“Take them away,” Tubal Last told Turo. “Put them in a common cell, that way they can plan and pretend they have hope.” He licked his teeth again. “Hope makes despair even deeper. There’s nothing like hope for true torture: holding it out, snatching it away, holding it out again. Knowing that any living being will try for it even when they know they can’t take it. They’re not truly broken until they give it up.”

He paused to survey them, gray eyes gleaming.

“Oh, I do like hope. Hope is the best belonging to steal of them all.” He threw back his head and laughed.

As they were pulled from the room, through the maze of possessions and belongings and things, they could hear him laughing still.

Niko didn’t speak as they were hauled away.

The group was not placed in the same room they had been held in before, but a different room, somewhat larger, with elimination facilities in one corner, mercifully sheltered by a small screen. A basket of food bars and water bulbs sat on a table.

Niko slid down to the floor, gathering her knees to her chest, head bowed, as though she could stand no longer. Dabry moved immediately to her side; one of his upper hands fluttered over her shoulder as though wanting to reach down in comfort, but refraining. Skidoo had no such qualms; two tentacles wrapped around Niko’s arm.

After a moment, Niko raised her head and spoke. Tear streaks marked her cheeks. “Pet’s alive, Dabry. After all this time, I finally know. They’re alive.”

Dabry knelt now, sheltering her face from the others. He touched her chin and nodded. “Yes, sir.”

“And hates me, I suspect you noted that.”

“Indeed, sir.”

“Nothing to be helped there.” Niko wiped her face, squared her shoulders, and sighed. Skidoo uncurled her tentacles as Dabry helped Niko up. She took a breath. “Oh look, there’s food, and one of my least favorite brands of food bars to boot.”

Dabry doled them out. There was not quite enough for everyone to have one, so they shared. Atlanta suspected the lack was by design, and that there would be more small irritations designed to set them at one another’s throats.

At least Niko wouldn’t have to worry that she could be killed at any instant, she thought a little sourly. It was clear that Tubal Last had been planning his revenge from the moment she escaped. It didn’t matter to him that she hadn’t achieved her objective, stealing the Florian back from him. It only mattered that she had dared the attempt.

Finally Atlanta asked what had first sprung into her mind when she saw the Florian standing there in the crowded throne room. “I understand that you had to leave them behind. But what the hell was a Florian doing with the Free Traders?”