An hour or so ter—at least, Fox hoped that much time had passed—he sat with Katie in the common room on a long ft sofa facing away from the window. Neither of them seemed to want to show their backs to anyone who might pass. He knew why he didn’t, and he could guess why a gently reared girl who didn’t act gently reared, and who had corded muscle in her arms and legs, to say nothing of her core, might feel the same, but she hadn’t told him.

  The exact nature of her experience, he didn’t dare to presume. Her body told its own story: a tiny months-old injury, a pang magnified by the iron’s grip, the small scars on her hands visible when she wasn’t gloved.

  He had given her All-Heal the instant they could leave brunch without looking as if they were leaving brunch. Curse Frixm! Bst the little man straight to the bckest part of the Long Dark. He had rarely encountered anyone so hostilely banal—and the mere sight of Frixm with the three girls from the lounge had him ready to chew gss.

  He’d met Frixm’s unspoken hostility with more of the same, but by the Word! Why trouble with manners and impulse control when their captors continued to torture Katie? He’d done all he could, but there was no sign of Itef or any relief for her. He shuffled on the sofa, looking for a more comfortable position.

  She sighed, propping her cheek on her right fist to look at him. Her eyes were puffy and sunken at once, even after what should have been a full night’s sleep under Eagle’s pain medication. She still smiled.

  “What?”

  “You’re so on edge you’re about to vibrate your way free of this reality, or something. Is this a Fox thing? Because it feels like it’s probably a Fox thing.”

  “Ah.” He licked his lips, adjusting the white necktie at his throat. “Probably, yes.” Eagle had said as much. As ever, it seemed, Fox found his anxiety impossible to hide. “Are you not anxious?”

  Two others walked into the common area, talking softly with their heads together. For all Fox knew, they were from client states. He cringed to think of his behavior earlier.

  “I wouldn’t say that.” Katie folded her legs, pressing stockinged heels against the edge of the cushion and sliding down to meet them, something like Eagle’s crouch. “There’s a saying on Earth—more nervous than a long-tailed cat in a roomful of rocking chairs.”

  Fox blew out some of his tension on a breath, nodding. “I’m not the only one, then.” And when he returned home, he would send the Grand Duchess and the Princess Regent gifts in apology. The others sat down on the other side of the room—predictably egg-shaped.

  Fox wanted to eat every egg in the pce. Eagle would help him crack them open soon. He just hoped it would be soon enough.

  “Not even close.” She cradled the wrist on her knees for a moment, panting, this tiny, beautiful woman in a beautiful skirt suit with an agonizing wound on her left arm. Fox gnashed his teeth and hated Itef; it was all he could do.

  He certainly couldn’t stop the low talk between the other two. He lifted his fingers from his p in the beginning of a subtle gesture before he encountered the block on his aura. With a quick spell he might have heard them.

  “Hey, guys,” Katie called, waving her good hand in a greeting. He couldn’t miss the edge on her voice, but she seemed friendly and loose enough in posture that anyone could dismiss the edge for pain.

  One of them, a rge fellow with sumptuous golden-brown hair combed neatly over his entire body, hands, face, and all, hesitantly returned the wave before recovering himself. The hair on his head and neck disappeared into a colr as fine as Fox’s; he, too, straightened his tie. “Hello,” he said in a pleasant, resonant voice, rising from his sofa and striding across the room. He must have been twelve feet if he was a single inch. “I am the Liminus of the Dreaming Sea, but you may call me Liminus.”

  Startled, Fox remembered the Dreaming Sea–a deep ocean of thought and fantasy he had found it necessary to magically traverse in his pursuit of Eagle. He had not realized it had officials of any capacity.

  Liminus continued, “So pleased to make your acquaintance, but I do beg you forgive me—I haven’t caught your name.”

  “They call me Katie.” And she dazzled, iron or no, as she held out the back of her hand. “Forgive me for sitting.”

