"I've got all her things together right here. They gave me her clothes at the hospital, and put them all into a bundle in case we had to make a quick getaway. We had to do that once when we were working in a carnival where the manager suddenly took a liking to her and made himself a pest. She was twelve. He was a beast. Maybe you should take—"
"The fewer things I take the better," Tel said. Then he saw the bundle on the table by the door. On top was a leather thong to which a few chips of colored shell still clung. "Maybe this," he said, picking it up. "What shape is Geryn's room in?"
"The place has been ransacked since they took him away," she said. "Everybody and his brother has been picking at the place. What about Geryn, how is he?"
"Dead," Tel said. "What I really came about was to burn his plans for the kidnaping."
"Dead?" Rara asked. "Well, I'm not surprised. Oh, the plans! Why I burned those myself the minute I got back into his room. They were all over the table; why they didn't take them all up right then, I'll never—"
"Did you burn every last scrap?"
"And crumbled the ashes, and disposed of them one handful at a time over a period of three days by the docks. Every last scrap."
"Then I guess there's nothing for me to do," he said. "You may not see me or Alter for a long time. I'll give her your love."
Rara bent down and kissed him on the cheek. "For Alter," she said. Then she asked, "Tel?"
"What?"