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“Oh…I’ll be back well before dinner.”

I shrugged. She was the sub-commander, gracious as she had been. “I’ll be happy to wait.” Surprisingly, I was. I needed time to think. About a lot of things.

“You’re certain?” She stood.

So did I. “As certain as I am about anything these days.”

Then she leaned forward and gave me a friendly kiss. “I’m glad you came. Relax if you can.”

The kiss was just friendly, but as she turned and left she smiled, and I wondered.

Besides wondering, I washed my hands and face, trying not to use all the water or make too much of a mess. Although curious, I did not look at any of the papers on the desk in her bedroom.

Instead, I sat down on the long couch, except that I was tired, and I was not sitting and thinking for long.

Click!

“I see you waited.” Krystal’s voice was cheerfully brisk, but I had trouble appreciating it, since I was trying to wake up from the afternoon nap I hadn’t expected to take, realizing that it was nearly twilight.

“Long…meeting…” I yawned between words and struggled to my feet.

“There are too many long meetings these days. Will you be all right for dinner?”

“I just have to wake up. I sat down and…then you were back here.”

Her lips quirked, and I could see a few gray hairs among the black as she stepped nearer. “Lerris…” Then, she shook her head. “Later. I need to change, and you need to get into something—”

“A little less travel-worn?”

“Do you have something?”

“It’s plain, but I left my bags in the stable.”

“I’ll send—”

This time I shook my head. “They won’t find them.”

“I see. You have learned a few things.” Her tone was light.

“So have you, lady, I expect.”

“Herreld is waiting outside. Have him escort you there and back. We’ll worry about a bed for you later. You can change here for dinner, if that’s all right.”

The word “dinner” disoriented me, after more than a year of hearing dinner as the noon meal, but I recovered and nodded. “No. Whatever’s easiest.”

Krystal was already heading for the door, and I followed, and just kept going, straight for the stable to recover my pack and better clothes, such as they were.

LXI

“THIS DOORWAY.” KRYSTAL inclined her head toward a carved entrance flanked by two green-clad guards. She wore her sword. She probably slept with it.

Only the guards’ eyes moved, checking me out, but I had left the staff in Krystal’s quarters. I decided to wear the empty knife sheath, since in some principalities, failure to wear a knife carried certain implications. I didn’t remember if Kyphros were one, but if it weren’t, no one would care one way or the other. If my pack and staff weren’t safe in Krystal’s quarters, they weren’t safe anywhere in Kyphrien.

“This is a small dinner. The autarch wanted to hear of your adventures.” She guided me into the room.

A state dining room it was not. The imperial-style black-oak table was covered with a green linen cloth bordered in gold. The utensils were silver, and the plates were of a china nearly as fine as my mother’s best. The “informal” dining room was not much bigger than my parents’ dining room, nor much larger than the dining area of the waystation where I had eaten lamb chili two days earlier.

A good dozen wall lamps provided a brightness not often seen at an evening meal in Candar. I supposed the autarch could afford the extra lamp-oil.

We stopped almost after entering the room, and well short of the six people who stood talking by the bay window on the other side of the table, a window that overlooked Kyphrien and the scattered lights of the lamps and torches of the city.

“Krystal.” The woman in the green silk jumpsuit with black hair shot with gray spoke.

Krystal inclined her head. “Honor.”

“Would you introduce your friend?”

“This is Lerris.” Krystal named the six. “Her Honor the Autarch; Guard Commander Ferrel; Public Works Minister Zeiber; Liessa, sister to Her Honor; Finance Minister Murreas; and Father Dorna.”

“Honor,” I murmured to the autarch. “I am honored to meet all of you.” In a way, I was.

“Krystal said