  “Oh, but my dear, you mustn’t even mention it.” The great hairy gentleman caught Katie’s hand tenderly in his massive paw and bent over it. “You must understand, only concern for your health motivated the conversation just now between myself and Nadira; nonetheless, I sincerely hope we may be forgiven for any offense, imagined or otherwise.”

  The woman he’d left on the couch, looking sweaty and uncomfortable in a pants suit the match of Katie’s skirt suit, scoffed. Her whitening gray hair had slipped the bonds pced on it by the hairdressers, but Fox rather liked the effect. She rose and stumped over, aided by her cane. “I suppose I’ll have to join you! No respect for old bones. I thought we were going to take a steam!”

  It wasn’t far, but everyone watched her coming. Fox thought she would be more at home in an apron and homemade print dress, lording it over a hundred grandchildren.

  “Well, go on, go on.” She fpped her free hand at Liminus, whose face split in a bck-gummed grin.

  “May I sit?” he asked Katie. “If it’s not too importunate a question, that is.”

  She waved her right around the room, as if to encompass all she surveyed. “Nothing but chairs and couches here. Pull one up.”

  Fox let himself fade as far as possible; he didn’t speak at all and instead let the hairy gentleman turn and crouch. Katie watched, alive with interest, as he lifted the low, long white couch behind him with ease. Nadira made it clear just in time for him to swing the furniture in a wide circle.

  Katie cheered. Liminus was beaming. He took a step forward on fringed-looking feet and id the sofa down to face Katie and Fox. Nadira stepped in front of it and sat. Liminus simply stepped over the thing.

  “Now that most of us have been introduced in one way or another,” he said, adjusting his necktie once more, “let the rest of us introduce ourselves. Forgive me, sir, but what may we call you?”

  Fox extended his hand for a shake, charmed despite himself, and not only by Liminus. However Liminus’s people greeted one another, rituals often began this way—and he had kissed Katie’s hand. How had she done this, simply done it, and now things felt friendly? “Let it be Fox.”

  Liminus enveloped his hand with a warm paw. “A pleasure, I’m sure.”

  “Now that’s all out of the way, you can settle this yourself, Miss Katie.” Nadira sat hunched in her tailored pants suit, but her eyes glittered. She’d set her highly carved cane aside, then folded one elbow on the corner of the low couch and csped one hand with the other, showing a slender bracelet that seemed filled with liquid, bubbling water. “Why in the Seven Heavens are you wearing that? It’s killing you.”

  “Well, they can’t let me use my magic,” Katie said, “because then none of us would be here.”

  “Your pardon, Katie, but I assure you that I would.” Liminus looked concerned, at least as far as his hairy, almost apelike face would allow. “It is my honor to help the Matil restore their goddess.”

  Katie and Fox traded horrified looks. He had heard nothing about a goddess, one who needed a restorative or otherwise.

  She turned back to Liminus, holding out pleading hands as if he could drop an answer into them. “They didn’t say anything like that to me. I was about to get lucky at a punk show. They shot at us!”

  Liminus shook his head, a spectacur rush of golden brown. “They sent a representative to my people! I am the Liminus. If I can help, I must.”

  “Why didn’t they just do that? I’d have helped!” The words fell from her like tears, but she wiped at her eyes. “They tried to take mmmy, my boss, but they couldn’t. They got me instead. What about you, Fox? I know they grabbed you too.”

  “They did,” Fox said, remembering white sand on his bare skin. Thinking of her, alone and afraid without him to speak to. “I was engaged in a piece of very delicate work at the time. It was…” He grimaced. “Important.” True, the instability had in rge part settled, and he thought the work would wait, but if it were disturbed while he was gone—and the Crystal Cave itself was so fragile.

  Katie twisted to y her good hand on his shoulder. “No one was hurt?”

  “No. Eagle must have followed me somehow.” He swallowed hard. “I fought them. I killed them. If they’d damaged the cave I was working in…” He swallowed again, sick, wondering how to express what would have happened without sounding madly grandiose. It couldn’t be done.

