Jack grins. “Well, that’s the thing, isn’t it? Whatever that old power he’s got sleeping inside him is, if it wakes for a just cause, it’s going to be shining the light instead of bringing on the dark.”

“You ever heard the term ‘playing with fire’?”

“Sure. But none of that’s got to happen. We get him working on this—with his mind free of other worries—and nothing needs to wake up. It’s as simple as that. Joe’s got big-time peacemaking skills. Who do you think negotiated the last truce between us and the fairy courts?”

“I thought that got worked out between Tatiana and Raven.”

Jack nods. “And who do you think kept them talking?”

I glance over at Mother Crone and her pair of treekin. They’re pretending not to care what we’re talking about, but who are they trying to kid? I’d be wanting to know if I were in their shoes.

“So maybe,” I say, “we shouldn’t be taking such a hard line with the aganesha right now.”

“Maybe. But I want Joe in front of me telling me to back off before I do.”

“Except—”

“Yeah, I know.” He glances at the fairies and sighs. “Do you have any tobacco left? I’m a little short.”

I nod and pass him my pouch. He takes half of what I’ve got left and puts it in his own pouch, then rolls a cigarette one-handedly—showing off for the fairies, I suppose, since it’s sure not going to impress me—and lights it with his Zippo.

“Obliged,” he says, handing me back my pouch.

He has a drag, then returns to where we were sitting and offers the cigarette to Mother Crone. She looks as surprised as I am, and maybe she’s pissed off with us, but she knows enough protocol to understand what Jack’s doing. Nodding her thanks, she takes the cigarette from him.

They smoke it in silence. The little treekin are still glaring at us—or at least the one that looks like a walking shrub does; it’s hard to tell about the one with the spark plug nose—but you can feel the tension leaving the room. I’m not sure where we would have gone from there, but there’s movement in the doorway right then and we all look up.

It’s Tatiana. And this time she’s only got one guardsman with her. He looks totally worse for the wear—his clothes torn and dirty, face bruised and swollen, and he’s favouring one leg.

“Where’s Joe?” she asks.

“He got called away,” Jack tells her. He gives the beat-up guard a pointed look before adding, “What’s up?”

Tatiana looks the way Mother Crone did earlier, when Joe was grilling her—she really doesn’t want to tell us. But she doesn’t make Mother Crone’s mistake.