When Lovisa entered the house with Worthy in her arms, Katu was sitting in a chair by the fire. He was clean, his hair newly cut, but he was so small, so thin.

His eyes touched the piglet and he began to laugh, coming to Lovisa, embracing her. They’d never really had an embracing sort of relationship, but something had changed. She hugged him back hard with her free arm.

“You look better,” he said.

“You too.”

“I’m all right,” he said. “It’s going to take me a while. I’m lucky I have brawny friends.” He flashed a smile at Giddon that was rueful, and that included Bitterblue, who sat in a chair beside Giddon. There was something odd about the smile, something stiff, that made Lovisa watch Katu closely.

“Katu has some news, Lovisa,” said Giddon.

Katu shot Giddon another stiff, sideways smile. “Yes. The guards got away.”

“The guards?” said Lovisa, mystified. “At the house?”

“Yes. We were keeping them locked in a bedroom upstairs, but it was too much for the staff to watch them all the time, you understand? Not with caring for me, and dealing with the cleanup and all. Apparently one of them got out of his ties and freed the others. They hurt the girl Ella on their way out. Knocked her into a glass door. She’ll be okay, but she’s bruised up.”

“Oh,” said Lovisa, not really caring about the lost guards. “Oh, well.”

“They might’ve served as witnesses,” he said. “But I expect they’re long gone now.”

“Oh, well,” she said again. There were going to be plenty of witnesses. The Queen of Monsea herself was a witness.

“Before the guards got away,” Katu said, “one of them told the local magistrate something about Linta Massera yelling that her notebooks had gone missing, right before the explosion. If any of you know anything about that, be aware that the Magistry will probably want to know.”

Giddon cleared his throat. “Noted. And the cleanup?”

“Yes. We’re collecting the explosives,” said Katu. “Very, very carefully.”

“Who is?” said Giddon. “The cave was full of them!”

“The Magistry has climbers. And actual ropes,” Katu said, with another smile directed vaguely at Giddon.

“Fancy,” said Giddon, grinning back.

“But what will they do with them?” said Lovisa.

“For the moment, they’re storing them in a locked box,” said Katu. “And keeping them as evidence.”

“Against my father?”

“Or your mother,” said Katu.

“But is it safe to keep them?” said Lovisa. “Couldn’t they explode them somewhere, so they’re not dangerous anymore?”

“Where?” said Nev.

“I don’t know,” said Lovisa. “Underground? Underwater?”

“What?” cried Nev, glaring at her. “Don’t you understand how many silbercows have already been hurt? People have tossed those eggs into the water to test how they explode! And they’ve murdered silbercows too, to get rid of witnesses!”