seklis, if you will.”

It was late now, long summer twilight shading at last to dusk, but Dorrin nodded. “As you wish, my lords. The prince should come, as the matter does touch on royalty.”

“Royalty!” Mahieran’s eyes widened. “Then we will come, at once, and with us what force we might need. Can I trust you to tell us truly?”

“Truly, I do not know. The house itself still holds traps and dangers, as I’ve told the Marshal who visited today and your guard-captain. But what I brought should be safe enough to open.”

Dorrin set out three wrapped bundles on the table. “I found these in my uncle’s study, in a vault in the wall, behind a … painting that had been there when I was a child. I must warn you—blood magery was used on at least one of these things. And they have their own magic.”

She unwrapped the goblet; when she touched it, she felt the now-familiar tingle. “This looked like a small urn when I first saw it; it was full of blood that then vanished in a mist.”

“Holy Gird’s protection be on us,” High Marshal Seklis muttered.

“The inscription on the rim of the cup changed from a script I could not read to one I could,” Dorrin said. She handed it to the prince, who took it gingerly and peered at the script.

“I can’t read this,” he said.

Dorrin quoted it for him. “Do you feel anything as you hold it?”

“Other than astonishment, no,” he said, handing it back. “Do you?”

“Yes,” Dorrin said. She unwrapped the box.

High Marshal Seklis peered at the designs. “That pattern—it reminds me of a drawing the Marshal-General sent, of something found in Kolobia.”

“Paksenarrion said the same,” Dorrin said. She ran her finger along the pattern on the box, and once more it unfolded to reveal the treasure within. “Paks and I think this is royal regalia from somewhere, but where, neither of us knows. Paks thinks the necklace found in a robbers’ den near Brewersbridge was in the same set—see this empty space?”

The prince looked eager and interested; Duke Mahieran reached toward the box, perhaps to touch the lining, and the box snapped closed so fast it bumped his finger.

“What was that! Did you think I was going to steal it?”

Dorrin shook her head. “It never did that before—though this is only the second time I’ve had it open. The other time, Paks was there. I don’t know, my lord—”