60

Jayems winced, remembering his cousin’s reaction to that bit of news. Mathin would be lucky if Keilor didn’t break every bone in his body when next he saw him. “She was alive. Raziel and Isfael are with them.”

“Small comfort,” Keilor answered morosely. He looked at but did not see Jasmine’s lemon tree.

Jayems froze. “You don’t think she would betray you?” he asked in amazement. “She’s not the kind of woman to take her promises lightly, and despite the ugly rumors, I don’t believe she’d dishonor you.” Thanks to spies, they’d had some intelligence on Yesande’s doings at the Citadel, none of it encouraging. They knew Jasmine had been drugged with aphrodisiacs, knew about Yesande’s experiments.

“It’s not that,” Keilor said, but his words were half-hearted.