  “Bad things,” Katie said, rescuing him.

  “Yes, quite bad, I would say.” He adjusted the cuff of his jacket, feeling the bracer beneath. They had given him a lovely wristwatch, but the face was bnk, without even a hand.

  “They stole you from your lives?” Liminus id his elbows on his knees, bowing his head. The hair shook back and forth in waves. “Your people? But why?”

  “Search me, if they were looking for volunteers!” Katie shook her head too. Her diamond earrings sent shatters of light across the white egg of a room. “I can’t believe this. I just can’t believe it.”

  “Nadira, what of you?” Fox leaned forward to speak to the old woman. The racing water in her bangle fascinated him. “How did you come here?”

  “I came because they were billing this as a rexing upside to providing a respected service.” Nadira snorted, eyeing Fox from behind thick, round gsses. “Not very rexing so far. Don’t know about the respect either. Seems like you might be used to a bit more of it.”

  Fox inclined his head and left the matter there. He was, and he wasn’t, both at the same time. He adjusted himself, lifting the fraction of an inch above the seat so he could straighten his trousers.

  “Well, I know I am too,” Katie said. “Not that people haven’t—but damn! They stepped out of that weird Way and jumped straight to guns.”

  “I wonder why the Matil would do such a thing, but here, you said this bracelet is a magical dampener?” Liminus bent farther, gesturing closely at Katie’s suppurating wound. “Sweet dreams! My dear!”

  Nadira scowled. “It’s nasty is what it is. Pin nasty. Why are they doing this to you?”

  Katie raked her good hand through her bouncy waves. Her pillbox hat sat between them on the sofa. “I don’t know,” she lied hollowly.

  “We can’t let this keep going on.” Liminus sat back. His face was as hard as sleek softness could be. “I won’t be party to this—this infamy.” He spped his hands on his white-cd knees, up nearer to his chin than Fox could imagine was comfortable and made as if to rise.

  There was a sudden crash in the adjoining corridor. Without thinking, Fox put out his hand and pressed down on Liminus’s knee. At his gnce of surprise, Fox tried to make his eyes communicate wait and see, but he wasn’t certain it had come across until Liminus settled back on the sofa.

  The soundproofing here must be excellent (he filed that information away for ter), because it was only as the noise came closer that Fox could parse it for what it was: a pitched battle. Grunts of exertion came up the corridor, along with hollow, arrhythmic thudding. He flicked a gnce of arm around at the others before arrowing it at the open hall that led up from behind him.

  Katie leaped to her feet, a cry on her lips, but Fox made a gesture at her. Peace. To his immense pleasure, she gulped it back as soon as it started and nodded firmly. She saw the sense in waiting and watching.

  A thick, muscled Matil trooper (was it? He wondered, because this one had a couple of ribbons) crawled by his arms up the corridor. The noise crept higher all the time. Behind him, he dragged his legs and a wide, ragged trail of blood. His arms shook, then gave out.

  At a gnce, Katie gripped her good fist. She gazed on the Matil with righteous wrath carved in every tiny line. As she gnced toward him, the wrath fell into soft surprise. “What are you smiling for?”

  “I like you,” Fox said, shrugging as Eagle might have, palms up. By now, he could make out individual grunts and truncated cries of pain. Quite suddenly, a clear tenor shout mangled by a punched mouth (Fox wished he didn’t know that) rang from the corridor.

  “You foulest of monsters, Commander Frixm—come closer so I can make you pay!”

  He could make out the sound of Frixm, but not the sense. His voice was so mild it annoyed Fox’s ear, but it was all right in the end. He cut off with a louder hollow thud.

  Katie gnced Fox’s way, rigid with her anger despite the iron sickness. Now? she seemed to ask, like Eagle would have asked. Please?

