Thank goodness for Tayrey’s quick thinking. If her suspicion and hyper-rationality had nearly doomed Palamedes’ plan, then her willingness to compromise and shift course, even just slightly, had saved them.

Once she agrees, he turns back to the bed and shifts the covers so that, at first glance through the cell door’s tiny window, it looks like someone is still asleep there. Then he says, “Follow me,” and strides out the door.

Save for the ship’s constant hum, the corridors are silent. Over the months of their captivity, Pal and Camilla have learned a lot more about the movements of the people on board than, and that’s why he can navigate now and not run into anyone, and why he knows which storage bay will be both unlocked and empty.

No one needs to check on barrels of chemical fertilizer in the middle of the night.

Pal lets them in to the storage bay filled with rows and rows giant metal drums of fertilizer. The room is dark, but Pal doesn’t turn on the lights. He makes his way to a corner far away from the door and sits down on the metal floor. This explanation is going to take a while, so they might as well get comfortable.

“Now will you let me explain?” He sounds fond, but a little exasperated, too.