“I’ll be back to examine you again in the morning,” Lord Vega said. He looked up at Magret. “You, there. If there should be any change in the queen’s condition, if you have any concern at all, don’t attempt to treat it yourself. Send a servant to the Healer’s Hall to fetch me.”

“I will, my lord,” Magret said. “Thank you, my lord.”

Lord Vega and his assistants swept from the room, stuffed full of their own importance.

“What a pompous ass,” Magret said, when he was out of earshot. “’Course you can’t throw a rock without hitting a pompous ass of a wizard.”

Raisa laughed as Han blinked at Magret in surprise. “Magret, meet Han Alister,” she said. “Han, this is my nurse, Magret Gray.”

Magret’s eyes narrowed. “Alister!” Her eyes dropped to Han’s wrists, then flicked back up to his face. “The gang leader and murderer?”

“Magret!” Raisa put up her hand. “Alister is—”

“Used to be,” Han broke in, shrugging his shoulders. “You one of the Pearl Alley Grays?”

Magret eyed him balefully, keeping her hands planted on her hips. “Used to be,” she said. “What is he doing here, Your Highness?” she asked, without taking her eyes off Han, as if he might make a move on her.

“He’s going to be staying here in the palace,” Raisa said. “He’s…um…kind of a bodyguard.”

“No,” Magret said. “He can’t be staying here in the palace. Not this one.” Her eyes fastened on the amulet that hung around Han’s neck, and she took a step back, raising her hands as if in defense. “He’s handsome enough, I’ll grant you that, but he’s a fiend, Your Highness. Truly, he is.”

Raisa looked from Magret to Han. “What are you talking about? Do you know each other?”

Han kept his eyes on Magret. “Maiden Gray,” he said softly, “I’m sorry about Velvet.”

“Don’t call him that!” Magret shouted. “Don’t you call him that. His name was Theo. Theo Gray.”

“I’m sorry about Theo,” Han amended.

Velvet. Raisa recalled the boy in the velvet coat who’d been with Cat Tyburn the day Han had rescued her from the Raggers. The razorleaf user who’d meant to rob her.

They’re all dead, Han had said. All of the Raggers except Cat.

“I should have known you for a wizard,” Magret said. “That’s the only way to explain it, him taking to the streets like he done. He was a good boy before you lured him away from his family.”

Unconsciously, Magret had slipped into the kind of street cant that Han used. Or had used.

“Who was Vel—Theo—to you?” Raisa asked Magret.