Han should have known all along. He’d thought it was Taz Mackney, but no. It made sense that he’d been betrayed by someone close to him, someone who could direct the Queen’s Guard through the maze of streets in Ragmarket, who could point out the stable in a place with no numbers and no names written down.

“After, I wanted to kill them,” Cat said. “I wanted to kill everyone.” She smiled sourly. “I always thought I was good with a blade. But I’m smart enough to know that as a killer, I’m nothing next to them. It’d be like throwing myself into the fire. I still would’ve done it if I thought I could take a few of them with me.

“So I took Jemson’s offer to go to Oden’s Ford. I never wanted to see Ragmarket again. I got as far as Delphi, then I just got stuck. I was too scared to go on, and I couldn’t go back. When I ran into you, when I found out you was still alive, I got this idea that maybe it wouldn’t be so bad being in the south if you was there. I knew you’d get on, wherever you went. You were the best streetlord I ever knew. But I knew if you ever found out I was the one that cackled on you, you’d cut my heart out.”

She looked at Han, rather hopefully. “So. Kill me. You got rights. That way, I wouldn’t have to keep thinking about things I should’ve done different.”

Han slid down the wall until his backside hit the floor. He pulled his knees up and wrapped his arms around them. He felt numb. He’d been nursing his guilt for so long, he wasn’t about to hand any piece of it to Cat.

“I’m not going to kill you, Cat,” he said. “I’m sorry about that, but I’m not. You just got in the way when the Bayars came after me, that’s all. You and everybody else. That’s what I’ll be carrying for the rest of my life.”

They all sat in silence for a while.

“What now?” Dancer said to no one in particular. He took Cat’s hand and cradled it in his. Again, she didn’t resist.

“I’ll go away, if that’s what you want,” Cat said. “You’d be a fool to trust me ever again. And you never been a fool.” She looked up at him. “But I want to stay and help you. I know who you’re up against, and I promise—I’ll do whatever you say.”

“No,” Dancer said. “This is our fight—we can’t avoid it. But you’re not in it.”