“I think you must have been very ⁠—pleasant!” was all she said⁠—and leaning, kissed him forgivingly straight on the lips. An extremely direct maiden was Lakla, with a truly sovereign contempt for anything she might consider non-essentials; and at this moment I decided she was wiser even than I had thought her.

He stumbled, feet vanishing; reached down and picked up something that in the grasping turned his hand to air.

“One of the invisible cloaks,” he said to me. “There must be quite a lot of them about⁠—I guess Yolara brought her full staff of murderers. They’re a bit shopworn, probably⁠—but we’re considerably better off with ’em in our hands than in hers. And they may come in handy⁠—who knows?”