Kristen pushed past Dantice, threw her arms around Haas’s neck. “Dahl. It’s really you.” She rested her head against his chest. “Come on in. Come on in. Please? I’m so glad to see you.” She grabbed his hand and dragged him inside.

Tear in eye, Sherilee left them. Dantice shrugged, smiled, gently closed the door, and returned to his underworld friends.

The rain had dispersed the rioters. The reappearance of troops had prevented further outbreaks. Rioting in Kavelin’s secondary cities amounted to little, though, with the exception of Damhorst, they were reluctant to pledge fealty to the new regime. The major problem in the capital became the Quarter. Thousands had been burned out of their homes. Winter wasn’t far away.

Michael and General Liakopulos were the only old faces at Inger’s first formal briefing, but, to Michael’s surprise, the new faces were neither Nordmen extremists nor the Duke’s freebooters. Inger had made appointments outstanding for their neutrality. It might be calculated, to lull the populace till they could be disarmed, but even so Michael approved.

“The agenda,” Inger said. “One, the missing treasury funds. Two, the lack of response to our call for pledges of fealty from the army.” She said that with her old mocking smile and sarcastic tone. Her brittle humor had returned. “Three, my cousin the Duke. Michael? The money?”

“I haven’t had any luck finding it. Prataxis had it moved out while we were guessing about what the King was doing at Maisak. Everyone who knew anything left with the treasury. Where it went I don’t know.”

“Think trying a little harder and remembering a little better might help?” Inger didn’t believe him and he knew it. She needed that money desperately. Her gestures toward the populace were expensive. Already she was taking loans from the Estates. “Very well. General?”

“I’ve applied all the persuasion I can, Your Majesty. The men in the outlying posts were selected for dedication to the King’s ideals. They’re stalling till your direction becomes clear. They don’t want to pledge, then be embarrassed. There would be less difficulty were your cousin not so much in evidence. It’s the wait-and-see attitude you find everywhere. You can’t blame people, really.”

“Maybe not. But meanwhile our neighbors are watching us. The Alteans may be benign, but Volstokin wouldn’t mind paying back the beating they took when they interceded in the civil war. Speaking of which. Everyone predicted civil war if I took over. It’s peaceful out there. What happened?”

Liakopulos replied, “The estimations were predicated on the assumption that you would take power illegally.”

“Michael?”