  “Any peace-loving being must surely,” Liminus began, but however he finished, it was swallowed by a swelling cry, a bellow of rage that brought Fox to his feet. Just as he leaped up next to Katie, Sir Rennathaisgalloniston barreled into the common room, raising a Matil man overhead. He was bloody and broken-mouthed and glorious. His braids flew and danced, whipping bck eyes as he whirled with Frixm’s weight and smmed his burden into the first trooper, who had at st managed to rise from the floor.

  Nadira at st won her way up. She was as on tenterhooks as the rest; only Liminus remained seated.

  The Elfish knight wobbled in pce, panting with exertion. “Are you okay?” Katie asked aloud.

  “Yes… Princess Katherine.” He gnced over at her from beneath the disarray of his hair. “Forgive me… for allowing you to see me in such a state.”

  “It’s not like I mind. I mean, I mind,” she added hastily. “It’s just—oh my God.”

  Nadira gestured with her cane. “Now, d, you just come and sit. I don’t like you standing there like a sore thumb and weaving on your feet.” As she spoke, she shuffled between the couches—and Fox and Katie—to reach the knight.

  Gncing behind him, he warded her off. “No, my dy, though I appreciate your attempts to succor my poor indecencies. My foes will shortly rise once again, and I—and I—” There, he fell silent, seemingly unable to manage more. The trooper Sir Rennathaisgalloniston had felled didn’t appear to move, and who could bme him, but Commander Frixm’s body stirred like a leaf in a faint breeze.

  Fox felt sick. Of course, when the knight said his piece, it was only the truth. No one moved.

  “Are all of you so very comfortable with violence?” Liminus said quietly, gripping his knees so hard his trousers creased. “I hope you won’t take it ill, but I find such a sight hard to bear, my friends, especially since I must also bear witness to your private wars, all of which are written in letters of the freshest blood.”

  To Fox’s surprise, Katie ughed from a cracking throat. “Yeah, I used to be a pacifist too. Then they put a sword in my hand.”

  “I see.”

  “And now,” she went on determinedly, though Fox knew how hard it could be to speak through pain, “I’ve been kidnapped by immortal aliens. So, you’ll pardon me if I don’t sit back and wait to get eaten.”

  “Well said,” Fox murmured, as Frixm climbed steadily back to his feet. The wall and carpet were stained with dark blood. Frixm’s neck healed a deep bruise; it seemed to shrink down into his colr.

  Well enough. He imagined he had had enough of Fox, but Fox had hardly begun to antagonize him. This was no Muirrach, whom Fox could not offend for fear of punishment, but a petty, rule-obsessed prig far from home.

  Sir Rennathaisgalloniston reeled, still looking distinctly punch-drunk, but slid back half a pace and squared up. His fists were high around his face, as Eagle kept insisting upon.

  Fox slipped his hand into the ssh pocket on his jacket as the petty snake turned to eye the knight. “Hello, Frixm. My, my, we were just discussing how well your hat would do for a funnel, and here you are.” The small jar of All-Heal he’d brought from his quarters rested in his cupped palm.

  Frixm smiled thinly. He didn’t look away from Sir R for so much as a moment. “Please refrain from moving the furniture.”

  “Nonsense.” Fox spoke before anyone else could. “You tell us to make ourselves comfortable, and then tell us not to? And then—” He opened his arms, but Sir R cut him off.

  “Enough. If you mean to knock me out,” he told Frixm, pulling himself in tight and rocking back and forth purposefully, “then do it! But know this: I will never make it a simple matter to trap Sir Rennathaisgalloniston!”

  Frixm seemed to be formuting some vague response, but he said nothing. Like a snake, he struck Sir R a swift blow. The Elfish knight crumpled bonelessly to the floor.

  With a little sigh, Frixm took his pure white handkerchief out of the hidden breast pocket of his coat.

  Katie began, “I can’t wait,” but Fox slipped into the breach like it had been made for him—or he, for it.

  “I’m keenly aware, even if no one else is, that you don’t mean for us to be comfortable in the slightest—only enough that we don’t compin.” Eagle had taught him the trick of effectively palming an item, but slipping the jar beneath Katie’s hat was another matter. Perhaps he ought to rethink. “Would you care to meet me on more honest ground, you businesslike rat?”

