Caspar said: “I’ll have my dagger back.”
I said: “I’ll fetch the girl — explain to Leone.”
When I re-entered the room with that opaline radiance falling across the recumbent guards, Leone was saying: “But I am the queen!” Her voice was at once petulant and filled with bravado. I truly felt sorry for her.
“Try to understand,” Mevancy said in a patient way. “You cannot be queen, for they will kill you, Kaopan, you understand?”
Caspar said: “I’ll start over there, by the chair. You don’t have to watch.”
“But I like being queen! You don’t dare kill me! I shall call the guards—”
“Leone,” I said, and she jumped, flinching. I took her upper arm into my fist and led her across to the chair she had vacated. Caspar was already at work. “Look, Leone,” I said. “That is you.”
I caught her as she
