Redbeard and Cullen passed her on their way to the meeting, and Redbeard tipped his invisible hat to her. She nodded absently, trying to compose herself.

Who could have told Mellifare?

There was another clip of boots.

“Oh, no, I know that look,” said Jax.

She glanced over her shoulder. He had freshened up as well, dressed in an embroidered lavender coat. His hair was braided down his shoulder, secured with golden toggles that glimmered in the flickering halogens. His kohl eyeliner was fresh, and his smile set her nerves at ease. “You look handsome, as always.”

“I do enjoy cleaning up for a good party,” he replied, and offered his arm. “Shall we, Your Grace?”

She took it. “Aye, nan c’zar. This is giving me flashbacks to the Iron Council all over again. What if I say something wrong? What if I mess up? I wasn’t good at this the first time around.”

“Except this time, you aren’t alone.”

Relieved, she squeezed his arm. “No, I’m not.”

Together, the Empress of the Iron Kingdom and the C’zar of the Solani stepped into the meeting room.

A long oval table sat in the center of the room. Ana and Jax took one head of it, while Siege and Talle sat at the other. There were maybe half a dozen people gathered at the table, and her heart sank by the moment. Had so few answered Siege’s call? Wynn sat beside Mokuba and Redbeard and Xu. There was the captain of the Prospero, Cullen, and the mercenary leader of the Red Dawn.

The only person she did not see was Di.

Pitchers of ale were passed around, and when everyone’s cups were filled Siege threw a document into the holographic window in the middle of the table. “All right, Lenda, thank you,” she said, and Lenda closed the doors behind her.

She’s standing guard outside, Ana realized with a bolt of surprise.

Viera was right—and Siege knew it. There was a spy on the Dossier. But why hadn’t Siege mentioned it? And why wasn’t Di here?

“What I am about to say can’t—and will not—leave this room,” Siege began. “Are we clear?”

The sparse room murmured.

“And everyone else, are you on a secure line?” she asked, raising her head.

Everyone else?

She glanced around to make sure she hadn’t missed anyone—and then, to her surpise, faces burst up on the walls. The mercenary bandit Cavorn; Machivalle—who she honestly thought was dead; Jax’s mother, along with the rest of the Elder Council; and countless other faces she half remembered from the years spent with Siege, and some she didn’t know at all. They were mercenaries and smugglers and info brokers, starship captains and shopkeepers and waystation officers and Ironbloods from myriad points in the kingdom, and for a dumbstruck moment she wondered how Siege had gathered them all.

Siege’s girl, Redbeard’s crew called her. She had lived with her captain for seven years, but she’d never really understood what that meant until now. There were dozens of the most powerful people in the kingdom.