  Frixm went an intriguing shade of purplish green. His face stayed immobile. “Are you threatening me, Rev Liedan?” Unsteady, Katie crashed into a seat on the sofa. Perhaps Fox could conceal the jar behind her back.

  Fox let out a single bark of ughter. “You miserable, leprous germ. If you’re half a man you’ll do something—or will you walk away again?” He rose from the sofa in front of the window. If he could feel his aura, he would have pulled magic from the Mountain to help him intimidate Frixm, but thanks in part to this dirty centipede, he had no access to magic.

  As it was, Frixm still formuted, a vein throbbing greenly in his forehead. Katie jerked at Fox’s sleeve, giving him an excuse to turn, touch her, and let the jar tumble down her back. He stepped from between the two sofas, undoing the buttons on his jacket. “What will it be, Frixm?”

  The eyes of everyone present y intently on Frixm. The color crept back from his face; he rose to his toes, then settled on his heels again. “Rev Liedan, if you will join me privately, I am certain I can address your issues.” He sounded as mild as he ever had.

  “Of course, Commander Frixm. Why didn’t you say so before?” Fox forced enough venom to let it drop from every word. Yes. Get me alone. Vent it on me, you spiteful sphincter.

  Stiffly, Frixm held out a palm to indicate direction: back to Fox’s quarters. Fox preceded him away, accompanied by staring stone and Frixm’s curt orders to deal with Sir R—but he couldn’t worry about that now. He concentrated on making himself move like Father through the Pace, sweeping ahead of Frixm even though he cked robes.

  “I assume we are going to my quarters?” he said coldly. Katie and Liminus were still in full view, only three doors down. Liminus aimed startling dark eyes at him, deep and dreamy; Katie’s were round in a pale green face. Nadira wasn’t visible from here.

  “Yes, Rev Liedan. Please enter.” Frixm’s third eyelid flicked. Fox knew just what awaited him inside the door; how could he not know it?

  It was better to have done. He pressed the ovoid button on the side of the door. There was a tiny prick on his finger; static shock or taking a specimen? Either way, it slipped open, admitting him into the sitting area. Frixm followed.

  When he turned to face Frixm, it was into a backhand sp. He staggered, but it didn’t knock him off his feet. He let his head swivel back; to explore the hurt with his hand would be a child’s gesture. He’d outgrown it. “Is that all you’ve got?”

  Expressionless, Frixm gave him a swift left. This time, Fox went sprawling on the end of the same sofa Katie had sat on st night. It slid away, dumping him on the ground. He still didn’t touch his mouth, but it felt broken.

  “You hit like a bitch,” he said past a split lip. At least Frixm hadn’t been wearing any rings. He hoped fervently Katie and the others would use the time to escape the commander’s terrible eyes.

  “Is that so?” Frixm cleaned blood from his knuckles with the handkerchief—still out. Already stiff. Fox’s teeth had bitten his skin. Good.

  “You’ve shown me you’re nothing but a spoiled brat. Aren’t foxes reputed to be clever beasts in your folklore?”

  “Nice try.” Fox beamed with bloody teeth. “A fox is also someone very attractive.”

  Frixm’s eyelid twitched. “Hardly. You couldn’t be more obvious if you tried.”

  “Oh, now, that—”

  “—is not an invitation.” Frixm bit the words off, each one, as if unaccustomed to the taste in his mouth. “You may remain in your quarters until further notice.”

  “Hmm. Note my ck of surprise, Frixm. I’m sure we’ll speak further.” He raised his voice as the Commander opened the door to leave. “Otherwise, why have me in a prison cell?”

  “Because I want you to shut your mouth.” Frixm tugged his sleeves straight. They were sticky with blood.

  “On the contrary. I’ll enjoy myself when Itef comes to see me,” Fox said, low, grinning.

  The door flicked shut, leaving him alone.