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was prepared to take them in, as I told you, but it seemed they weren’t content with merely joining my town’s citizens. Their former leader wanted to take my job. One of his cousins works for me. Not high up enough to officially know about things like Gideon or the secret entrance, but connected enough that he was able to piece some bits of it together.”
    “He turned on you?” Perhaps it was naive; however I’d always seen therians as intensely loyal. It had seemed to be a staple of their culture.
    “I’m a figurehead,” Richard explained. “Orson is blood. Blood means a lot to my kind. Family, the pack, those we share blood with, these things are so sacred that many of us consider them holy. He owed loyalty in two directions, and he chose to honor the one that he saw as his true pack. I don’t begrudge him that.”
    “So, what happened to him; the guard who leaked your secrets?”
    “I didn’t begrudge his choice, but he still betrayed a loyalty. Do you really want to know more than that?”
    “Point taken,” I said quickly.
    “Anyway, Orson decided to use Sally against me. He knew about the entrance, and he knew she was guarded, so he sent up thugs with silver to snatch her while keeping me busy with diplomatic bullshit. Once he had her, Orson planned to ransom her back to me at the cost of my position.”
    “You know as much as I do, and I was there to hear them talk about it,” I commented.
    “The traitor was . . . interviewed before judgment was passed.” Richard took a longer sip of his wine. I wondered if Sally had been right, if Richard truly did hate his job. He certainly didn’t appear to be taking any enjoyment in the more savage aspects of the position.
    “I see. I suppose we were lucky they didn’t know enough to be aware that the King of the West was your daughter’s bodyguard.” I kept my tone neutral. This was a subject I dearly wanted to broach, but had well-founded suspicions would be taboo in Richard’s book.
    “He is not her bodyguard,” Richard corrected me. “It’s well known that I play host to the King of the West; however, Gideon rarely leaves this room. If he does, he appears as you know him, as Sally’s friend and playmate. Who would imagine that a dragon of such tremendous power would take the form of a mere child?”
    “Who indeed,” I concurred. “One thing does strike me, though. Earlier this evening, you told me Gideon couldn’t meddle in your affairs and that he was out of town. Him crossing untold distances to save Sally . . . that seems well within his scope of power; however, it also seems as though retrieving your kidnapped daughter would fall well within the realm of meddling.”
    Richard turned his glass carefully in his hand, examining the last bits of wine clinging to its surface. “I don’t know much about taxes, but there are loopholes, right?”
    “I prefer to refer to them as alternate means of revenue classification. That said, yes, there are definitely loopholes in the tax code.”
    “This is a loophole in the parahuman code,” Richard replied. “Or maybe I should say just the therian code. We have a stricter one than any other type of creature, probably because we’re all so stubborn and willful that we need to be. I told you the truth when I said that Gideon can’t get involved with my affairs, not unless I want to truly be a powerless figurehead. A leader who can’t handle his own problems is not respected or obeyed by the pack. However, what Gideon did tonight wasn’t technically involving himself in my affairs. Kidnapping Sally was a personal insult to him, and as her father, I allowed him first right of retribution. It was a move that earns my pack favor from a powerful ally, so no one can say my actions weren’t for the good of my people.”
    “Seems tenuous,” I pointed out.
    “No question about it. But I stuck to the letter of the code, and that’s what matters,” Richard said, allowing himself a slight, relieved