“Please tell them I’m sorry too,” he said. When Lovisa scowled, his smile widened. “Don’t look so grouchy, Lovisa,” he said. “You get to meet the Monsean delegation tonight.”

“Ah, there you are, Lovisa,” said Benni, turning, leaning down to kiss her forehead. “Where’s your coat?”

“Is the Monsean delegation coming to dinner, Papa?” said Lovisa.

“Yes.”

“Including the Graceling?”

“They’re all invited,” said Benni. “We have no control over who comes. Go on, choose a coat. Such a smart boy, that Mari,” he added idly as Mari disappeared down the corridor.

Hearing the change in his tone, Lovisa instantly understood that her father had invited Mari to dinner because Lovisa had been caught with a house guard. Mari Devret—wealthy, well-mannered, from a good Industrialist family—was the sort of person Benni wanted to dangle before her.

It made her inexpressibly tired, to think that her parents might start trying to put her friends forward for that purpose.

She found a coat. “I’m ready,” she said.

—

“There’s some news, sweetheart,” Benni said as they walked through the city toward Flag Hill. “You should know it, in case you’re seated near a Varana at dinner.”

“Oh?” said Lovisa, intrigued. “Social news or political news?”

Benni flashed a quick smile that showed her something she hadn’t noticed before—the strain of exhaustion in his face—and yet, it was hard to keep up with him today. As he turned onto a staircase, she had to reach a hand out to slow him down.

“Criminal news,” he said.

“Criminal!” she said. “What happened?”

“Some engineering plans have disappeared from a safe in Minta Varana’s house.”

“You mean she was robbed?”

“Presumably, yes,” said Benni. “Someone stole a few chemical formulas, including one for the reaction that extracts the gases used in varane from the atmosphere.”

“Am I supposed to understand what that means?” said Lovisa dryly.

Benni grinned. “The mixture of gases that makes up varane is perfectly balanced. Without all the formulas for how to extract and combine all the parts, airships don’t float, and they’re also dangerous.”

“Dangerous how?”

“With the wrong combination? Among other things, fire,” said Benni. “The Kamassarians have been trying to duplicate airship technology for years, and I understand they’ve had a number of deadly fires. The Varanas too had a couple of dangerous explosions early on, while they were tinkering with the formula.”

This sounded familiar. “Didn’t a professor in the school of chemistry get fired for causing an explosion in one of the labs a few years ago?”

“Yes, but that was something to do with zilfium.”

“Zilfium explodes too?”

Benni waved a dismissive hand. “I don’t know anything about it, just that it was zilfium, not varane. Regardless, the Varanas figured out the right balance of gases for varane, and the solution is a big secret.”

“Do you think someone stole the formulas to sell them to Kamassar?”