There’s something wrong with her, that’s for certain, the fox said. What kind of human bonded covertly—and illegally!—to multiple foxes, created a secret fox paradise for them inside her home, then disguised the fur, the smells, the noises, with a crowd of cats? Then imperiled her own secret by giving them risky adventures! Bonding was never allowed to be secret. A person wasn’t supposed to bond to more than one fox. She could get into so much trouble, and for what? He couldn’t quite get a paw on it, despite trying sometimes to get into Quona Varana’s head. She wasn’t even political. She seemed to do it for fun! And it was true that he might obey his person too little, but sometimes he worried that his siblings obeyed theirs too much. That they loved her too much. What if they got careless, trusted her too much, and told her too much? What if they let slip the secrets of foxkind?

He didn’t elaborate on any of these thoughts to Gorga’s fox now. She didn’t seem like the type who would cope well with tales of risk-taking. She was the sort of fox who pretended to have a temperature regulation deficiency so that Gorga would dress her in little fur booties and a coat whenever she went outside. Her chosen name was Earmuff.

—

The fox was in Benni Cavenda’s library, arguing with one of his sisters, Rascal, when those Monseans Giddon and Hava stumbled in.

The fox bolted under a sofa and crouched there, but it was too late to hide Rascal. He just hoped Giddon and Hava hadn’t been counting carefully.

Luckily, the Monseans were distracted by their own problems. They looked silly too, for Giddon had wrapped Hava up in one of Lovisa’s scarfs. They were clearly distraught. And they were also astonishing, because the moment they entered the room, Hava threw off the scarf and began snooping! She looked in the drawers of side tables. She lifted the edge of one of the rugs!

Giddon was very anxious about it. “Hava!” he hissed. “What are you doing?”

“Prying,” said Hava.

“What do you think you’re going to find?”

“Clues!”

“To what? We have nothing on the Cavendas! We should go back in there and eavesdrop on the Estillan envoy!”

“All these families are equally insincere,” she said. “Don’t you feel it? And maybe there’s some information about Katu in this house!”

Giddon was clutching his hair. Inside him, the fox could feel his surrender. “All right,” he said, turning toward the door. “I’ll stand guard.”

Then Hava spun to Benni’s big desk and began pulling on the top drawers. “There are hidden drawers in this desk,” she said. “See those panels? I bet there’s a latch here somewhere.”