“No,” said Keel. “If you don’t want me to know, then your answer would be a lie; if you want me to know, you’ll tell me without my asking.”

“My loyalty is to my children,” said Anonoei, “but thanks to a trusted friend, they are now safe, in a place where no one can find them, let alone harm them.”

“One might suppose that you are saying they are dead,” said Keel.

“Not dead. Very much alive, and ready to inherit the kingdom, if the need for that arises. But I hope it does not arise.”

Keel wasn’t sure how to hear her words. With anyone else, he would assume that it was all a sham—that she was telling the truth by denying it. But there was something about her that made him think she might be honest.

“You hope the Sparrow Queen’s wombling will take their place?”

“Those sons were born from love, not ambition,” said Anonoei. “I think they will be happier not to be kings, or to be used by those who want to make them kings. But if they’re needed, they’re alive and safe. I thought you should know.”

“It was kind of you to tell me,” said Keel. He let the tone of his voice say, If that’s all, then go away.

“You’re an amazing fellow, Keel. A woman that you thought was dead shows up in your cell and you seem utterly unsurprised.”

“If I showed what I feel then all men would know my heart,” said Keel.

“Instead, only I do.”

“Your new friend is a gatemage,” said Keel. “Or else you could not have entered this place. Be careful—gatemages have a way of running afoul of the Gate Thief and losing all their magery. You wouldn’t want to be stranded somewhere inaccessible. I hope your boys are in a place they can walk away from, when the gates are gone.”

Anonoei smiled a thin but pleasant smile. Keel was a clever man. He knew what the smile had to mean.

“The liar told you that he was the Gate Thief, didn’t he? Don’t you know that gatemages can never tell the truth? It’s against their nature.”

“Let’s talk about what we’re going to do now,” said Anonoei.

There was nothing overtly sexual or even ironic in her tone, and yet “what we’re going to do now” made Keel’s thoughts suddenly turn to the rumpled bed in the corner of the room.

“Not now,” said Anonoei, as if she had read his thoughts. It seemed some women could always read such thoughts, when men had them. Or perhaps men always had such thoughts, so it took no great cleverness to read them. “I know you plan to kill the King, but I wish that you would not.”

“You do me no favor to say that,” said Keel. “I have no such plan.”