Sass broke the hushed silence. "Tell us about this council," he said. Leave it to him to be practical. "Are they good, bad, indifferent?"

"I think they've proved not the latter," I said.

Jiao nodded, swiftly wiping at her face and the few escaped tears there. The professional, cool veneer she wore returned, though this time I saw through it to the young woman she really was, all animosity fading away. She reminded me suddenly of a ...